[rayiner]

The British who came to this land weren’t “immigrants.” They were settlers. They came to this land, and created a country based on British law, British civic institutions, British political philosophy, and British economics. The Germans and Scandinavians came here for the most part also developed towns and cities that weren’t there before. Immigrants are the people who then moved into those places.

[dwa3592]

you are just BS'ing!! native people lived here before that - they had their own version towns.

[throw-the-towel]

Just as one example, 13th century Cahokia was comparable in population to London and Paris.

[collingreen]

What? You make a distinction between settlers and immigrants?

Is "invaders" on that list to?

[rayiner]

The distinction between settlers and immigrants is extremely salient from a sociological standpoint.

In the U.S., we have a right to a jury trial. To decide whether a jury trial right exists in a particular case, we look to whether that case would have been tried to a jury in 1791 in a particular country. Which country is that? The people from that country were the settlers.

If you look at American legal theory and elide people’s names, you might not realize there was anyone here besides British people. There’s more influence in our legal system from ancient Rome than modern Italy.

[nielsbot]

surely this is sarcasm