Posted by 
America is a land of immigrants. All of us have come from somewhere else, whether we find our roots in the few Siberians who crossed the land bridge between Asia and Alaska some 15,000 years ago, or in those hardy Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, or in the Dutch who bought Manhattan in 1624, or in the Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled Appalachia in the 18th century, or in the millions of Africans who were brought to the United States in chains, or in the Mexicans who were living in the Southwest when it was annexed in 1848, or in the Chinese who came to California to build the transcontinental railroad, or in the Irish who fled the Great Potato Famine in the 1850s, or in the Germans and Scandinavians who settled the Midwest during the 19th century, or in the Italians and Jews who populated the major eastern cities at the beginning of the 20th century, or in the Japanese, Vietnamese, Somalians, Nigerians, Koreans, Pakistanis, Sikhs, Chaldeans, Hindus, Ethiopians, Central Americans or any of a myriad different peoples who are now part of this uniquely American story.
Immigrants first sight of Lady Liberty
This story was captured by Emma Lazarus, a Sephardic Jew, born in New York City on July 22, 1849. She was the fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus, a wealthy Jewish merchant and sugar refiner. One of her great-grandfathers on the Lazarus side was from Germany; the rest of her Lazarus and Nathan ancestors were originally from Portugal and resident in New York, long before the American revolution, being among the original twenty-three Portuguese Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam fleeing the Inquisition from their settlement of Recife, Brazil. Lazarus was related through her mother to Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo.
In 1883, Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus,” a poem which describes the Statue of Liberty as “the Mother of Exiles, “a mighty woman with a torch” from which glows world-wide welcome. Years after her death in 1887, Lazarus’s poem was cast in bronze and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level.
John T. Cunningham wrote that “The Statue of Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under the torch and the shining face, heading toward Ellis Island. However, it was [Lazarus’s poem] that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants.”
America has always seen itself as a land of exile for those who are persecuted elsewhere, and for much of its history, it has lived up to that role. This has been part of America’s story as captured in the quotes and the cartoon by Thomas Nast below.
“The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.
Thomas Paine
“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.”
George Washington
“Remember, remember always, that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I received a letter just before I left office from a man. I don’t know why he chose to write it, but I’m glad he did. He wrote that you can go to live in France, but you can’t become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Italy, but you can’t become a German, an Italian. He went through Turkey, Greece, Japan and other countries. But he said anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American.”
Ronald Reagan
“More than any other nation on Earth, America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants. In each generation, they have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people. Bearing different memories, honoring different heritages, they have strengthened our economy, enriched our culture, renewed our promise of freedom and opportunity for all….”
Bill Clinton
