Why I Am Thankful To Be An American
By Norman Vincent Peale
November 1991
From The Magazine of Positive Thinking
I am thankful to be an American because it makes me a part of one of the most dramatic pageants known to world history. It all began well over 300 years ago, when our forefathers started to work out a mode of existence different from any that had been undertaken before. They were attempting to build a nation in which God would rule the affairs of men.
THIS NATION was first a theocracy, governed by the clergy. Clergymen were the first magistrates. Later, becoming more liberal, they took in the elders and the deacons of the church to run the state. Massachusetts was started that way, so were Rhode Island, Virginia, and New Jersey. This nation has a rich religious and philosophical history influenced by some extraordinary people.
First, there was that astounding company of men and women, the Pilgrims, who came in a small boat carrying only 102 people—though judging by the claims of some of the genealogical societies, one would think it carried at least 500,000! These Pilgrims were simple, adventurous folk, not unlike ourselves. But perhaps they were more rugged than we are, for the odds against them were overwhelming. Half of them died that first winter.
Their leader was William Bradford, and it is one of the tragedies of our history that we have no portrait of him; nor does there remain extant any physical description of him. We do not know the color of his eyes, his hair, his height, or his weight. But there is something we do know about him. We know the color of his mind and the substance of his faith. At the age of 32, four months after the Pilgrims landed, he became Governor of Plymouth Colony, and held that office for 30 years.
Plymouth Colony started as a socialist state every man shared the work and every man shared the gain. But at the end of two years, Bradford saw that this system would not work. The lazy and shiftless were being supported by the sturdy and diligent. So he shifted the economic system from socialism to free enterprise. And it has been so in our land ever since.
We have but a single description of him, written by Bradford himself, in the classic History of Plymouth Plantations. We see him standing under a cloudless sky, evoking the gift of rain from a beneficent God. And when the rains came, with simple faith, he thanked God God was as real to Bradford as the Indians in the forest. He wove God inextricably into the fabric of his pcople’s life. William Bradford, simple follower of God, was one of the great men of American history.
HERE ARE OTHERS—Patrick Henry, for example. I followed his trail, one summer, down to Williamsburg, Va., and could almost hear his voice as he took his life in his hands, saying: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” I like to think that there are still people in the United States who would speak out against oppression with the same bold and courageous spirit.
Then there is that immortal figure—and what a colossus he was—George Washington. He put the nation in the hands of God and kept it there. And Andrew Jackson was one of the sturdiest figures America ever produced. “Rough and ready” they called him, but he was a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian. Jackson had within hitnself that intrepid American spirit, believing you could do what you wanted to do. In Nashville, someone once asked Jackson’s servant if the General had gone to Heaven when he died. “Well,” the answer was, “he went there if he wanted to.”
Picture to yourself the noble face of Robert E. Lee, a great general and a great Christian. And, at the apex of them all was Abraham Lincoln. There was no one to equal him before, and no one since thas achieved his stature. These men are the central figures in a history that has fascinated the world with its romance. It is why so many people have struggled to get to America. They all want to come.
Why? Because of what this nation is.
IT’S A SAD FACT, but we do not seem to emphasize American history anymore. The older ones among us were brought up on it; we were taught to shout from the housetops that there had never been anything like the United States of America. Have we become so super-enlightened that we no longer take pride in our history? Any nation is negligent, when it no longer wants to study its own history.
Allan Nevins, former Professor of American History at Columbia University, said: “Every citizen interested in national growth should take arms against the ignorance of American history that prevails today. The present grows out of the past; nearly all the forces now potent in American affairs have roots deep in American history.
“How can anyone really understand this republic without a knowledge of the multitudinous conflicts, exertions, gallantries, and sacrifices that made the country great? Our history is a panorama so rich, so varied, so fascinating that every American should find pleasure, as well as profit, in knowing it.”
