Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 America was to be a world, not just a nation, according to Melville, Emerson, and Washington. They believed that the energy of Irish, Germans, Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks would create a new race that was more vigorous than the new Europe. #2 Immigrants, according to Tocqueville, became Americans through the exercise of their political rights and civic responsibilities, which were bestowed on them by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. #3 The American Creed had its antecedents in a British inheritance, and the majority of the population came from Great Britain. However, as the nineteenth century proceeded, non-Anglo immigration gathered speed. #4 Despite the many xenophobic outbursts that occurred during the period of immigration, no nativist political party ever took off.