The great Burke has truly said, “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors,” and I feel it most agreeable to recall to you that the Jeromes were rooted for many generations in American soil, and fought in Washington’s armies for the independence of the American Colonies and the foundation of the United States. I expect I was on both sides then. And I must say I feel on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now.
1941, 16 June. Broadcast, London.
(Unrelenting, 165-6.)
Broadcast to the USA after receiving an honorary degree from the University of Rochester (New York). Churchill s mother was the former Jennie Jerome. In this same address Churchill tells of his mother being born in Rochester. The Jerome family certainly lived in Rochester, but the fact is that Jennie was born in Brooklyn.
By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own. In that case, this would not have been the first time you would have heard my voice. In that case I should not have needed any invitation, but if I had, it is hardly likely it would have been unanimous. So perhaps things are better as they are.
1941, 26 December. Congress, Washington.
(Unrelenting, 353-4.)
This remark, at the outset of Churchill’s first of three speeches to a joint session of the US Congress, brought down the house. Suddenly, stolid isolationists, who had long suspected (correctly) WSC’s intentions to drag America into the war, were on their feet applauding. The fact that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor just three weeks earlier had turned the tide in Churchill’s favour.
World History
