Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:13 pm
1776 Vote On German As Official Language of the USA = An Urb
Three or four times now, I've seen comments that at one time German (or Dutch) missed becoming the official language of the United States by one vote.
I had never heard of this historical factoid and could not understand why anyone would believe such a story. In Colonial America, German speaking people were a minority in the thirteen colonies. It would have been more plausible for the Dutch language to have been in contention for that role as the Dutch speaking people were somewhat more numerous but still very much in the minority. A vote for either language could not have been close.
I've dug around to find out how this type of legend could possibly have originated and here is what I found.
In 1794 and in 1795, in Congress (on the 11th Amendment), debates were entered into on a petition to Congress by German speaking settlers in Viriginia to have the Federal Government publish a German language version of the laws that are enacted. This proposal was voted down on two occasions.
On the second occasion, in 1795, during the course of the debate, there was a motion to adjourn the discussion rather than to vote, to allow the German translation supporters an opportunity to regroup and perhaps lobby additional convention members. This motion, to adjourn, was voted down BY ONE VOTE.
The history behind how the Legend came to be as it is known is itself interesting but it requires too much explanation to introduce here.
<Edit>
I posted this yesterday when the TLR server was, well, kind of slow. I've wanted to make corrections to the grammar ever since.
I reposted today, the corrected version of my original. If it reads differently, this is why.
<CORRECTION> My error. In fact, thre were more German speakers than Dutch speakers settled in the USA in the 1790s. I've posted some census data belowin the thread.
Fight Like Warlord
Edited by - Indy11 on 3/21/2004 4:05:28 AM
Edited by - Indy11 on 3/22/2004 11:24:21 AM
I had never heard of this historical factoid and could not understand why anyone would believe such a story. In Colonial America, German speaking people were a minority in the thirteen colonies. It would have been more plausible for the Dutch language to have been in contention for that role as the Dutch speaking people were somewhat more numerous but still very much in the minority. A vote for either language could not have been close.
I've dug around to find out how this type of legend could possibly have originated and here is what I found.
In 1794 and in 1795, in Congress (on the 11th Amendment), debates were entered into on a petition to Congress by German speaking settlers in Viriginia to have the Federal Government publish a German language version of the laws that are enacted. This proposal was voted down on two occasions.
On the second occasion, in 1795, during the course of the debate, there was a motion to adjourn the discussion rather than to vote, to allow the German translation supporters an opportunity to regroup and perhaps lobby additional convention members. This motion, to adjourn, was voted down BY ONE VOTE.
The history behind how the Legend came to be as it is known is itself interesting but it requires too much explanation to introduce here.
<Edit>
I posted this yesterday when the TLR server was, well, kind of slow. I've wanted to make corrections to the grammar ever since.
I reposted today, the corrected version of my original. If it reads differently, this is why.
<CORRECTION> My error. In fact, thre were more German speakers than Dutch speakers settled in the USA in the 1790s. I've posted some census data belowin the thread.
Fight Like Warlord
Edited by - Indy11 on 3/21/2004 4:05:28 AM
Edited by - Indy11 on 3/22/2004 11:24:21 AM
