Abraham Kuyper and the Holland-America Line of Liberty‪.‬

A distinguished-looking, somewhat portly Dutch visitor came to Grand Rapids, Michigan, one hundred years ago and on October 26, 1898, gave an inspirational address to an enthusiastic crowd of some 2000 Dutch-American immigrants praising the American experiment in ordered liberty. (1) Standing on a stage draped with both the American and Dutch flags he told his audience: He then called on his hearers to "make this great land your fatherland indeed," noting that "the Dutch blood and the American blood are so nearly akin that it should mingle without difficulty." Then followed this grandiloquent historical prophecy: "America is destined in the providence of God to become the most glorious and noble nation the world has ever seen. Some day its renown will eclipse the renown and splendor of Rome, Greece and the old races." Rhetorically, he asked, "How do I know this?" He answered first in general terms: "I believe that America's greatness is due to a great extent under the providence of God, to the broadening process of all Abraham Kuyper and the Holland-America Line of Liberty the different nations of the world into one great and overwhelming nation." In other words, America's greatness is linked to what another European, the French emigre farmer, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, called the "new man" of the American melting pot. (3) But even more important, the speaker linked America's present and future greatness as the land of liberty to the stand it took on religion. Here our Dutch guest made the claim that America's national success "is due to Calvinistic principles and doctrines." Referring to the Pilgrim Fathers and to Puritanism, he contended that America, "more than any other is a religious Calvinistic nation" and that this religious genius was the fountainhead of its liberty.