Madison Grant

Madison Grant in the early 1920s.

Madison Grant (November 19, 1865 – May 30, 1937) was an American lawyer, historian and anthropologist.

Quotes

The Passing of the Great Race (1916)

ISBN 978-0548139035

• Where the environment is too soft and luxurious and no strife is required for survival, not only are weak strains and individuals allowed to survive and encouraged to breed but the strong types also grow fat mentally and physically.
  • Page 20.

• The name "Aryan race" must also be frankly discarded as a term of racial significance. It is today purely linguistic, although there was at one time, of course, an identity between the original Aryan mother tongue and the race that first spoke and developed it. In short there is not now, and there never was either a Caucasian or an Indo-European race, but there was once, thousands of years ago, an Aryan race now long since vanished into dim memories of the past.
  • Page 62.
• The boast of the modern Indian that he is of the same race as his English ruler, is entirely without basis in fact, and the little dark native lives amid the monuments of a departed grandeur, professing the religion and speaking the tongue of his long forgotten Nordic conquerors, without the slightest claim to blood kinship.
  • Page 64.
• Race feeling may be called prejudice by those whose careers are cramped by it, but it is a natural antipathy which serves to maintain the purity of type. The unfortunate fact that nearly all species of men interbreed freely leaves us no choice in the matter. Either the races must be kept apart by artificial devices of this sort, or else they ultimately amalgamate, and in the offspring the more generalized or lower type prevails.
  • Page 193.

• The continuity of physical traits and the limitation of the effects of environment to the individual only are now so thoroughly recognized by scientists that it is at most a question of time when the social consequences which result from such crossings will be generally understood by the public at large. As soon as the true bearing and import of the facts are appreciated by lawmakers, a complete change in our political structure will inevitably occur, and our present reliance on the influences of education will be superseded by a readjustment based on racial values.
  • Page 262.

• This [the Mediterranean] is the race that gave the world the great civilizations of Egypt, of Crete, of Phoenicia including Carthage, of Etruria and of Mycenaean Greece. It gave us, when mixed and invigorated with Nordic elements, the most splendid of all civilizations, that of ancient Hellas, and the most enduring of political organizations, the Roman State.
  • Page 139.

• One of its [the First World War’s] most certain results will be the partial destruction of the aristocratic classes everywhere in northern Europe … This will tend to realize the standardization of type so dear to democratic ideals. If equality cannot be obtained by lengthening and uplifting the stunted of body and of mind, it can be at least realized by the destruction of the exalted of stature and of soul.
  • Page 173.

• Africa north of the Sahara, from a zoological point of view, is now, and has been since early Tertiary times, a part of Europe. This is true both of animals and of the races of man. The Berbers of north Africa to-day are racially identical with the Spaniards and south Italians.
  • Page 152.

Immigration "More Dangerous Than Armed Conquest"

The American Standard, Vol 2, No 17. September 1, 1925. Pp 398–401.

• America, like all other nations, must consider immigration and its limitation solely from her own standpoint. Her first duty is to herself and to the people already here. No obligation or duty what-ever in this connection is owing to anyone else. Whether or not we should admit any individual or racial group is a matter to be determined solely by the interest and welfare of Americans. Such is the national viewpoint.
  The international viewpoint is that America should share its prosperity and the wealth of its citizens with the world at large and should admit anyone who desires to come here... This view prevails elsewhere in Europe, where our right to "a continent" is challenged.

• The ideal condition in the United States from the point of view of living standards would have been a population of about 60,000,000 inhabitants. We would have had plenty of back-yard space and would have been the most prosperous and vigorous people on earth... Thus restriction of immigration becomes a vital necessity, unless we are willing to accept an Asiatic living standard, and to see our own stock wholly replaced by aliens, because of the greater fecundity of the new comers.
  A mixed population not only interferes with unity of national action, but also leads to a struggle of conflicting cultures, if not of languages. Free immigration would make this nation a mosaic, like the former Austrian Empire, instead of a homogeneous unit, such as America was a century ago. It would decrease the efficiency of our national government, just as it has already made our municipal administrations among the worst in the world, largely because of the mixed character of our city populations.
  Where we have a mixture of races, some of the most important elements of freedom for which our ancestors fought have to be abandoned. In cities and industrial centres with a large alien population, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are greatly impaired. Everyone knows that it is impossible publicly and freely to discuss the relative value of races or religions, the amount of crime, feeble-mindedness, or military worth attributable to the various alien groups, although these topics are all the subjects of daily conversation in private. The press will not and cannot publish in our "free democracy" matters which find their way without check into the press of the monarchies of Europe.
  The aliens in our midst are not assimilated, as it was fatuously believed would be the case a few decades ago, when the "Myth of the Melting Pot" was enthusiastically accepted and welcomed. Recent discussions in the press have brought out clearly the fact, that those who are alien in race and religion have not amalgamated with the native population.

• "America is not an experiment in government." Ours is not a tentative plan of governmental organization, subject to variation and modification or even criticism by new comers.
  Our form of government is based on the Constitution of the United States and not on the Declaration of Independence. It was fixed and settled more than a hundred years ago, and the principles formulated at the time of its foundation are far older, extending back throughout English history. Our institutions are Anglo-Saxon and can only be maintained by Anglo-Saxons and by other Nordic peoples in sympathy with our culture. In spite of the common belief to the contrary, the population of the colonies was not a mixture of races. The census of 1790 shows that the purely English inhabitants comprised 83.5 per cent of the white population and that more than 93.8 per cent were Nordic.
  The founders of this country were familiar with the dangers from free immigration. "It would be a miracle," wrote Thomas Jefferson, "were they (immigrants) to stop at the point of temperate liberty. In proportion to their numbers they will share with us in legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass. Is it not safer to wait with patience for the attainment of any degree of population? May not our government become more homogeneous, more peaceable, more durable?"
  (Writings of Jefferson, Monticello edition, Notes on Virginia, Volume ii, p. 120; the letter quoted was written 1781-2.)
  How wise these forebodings of Jefferson proved is shown in the increasing lawlessness of our mixed population. Foreigners are obtaining places on the judicial bench, are serving on our juries, and above all are practising in our courts in ever increasing numbers. The result is that our criminal law has virtually broken down, and the United States is known all over the world as the most lawless of civilized countries and a paradise for malefactors of every race. As an example, New York is probably the only city in the world where registered mail is delivered in armored cars.

• Deportation of aliens who have illegally obtained entrance, or aliens who have become burdens to the community or who have developed anti-social activities, is becoming of great importance. This is a question of the administration and enforcement of the existing laws, and these must be strengthened in order to secure universal and effective application. The two questions of registration and deportation go hand in hand,—the former is a necessary prelude to deportation on a large scale.