… What then is the American, this new man? … hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country…

He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives … the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle.

The Americans were once scattered all over … here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever happened, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit.

The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? … without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. …

The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.

This is an American.

Letters from an American Farmer, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1782)