What is an American

What is an American? According to the letters from an American Farmer, an American is someone civilized and distinguished. Now I believe personally that its hard to determine a human to be civilized because some would say that an american should be a mix of different people coming together, but does that actually mean were American,  why can we not just claim where our descendants truly came from. Once you come to America to become an American it would be said that you have to leave behind the past and be ready to move on as an American,  however I believe being an American can also mean you have a background that can actually be held on to when you "become an American" I guess I should say. America was meant to be a place to you could assume "restart fresh" but as of recently Americans have been able to bring their past heritage to the "American way" and it still makes us American. I believe that the letters from an American farmer represents how America was meant to start out and possibly was for a short period, but times have changed. So many of the "American laws" (as they can be categorised into) have not been fully followed all through American time. An example of that is religion not needing to be forced onto anyone, and reward for hard labor, and even simple equality. All of these things and more have been pointed out to be the expectations for the average American,  but that has not worked out in my opinion. In the end An American to me is just a human making a living in the land we call America.