# America Has the Fairest Opportunity Ever to Establish a National Language by Noah Webster > “We have therefore the fairest opportunity of establishing a national language, and of giving it uniformity and perspicuity, in North America, that ever presented itself to mankind. Now is the time to begin the plan.” > **— Noah Webster**, *Dissertations on the English Language, 1789* ## Sources and Context - **Primary source:** Noah Webster, [*Dissertations on the English Language: With Notes, Historical and Critical*](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45738/45738-h/45738-h.htm) (Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Company, 1789), Dissertation I; Project Gutenberg transcription of the first edition, checked word for word. - **Exact original:** “We have therefore the fairest opportunity of establishing a national language, and of giving it uniformity and perspicuity, in North America, that ever presented itself to mankind. Now is the time to begin the plan.” No editorial change. - **Context:** Webster continues: “The minds of the Americans are roused by the events of a revolution; the necessity of organizing the political body and of forming constitutions of government that shall secure freedom and property, has called all the faculties of the mind into exertion.” A later essay in the same volume contains the often-quoted variant “Now is the time, and this the country”; the Reminder uses the Dissertation I wording confirmed in the transcription. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/War With Empire|War With Empire]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] - **Article:** [[articles/war with empire/The Monroe Doctrine, the British Substrate, and the Unfinished Decolonization of the Americas|The Monroe Doctrine, the British Substrate, and the Unfinished Decolonization of the Americas]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Noah Webster|Noah Webster]] - [[wiki/An American Dictionary of the English Language|An American Dictionary of the English Language]] - [[wiki/Lexicographic Succession|Lexicographic Succession]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We have therefore the fairest opportunity of establishing a national language, and of giving it uniformity and perspicuity, in North America, that ever presented itself to mankind. Now is the time to begin the plan.” — Noah Webster, Dissertations on the English Language, 1789 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-noah-webster-fairest-opportunity-national-language ```