Form Of Government As John Adams example essay topic

The author, John Adams, was an American politician, writer and lawyer. He was sent to Europe (Holland), in 1775 approximately, on a diplomatic mission to reassure the relationship between America and Europe, and it was then he wrote the letter concerning this essay. He was known as a patriot and he fought passionately to make English become an important and popular language in all parts of the world. He became the United States' vice-president in 1795 and later he became president.

Being a patriot by nature, John Adams wanted more than anything to form an Academy that could refine and improve the language spoken by the citizens of America. According to John Adams, having a society with an advanced linguistic knowledge is essential for Americas' cultural growth and prosperity. The form of government influences the language and the language influence the form of government, as John Adams puts it. Meaning that an educated and cultivated society can put together a more functional government, and a more functional government can better the society with greater skill, which all in all is the ultimate goal.

Americans' influence on the global trademarked depended strongly on the national linguistic advancement. And educational improvements were therefore, as John Adams saw it, most necessary. He had been in Europe for some time before writing this letter, so he knew of the academies that was build in France, Spain and Italy. He was struck by the amount of success these countries were harvesting because of having the proper public educational facilities. He nevertheless believed that English could be a stronger language, regarding international trading and linguistic popularity than French, once an academy was raised.

As an argument John Adams mentions the superiority of Athens and Rome, and the relationship between the subject of "eloquence and language" and the "superiority of Athens and Rome". He also mentions that most of Europe has already thought it necessary to establish public institutions for improving their proper language. Considering this Jack Adams suggests that a governments' funding of an academy will be an investment to enlarge the United States prosperity and to better the economic and cultural situation internationally. English was not a widely spread language in the 18th century, French, German and Spanish, on the other hand, were spoken by most European nations, and French was the main language of trades in that period. As an example the most spoken languages in Copenhagen amongst traders were German and French. Actually there weren't even a tolerable English dictionary or book of grammar by public authority, according to Jack Adams.

Even though England through out time has formed institutions for correcting and improving the English language, no government has aided in making a public financed institution, which Jack Adams, in the letter, describes as necessary to enter the competition of global linguistic domination.