Address to the Knights of Columbus (Unabridged‪)‬

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., (1858-1919) served as the 26th president of the United States. He delivered the speech "Address to the Knights of Columbus" at Carnegie Hall in New York, on October 12, 1915. In the speech, he argued against partisanship based on religion; he called it a "wicked thing" either to support or to oppose someone because of the creed they profess. He asserted that political movements directed against a person because of their religious belief have never accomplished anything but harm. Stating that the same principle applied to nationality, he warned that there was no room for hyphenated Americanism, and that Americanism was a matter of the spirit and the soul. To vote either for or against someone because of their beliefs or country of origin was a clear violation of the spirit of the Constitution.