Voting

2005-12-02T20:09:00

This story about voting and the official language of the United States came up in a conversation recently (I think it was at Action Tuesday). I've heard this "fact" repeated a number of times. For example, it appeared in one of the little bits of propaganda they gave me when I was naturalized as an American. It was a "did you know that" list of reasons why everyone should vote. One of the "reasons" to vote is that a proposed law, which would have made German the official language in the United States, was defeated by a single vote. Actually:

In 1794 a group of German speakers in Virginia petitioned Congress to publish federal laws in German as well as English. The intention was not to supplant English but simply to supplement it. A House committee recommended publishing German translations of the laws, but on January 13, 1795, "a vote to adjourn and sit again on the recommendation" (apparently an attempt to keep the measure alive rather than killing it immediately) failed by a vote of 42-41. Frederick Muhlenberg (1750-1801) was in fact Speaker of the House at the time, but how he voted is unknown. Tradition has it that he stepped down to cast a negative vote, apparently being the German-speaking equivalent of an Oreo. Not that it mattered. The vote was merely procedural; its success would have not guaranteed passage of the measure, and in any case German translations of federal statutes are a far cry from making German the official language of the U.S. A similar measure came up a month later and was also voted down, as were subsequent attempts in later years.

Cecil Adams

In addition to being factually incorrect the above "reason to vote" is misleading because it is usually worded to imply that the one vote that made a difference was made in a referendum, rather than in a vote among representatives. I actually think that everyone should vote, and if you don't (and assuming you have the legal right to do so) you've no cause to complain about the train wreck which is our government. Therefore voting is really about guaranteeing my right to complain, not to actually make a difference.

The Twilight Report

Voting