Although English-only policies surfaced early in American history, this country was founded on principles of pluralism. The United States has always had a multi-linguistic heritage, owing to its history of settlement by immigrants. The Founders of the United States had a generally tolerant view of language. In 1780, John Adams suggested the founding of a national language academy. Congress did not debate the merits of this proposal, believing such an academy was unnecessary. Years later, Noah Webster proposed the establishment of English as the national language. Webster sought endorsement from the Supreme Court, which also rejected this proposal in 1831.
The Constitution does not contain a provision declaring English, or any other language for that matter, to be the official language of the United States. Several early government documents were in fact written in languages such as, German, French, English, and later, Spanish as well.
Restrictive language policies gathered......
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