Reading John Adams’s letters from Amsterdam in 1780 and realizing how purposefully the founders shaped what Americans would sound like is almost unsettling. Adams was persuaded that Congress should establish an official academy to improve and correct the English language for the fledgling republic after he struggled to negotiate loans in a nation where no one spoke English and his own French was only getting him so far. The message was sufficiently clear, though he wasn’t exactly antagonistic toward other tongues. Everything else could respectfully take a backseat as English was to serve as the tool of American unification.
The fact that early America was truly multilingual and that not everyone wanted that to end is something that most people are unaware of. As early as the 1750s, Benjamin Franklin publicly expressed concern about the size of German communities in Pennsylvania, believing they would never assimilate. In New York, Dutch was still widely spoken. Louisiana and portions of the frontier were dotted with French. Long before the Southwest was even a part of the United States, Spanish had a strong presence there. German-language schools continued to receive public funding well into the nineteenth century, and state governments printed official documents in several languages for decades without any controversy. Many early republicans would have found it odd—possibly even authoritarian—that English was the only official language of the United States.
In this context, efforts to maintain multilingual civic life were not marginal causes. They were pragmatic reactions to a real nation. German was maintained as a co-official language of instruction and government by lawmakers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and other states. The logic was simple. These communities participated in militias, paid taxes, and cast ballots. It seemed unnecessary and antagonistic to democratic values to deny them access to public life in their native tongue. It’s difficult to ignore how closely those arguments from the nineteenth century resemble discussions that take place in school board meetings today, from Minnesota to Texas.
However, things changed. Following the Civil War, nationalism intensified, and during the immigration waves of the 1880s and 1890s, mistrust of anything foreign grew even more. German and other languages were removed from classrooms as English-only legislation began to emerge in state after state. Speaking German in public could result in harassment or worse by the time World War I broke out. Natural causes did not cause the multilingual experiment to end. Nativist politics and wartime paranoia combined to suffocate it, first gradually and then all at once.
The data is what makes this history feel especially weird in the present. Approximately 76 million Americans are bilingual, meaning they speak two or more languages on a daily basis. That number is five times that of France and three times that of Germany’s bilingual population. Despite treating monolingualism as a patriotic virtue for more than a century, America has quietly emerged as one of the world’s most bilingual countries. Rather than being motivated by policy, the bilingualism simply developed informally as a result of immigration and family life.
Legislators who advocated for multilingual governance in the nineteenth century seem to have been ahead of their time in ways they could not have imagined. They had no aspirations of global competitiveness or soft power. All they were attempting to do was maintain government accessibility for the people it was meant to serve. It says more about American anxieties than it does about the viability of multilingualism itself that their vision was crushed by political fear rather than practical failure. It is evident from today’s discussions about bilingual education and Spanish-language voting that the nation never truly found a solution to the issue those early legislators brought up. In the hopes that the issue would go away, it simply buried it for a while. It didn’t. Whether anyone in Congress is paying attention or not, 76 million voices attest to this, speaking loudly in boardrooms and softly in kitchens.
London Bilingualism's content on health, medicine, and weight loss is solely meant for general educational and informational purposes. This website does not offer any diagnosis, treatment recommendations, or medical advice.
We consistently compile and disseminate the most recent information, findings, and advancements from the medical, health, and weight loss sectors. When content contains opinions, commentary, or viewpoints from professionals, industry leaders, or other people, it is published exactly as it is and reflects those people's opinions rather than London Bilingualism's editorial stance.
We strongly advise all readers to consult a qualified medical professional before acting on any medical, health, dietary, or pharmaceutical information found on this website. Since every person's health situation is different, only a qualified healthcare provider who is familiar with your medical history can offer you advice that is suitable for you.
In a similar vein, any legal, regulatory, or compliance-related information found on this platform is provided solely for informational purposes and should not be used without first obtaining independent legal counsel from a licensed attorney.
You understand and agree that London Bilingualism, its editors, contributors, and affiliated parties are not responsible for any decisions made using the information on this website.
