[Lonesome in Massachussets]

H.L. Mencken claimed that in Nineteenth Century America the word Dutch was applied to both Germans and people from the Netherlands. Since New York had a sizable Dutch population (Van Buren's first language was Dutch) before there was any significant German immigration, the superficial resemblance between a Dutch and German accent might have contributed to the confusion. He cites a little ditty:

The Dutch Company is the best company
That ever came over from old Germany
There's the Potsdam Dutch and the Rotterdam Dutch
And the Amsterdam and all the other damn Dutch

Sometimes "ist" is substituted for "is" and "Shermany" for "Germany", "Dat" for "That", etc. Note the explicit association of the Adjective "Dutch" with "Germany". All three cities are imputted to Germany, though two are Dutch.

[jay1949]

See: http://www.pgs.org/ and http://americanfolklifeinstitute.org/index.html

[Taft in '52]

There's the Potsdam Dutch and the Rotterdam Dutch
And the Amsterdam Dutch...

Interestingly, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were named after dams, but the name Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin located about 400 miles from the other two cities, is of Slavic origin.

[alexander_busek]

Thanks for the feedback, all of you!

I am fascinated by (and envious of) your casually-mentioned references to ancestors coming to America in the early 1800s, participating in historic battles, establishing 1,000-acre farmsteads (plantations?), being re-interred, etc.

You folks are, of course, conservatives. But I wonder how anyone else with blood like that coursing through their veins (and an understanding of how their forebears conquered a continent) could be anything but conservative, patriotic, and individualistic?

Regards,