Re: Vitriolic garbage
Westerhof T (T.Westerhof@BIOLEDU.RUG.NL)
Thu, 29 Apr 1999 11:37:48 MET
Cheryl, I thought it was Dutch what had a big change of becoming
the language of the VSA, but the differences between the two
weren't as large as they are now.
Oh, dear, I didn't really intend to give a history lesson ...
The "German states" in my original comment were Hesse, Hesse-
Darmstadt,
Westfalia, Hannover, etc in what is now Germany. In the 1700s,
these principalities, or states, had nothing similar to the Magna
Carta.
There were large German populations in New York, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia prior to the
Revolution, mostly from the area known then as the Palatinate
(Black Forest area). German came near as a hair to being our
official language.
And, yes, there *are* technical differences between who the Rights
belonged to, but the Rights themselves are not something new or
radical,
and the Framers were used to living under those rights as extended
by the
British Common Law. They were merely assuring that they would
*continue*
to enjoy them. I don't remember what the American State Papers
said on
the topic, but there *WAS* a reason they were added as
Amendments rather
than incorporated into the body of the document; had I known then
what I
know now, I would have put a little effort into remembering WHY. (g)
Cheryl (Guess who had waaaay too many years of Am. Hist?)
On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, Steven G. Tyler wrote:
> Cheryl Singhal wrote:
>
> > What made the Bill of Rights _seem_ radical was that the German states
> > had nothing similar and a large portion of what was then the Colonies
> > were of German descent. (Nothing against the German states, mind,
> > just a cultural difference caused by political facts.)
>
> Err, what "German states," Cheryl? At the time of the Bill of Rights,
> we're talking about the original 13 colonies. AFAIK, all save New York
> (which was, I believe, originally settled founded by the Dutch, not the
> Germans) were settled by the English (with possible Spanish influences
> in south Georgia and French in New England). I'm not a historian by any
> means, but I always though the bulk of German emigration came later, and
> more heavily influenced the mid-western states.
>
> [And, for the PC-oriented, by "settle" I'm of course referring the the
> waves of European-dominated colonization that began with Columbus' 1492
> expedition, ignoring the earlier (pre-historical) waves of Asian and
> European immigrants, which created the "Native Americans" subsequently
> 'discovered' by Columbus, et al!] --
>
> YIS, Steve on Cattail Creek (Steven G. Tyler, Esq.) <sgtyler@erols.com>
>
> The Computer Counselor -- Technology Consulting for the Law Office
>
> Advancement Chair and Webmaster, Troop 339, BAC, BSA
> (http://members.aol.com/troop339)
>
