# A Standard of Our Vernacular Tongue for Three Hundred Million People by Noah Webster > “It has been my aim in this work, now offered to my fellow citizens, to ascertain the true principles of the language, in its orthography and structure; to purify it from some palpable errors, and reduce the number of its anomalies, thus giving it more regularity and consistency in its forms, both of words and sentences; and in this manner, to furnish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to three hundred millions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope, to adorn the vast territory within our jurisdiction.” > **— Noah Webster**, *Preface to An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828* ## Sources and Context - **Primary source:** Noah Webster, [Preface to *An American Dictionary of the English Language*](https://jacklynch.net/Texts/websterpreface.html) (New York: S. Converse, 1828), paragraph 16; Jack Lynch's transcription of the first edition. - **Exact original:** as above; the source italicizes *three hundred millions of people*. The Reminder removes the italics; the words are unchanged. - **Context:** The [United States Census Bureau's population clock reached 300 million](https://www.census.gov/library/photos/2006/pop-clock-reaches-300-million.html) on October 17, 2006, fulfilling the preface's projection within a document the country still consults under Webster's name. ## 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/How Europe's Refuse Built the Apex Civilization Called America|How Europe's Refuse Built the Apex Civilization Called America]] - **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/Merriam-Webster|Merriam-Webster]] - [[wiki/Charter Civilization|Charter Civilization]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “It has been my aim in this work, now offered to my fellow citizens, to ascertain the true principles of the language, in its orthography and structure; to purify it from some palpable errors, and reduce the number of its anomalies, thus giving it more regularity and consistency in its forms, both of words and sentences; and in this manner, to furnish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to three hundred millions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope, to adorn the vast territory within our jurisdiction.” — Noah Webster, Preface to An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-noah-webster-standard-vernacular-three-hundred-million ```