9.05.2006 ||> If not for Ben, this post would be in German
Emphasis mine. From Ben Franklin in 1751:
And since Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply'd and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.Translation: in 1751, hordes of Germans swept into the New England colonies, speaking a totally un-English language and generally being "swarthy" and "foreign." These un-American German people were so ill mannered that they didn't even try to learn English. And they probably didn't even have the right papers. Worse yet, they weren't even white!
And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth.And so we now know the sad history. A country divided, with half of us speaking German to this day and our beautiful America tainted by all the swarthy people who invaded us so long ago.
Oh, wait, that doesn't sound right...
