You raise an interesting and little researched point. Let me elaborate.
Going through the rolls of Washington's Army I was struck by the large number of Pennsylvania "Dutch" surnames that comprised the soldiers in the Continental Army commanded by Washington. Somewhere between 40% to 60% at any one time during the revolution. The 60% figure may even be low for the Valley Forge period. This is probably why von Stuben found employment. He could speak, read and write the language of the common revolutionaries.
What makes this even more interesting is that many of these revolutionaries were religious secterians not of the Lutheran or Calvinist variety and had a certain abhorance of war. Amish and Mennonite scholars even today don't want to talk about this.
Anyway, some scholar with a mastery of the "Dutch" dialect should translate some of the revolutionary era "Dutch" dialect newspapers and sermons. I have a hunch that the people who did the fighting had their own ideas about things.
Sincerely, Tom Lehman
Carl Remick wrote:
> Re Paul's: "This whole discussion of Jefferson seems to me to smack of
> presentism.
> We can't judge Jefferson's thoughts and actions by present day
> standards, we have to judge him within the context of his day."
>
> I will not yield one centimeter on my assertion that Jefferson was an
> utter fraud and a scoundrel and deserves no place whatsoever in any
> leftist pantheon. But Paul raises an interesting question. Does anyone
> know how many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence owned
> slaves? What were the views of, say, John Adams on the morality of
> slavery?
>
> Carl Remick