Quite so on the language issue. There was quite a mix of languages to deal with. German (Hessian) soldiers fought for the British during the Revolutionary War under a contract created by a treaty between Germany and England. England brought over 29,000 Hessians to the colonies and about 12,000 decided to stay as the war's end. On the other side, France provided 26,000 soldiers and sailors to the Revolutionary forces some of whom decided to stay as well. If you include all the other immigrants, like the Dutch speaking Amish for example, it became quite a difficult task to decide on one or more "official" languages.