It is perhaps reassuring that previous waves of migrants to the United States experienced similar rejection before they were ultimately accepted. Benjamin Franklin hated the Germans: “Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own Nation.… Not being used to Liberty, they know not how to make a modest use of it.” Jefferson thought the Germans were unable to integrate. “As to other foreigners it is thought better to discourage their settling together in large masses,” he wrote, “wherein, as in our German settlements, they preserve for a long time their own
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