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Author: Marvin_Zimmerman
Surnames: Zimmerman
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.zimmerman/1223.36.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I must voice my disagreement with your post in two points.
First, the total share of German immigration to the United States in 1790 was only 8.6%.
The great increase in the number of German immigrants started after the failure of the
revolutions of 1848.
Second, your reference to a vote on an offical language in the first congress is
non-substantiated (please see
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage for the entire first
congress' proceedings record). On the contrary, the USA has no official language,
English is a de-facto standard. The last attempt to establish English as an official
language was, to the best of my knowledge, undertaken by US Senator S. I. Hayakawa of
California. In 1981, he introduced a Constitutional Amendment which would do precisely
that (Ricento, 1995).
However, this is one of the most persistent tales that I have ever encountered. At one
time it intriqued me so much that I spent a good deal of time and effort trying to
determine its source. The best I could find was the fact that Benjamin Franklin while in
Europe on his mission to secure military support was informed that there were German
troops available. His response was that 'those poor colonists would have to learn
German to communicate with them'. The anecdote's author claimed this remark to
pertain to the German stubborness and independent attitude in Germanna, where they were
'employed' by the British to guard their western frontier. (please see
www.germanna.com)
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