Things I want to know about the US (but was afraid to ask!)

GD if there is anything else this 22 year old can help you with please dont hesitate to ask

Is this offer only for GD or.....

awe Prince... of course the offer stretches out to you.

"streching" is the key word here

-shakes his head- ah prince you are the jokester,,,

According to a book I got for Christmas, the official language of Illinois is "American", not English. It was (apparently) revised in the statutes in 1919 after lobbying by a journalist and author named H L Mencken.

Can anyone confirm/deny this for me? I've actually said here before that the US should change its official language to "American", to save confusion for the rest of the English-speaking world.

GD, according to this website, your book is correct.

The US has no official language, but apparently, the state of Illinois declared (in 1923, according to this website) that American would be the official language of Illinois.

A bit of a random one:

When did the population of the US overtake that of Great Britain?

From what I can gather based on census reports, somewhere between 1830 and 1840. In 1830 both the US and GB (England and Wales) had approx 12 million people each. By 1840 the US led by a million or so and by 1850 we had some 4 million+ more people.

Thanks for the speedy reply, Fishin'. I am suprised it was as early as that - for some reason I thought it would be around 1900 or thereabouts.

For a follow-question, can anyone explain WHY the population growth of the two countries was so different? My initial guess would be that the US had many more immigrants in the intervening years. Is this correct? Why? Moving to the promised land, making your fortune, escaping the slums & poverty of Europe?

Also, has migration into the US slowed in recent years? If so, was this through legislation or a simple lack of applicants?

Immigration has taken off in the latter part of the twentieth and the early part of this century--but it had slowed down in the 1960's and -70's.

Early immigration was indeed one reason for population growth in the United States. The reason was often economic--consider if you will that owning land was relative rare in Europe, and that most of the electorates of Europe were restricted to land owners. In North America, land was practically given away--certainly fabulously cheap by European standards. More immigrants in fact passed through the United States than actually stayed here--most Canadian immigrants before the Second World War were Americans, and many more of their non-British European immigrants came through the United States.

Other factors were significant, as well, though. There was the failure of the potato in Europe, and the Socialist uprisinings in the 1840's, and numerous Polish rebellions after the nation disappeared by partition. A dramatic rise in pogroms against Russian and Polish Jews accompanied the reign of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, who was a fanatic, and whose slogan was "One Tsar, One Church, One Russia." This was also the era when Chechens and Russians began slaughtering one another.

Both Canada and the United States has "homesteading" legislation, which literally gave away tracts of land to anyone who could show up and meet a minimum standard of improvement--usually constructing a house which wouldn't fall down in the first storm. There was simply nowhere else in the world where that sort of opportunity presented itself, and both nations were, at least officially, tolerant of all religions (not always in practice, nevertheless, it made North America an attractive haven).

Good to see this thread revived.

Just a sidesways question: I am researching my family. My great-great-grandfather was a wonderful coot. I find him in Leeds, VA in 1840 with a wife and three kids, ten years later he is in New Hope, Missouri with seven kids and a new wife who is only three years older than his oldest daughter. He lived to be 102 unless he lied about his age which he did to several US Census workers.

My question is : what were the most common routes in the mid-1840's between Virginia and Northern Missouri? Was there a land route, toll road, or did everyone glide down the Ohio?

Does anyone have an recommendations on any books on the era, especially life in Missouri?

Joe(Heart of the)Nation

Probably Ohio river flat boat. The only books which are common, which i have read, are historical fiction--and i don't recommend them. Try Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1906. Originally written in four volumes between 1889 and 1894, and not completed, it should nevertheless cover the era and the area of which you speak. The Putnam's Sons edition combines the four volumes. You'll probably have to drop by the library, but i can't think the library of Roosevelt's home town would not have a copy. Keep in mind that he is a rah-rah believer in the racial superiority of the western European "races," so you need to ignore that aspect when reading.

I'd hazard a guess and say via the Ohio too. My own gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather was picking up from upstate NY and heading west to WI & MN at about the same time. In his case the family hoped aboard a ship near the Erie Canal and worked their way along the Great Lakes landing in Duluth MN and then down river to the LaCrosse WI area.

That was a common route, Fishin' . . . i once transcribed the manuscript journal of a man who had emmigrated from England in 1831 (?--the journal was in pencil and much faded, but i was fairly certain it read 1831 and not 1837; 1831 also made connections with American county and township records work). They went up the Hudson, and then took the Erie Canal, and the lake route to Michigan. He commented on how the newly arrived thronged every steamboat dock, and how the steamboat landing in Michigan was a crush of people, and total wilderness a mile outside town.

It's still that way in Michigan.

Thanks for the tip.

Something every visitor should know.



I had to laugh at the description given by the U.K. "citizen" of the police shooting of the terror suspect on the train. What a numbnut. For all of you coming in from unarmed nations, remember, not just our police officers carry weapons legally.

Personally, I would like to remain surprised that a Policeman in the UK would be carrying a gun. I would be more than horrified to think that a member of our public was in posession of a firearm.

Signed. Numbnut (UK).

same here Lord Ellpus....there are enough idiots out there as it is let alone armed?

You are numbnuts.

The idiot in the tunnel ran from police. Why? Because he figured they were unarmed - so that becomes the norm. People should never run from police.

Horrified that a citizen is in possession of a firearm? An unarmed person is not a "citizen". They are a subject.