What makes a nation? Nations are not simply political communities contained within geographical borders. They are expressions of a shared culture, language, and political principle, that unite citizens in a common bond.

The de facto obliteration of our southern border, facilitated largely by cheap-labor advocates, global elites, and vote-seeking politicians, raises many questions about the concept of nationhood. Americans are waking up to the unpleasant fact that a massive and seemingly perpetual influx of millions of foreign nationals into this country might change our traditional concept of nationhood, slowly shifting it from a time-honored model based upon shared ideals to a new supranational paradigm in which national identity is considered passe, or even dangerous. The unprecedented movement back and forth between national borders of millions of illegal immigrants, coupled with the flouting of American sovereignty and law, has Americans rightfully asking --what constitutes a nation?

Max Weber, the celebrated German sociologist, wrote that on a basic level, "a nation is a community which produces a state of its own." Weber's definition is correct in that a nation is a self-defining political community. But what makes a nation? Is it merely a political community set within territorially defined borders, or is it something more? The history of our nation, and that of most successful nations, tells us that it is something much more. Nationalism, or the idea of nationhood, is based upon clearly defined ideas and sentiments--feelings of distinction, a shared allegiance or a shared sense of belonging, a commitment to accepted moral and political principles, a common language, and a marriage between culture and politics that ensures the maintenance of political sovereignty. These characteristics have defined American nationalism from the beginning and have formed the basis for her assimilative success. But these are under attack.

National Personality/Distinction

A belief in the distinctive nature of a state's political and cultural community is a cornerstone of nationhood. Without such feelings of distinction, there is little impetus to establish a nation. America began to form a national personality even before it obtained political freedom from England. It was a nascent nationalism built upon the premise that America had indeed become a "self-defined" political and cultural community, independent of Britain's imperial plan. Although Americans still shared deep political and cultural bonds with England, they had begun to develop their own traditions and achievements, fostering a sense of national pride and feelings of political and cultural distinction.

The growing awareness of the development of a distinctly American culture based upon the ideal of liberty led to what historian Max Savelle termed "national self-realization." The divergence between how Americans viewed themselves in relation to the mother country was the first necessary step on the road to independence and the development of a true nation-state.

On the eve of the war, Virginia's John Randolph cautioned England: "The Histories of dependent States put it beyond a Doubt that America, when she is able to protect herself, will acknowledge no Superiority in another. That she will be capable, some Time or other, to establish Independence, must appear evident to every One." Randolph's warning was an admission that Americans had begun to see themselves as politically distinct from their British cousins. When Patrick Henry declared in 1774, "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders, are no more--I am not a Virginian, but an American," he was not only declaring a symbolic break from England, but also revealing a spark of nationalism.

Eighteenth-century observers like David Ramsay seized upon the psychological shift in identity from colony to nation-state to push for a marriage of politics and culture. His contemporary account of the war for independence, The History of the American Revolution, published in 1789, called for strengthening America's cultural identity at a time when Americans still looked to England for much of their cultural cues.

Like cultural nationalists, Ramsay posited a line of thought that held that in order for the new nation to prosper it must present a unified cultural and political vision. A nation founded upon the principles of liberty, virtue, and republicanism needed to express these principles in order to foster a coherent polity. A culture without virtue, or one that lacked a shared sense of republican principles, would inevitably break apart. Ramsay's simplified version of American history promoted national unity based upon an abiding commitment to the constitutional principle of liberty and a reverence for the accomplishments of past individuals and institutions. These ideals ultimately overcame the regional, religious, and ethnic differences that might have led to political fragmentation after the war, and have come to constitute the underpinnings of our national character. This cultural unity, so valued by Ramsay, even if it was not as robust as he envisioned it at the time, served as the foundation of American nationalism for generations.

Symbols and Sentiment

A national culture is a characteristic of every nation-state, and the acknowledgment of past accomplishments is central to the unity of the nation. Monuments designed to inspire respect and admiration for American ideals and past deeds became expressions of nationalism on a physical scale, and by the mid-19th century they dotted the landscape. Daniel Webster felt that the civic heritage was crucial to the formation of a national identity. In closing his Bunker Hill monument dedication speech in 1843, Webster remarked:

And when both we and our children shall have been consigned to the house appointed for all living, may love of country and pride of country glow with equal fervor among those to whom our names and our blood shall have descended! And then, when honored and decrepit age shall lean against the base of this monument, and troops of ingenuous youth shall be gathered round it, and when the one shall speak to the other of its objects, the purposes of its construction, and the great and glorious events with which it is connected, there shall rise from every youthful breast the ejaculation,

"Thanks God, I--I also--am an American!"

Americans saw the celebration of past national accomplishments as a civic obligation, a requirement for participation in the new republic. Celebration of the national past, through observance and ritual, encouraged a sense of unity, but more importantly it fostered a sense of obligation to live up to the ideals inherent in past national accomplishments. Subsequent generations accepted these civic obligations precisely because their national forefathers did. If freedom was purchased at a high cost by the blood of our national forefathers, how then could anyone shirk his civic duties'? Working through the hearts of the citizenry, these shared rituals produced bonds of unity because they emphasized the similarities between one another.

Embracing a shared past also served to break down the ethnic distinctions between the native and newcomer. It was part of the assimilation process in which immigrants of varied national origins acquired the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of previous generations, strengthening a sense of belonging and promoting bonds of loyalty. Memories of a shared history, even if they were largely imagined, served as a unifying theme throughout American history and helped maintain political sovereignty. Before an audience in 1858, Abraham Lincoln linked recent immigrants with the signers of the Declaration of Independence:

   We have, besides these men--descended
   by blood from our ancestors--among
   us, perhaps half our
   people who are not descendants at all
   of these men; they are men who have
   come from Europe--German, Irish,
   French and Scandinavian.... If they
   look back through this history to trace
   their connection with those days by
   blood, they find they have none; ... but
   when they look through that old Declaration
   of Independence they find
   that those old men say that "We hold
   these truths to be self-evident, that all
   men are created equal," and then they
   feel that that moral sentiment taught
   in that day evidences their relation to
   those men, that it is the lather of all
   moral principle in them, and that they
   have a right to claim it as though they
   were blood of the blood, and flesh of
   the flesh, of the men who wrote that
   Declaration, and so they are.

By harkening back to the birth of the nation and highlighting core American principles, Lincoln provided recent immigrants with a link to America's past while allowing them to distinguish ancestry from identity--a crucial element in fostering a sense of belonging to a national American culture.

Indeed, nationalism is dependent upon the shared rituals that ultimately foster national pride and a connection with the past. Belief in the praiseworthy nature of the nation is a guarantor of its survival. Without such belief, citizens are unlikely to fight to preserve their national culture.

Language and Education

The union of politics and culture in national concept was characterized by a common language and educational system. Each element united Americans in a common cultural life and a belief in national values. Noah Webster described language, the great unifier of millions of Americans from multi-ethnic origins, as a "bond of national union." Language was the one area where immigrants were expected to conform to national standards. While they were permitted to retain vestiges of ethnic identity in the private realm, they were expected to adopt the English language as a sign of their loyalty, and as a tool to achieve economic success in an English-speaking society. Teddy Roosevelt, speaking before the National Americanization Committee in 1916, laid out the nationally accepted view of language and culture in America:

   Let us say to the immigrant not that
   we hope he will learn English, but
   that he has got to learn it. Let the immigrant
   who does not learn it go back.
   He has got to consider the interest of
   the United States or he should not stay
   here. He must be made to see that his
   opportunities in this country depend
   upon his knowing English and observing
   American standards. The employer
   cannot be permitted to regard
   him only as an industrial asset.

American nationalism was inclusive; it was not ethnic; and it demanded that subgroups give their primary loyalty to the nation. Education was a primary tool for cementing the bonds of loyalty. From the beginning of the common-school movement in the 19th century through the 1950s, school curricula were devised to instill students with a commitment to the principles of the Constitution, pride in a shared vision of American history and myth, and a sense of loyalty to the country. This marriage between the cultural and the political created a sense of national identity in generations of Americans, built an independent society of citizens, and protected the country during times of crisis.

The National Challenge

There is a natural human inclination to nationalism, to identify with a united national concept. The nation satisfies the human need to belong to a common group on an emotional level. Before turning two. my oldest son had acquired an intense fondness for symbols of his nation. His favorite possession. a small, battered U.S. flag stapled to a wooden spoon, never left his side. By the time he was four. he had learned the words to the "Star-Spangled Banner," and "God Bless America." Even as a child, he instinctively knew that these symbols united him to a larger entity, satisfying a basic human need for group identification. In The Necessary Nation, author Gregory Jusdanis explains the emotional nature of nationalism and why globalists distrust the idea of a culturally strong nation-state:

   Nationalism works through people's
   hearts, nerves, and gut. It is an expression
   of culture through the body. This
   bodily and (seemingly) irrational dimension
   may explain the hostility to
   nationalism shared by cosmopolitan
   writers. But their attempt to deny the
   insistent corporeality of nationalism
   reduces it to dreary thoughts. Men
   and women are willing to sacrifice
   their lives for their native land as for
   few ideals. This is nationalism's rebuke
   to us all.

A nation is much more than a line drawn on a map. It is an expression of shared principles, of a distinct culture, language, and institutions, which together have the power to weld together multi-ethnic groups and create a common vision of national unity. But America faces a challenge to her sense of national identity through the efforts of institutionalized multiculturalism. Schools, universities, and governmental bodies have increasingly adopted a multicultural outlook over the last 40 years. The multicultural ideology seeks to promote the maintenance of specific cultures at the expense of an American identity based upon a shared culture and political principles. This shift from a multi-ethnic culture united by common principles to a multicultural model that celebrates autonomous cultures is an ideological reinvention of America, and at odds with its unifying history. This dramatic change in national ideology raises questions about the chances for the continued maintenance of national unity.

Can a nation that no longer values the principles that formed its sense of unity continue to exist in the face of unchecked illegal immigration, particularly when immigrants are no longer expected to assimilate? Will large numbers of unassimilated foreign nationals eventually seek political and cultural autonomy from the United States in regions where they hold numerical superiority? Or will they see themselves as "blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh" of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence? The answer is self-evident. What still is unknown is when sufficient numbers of red-blooded Americans will put a stop to the illegal immigration crisis before that crisis results in the disintegration of our country.

Michael E. Telzrow is a historian/museum professional living in De Pere, Wisconsin.