[Sca-cooks] OT OOP "Official Language" was Seville orange substitutions

[David Friedman]

>Pardon me, the "official language" of the United States is English.  It is
>the language chosen for the conduct of government in Congress assembled over
>200 years ago.  It won out over German by one vote.

It's a good story, but apparently not true:

---
On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give 
German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in 
German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn 
failed by one vote. The final vote rejecting the translation of 
federal laws, which took place one month later, is not recorded.
--
This is from a fairly detailed account, both of the origin of the 
urban legend about German and of the actual history, webbed at:

http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com