ABSTRACT
Webster had argued for linguistic as well as political independence from Britain but his call was not unopposed. Pickering's Vocabulary, for example, can be seen as an attack on Webster, as may be noted from his Preface:
In this country, as is the case in England, we have thirsty reformers and presumptuous sciolists, who would unsettle the whole of our language for the purpose of making it conform to their whimsical notions of propriety. Some of our corruptions have originated with them.
