It is not a US thing. Europeans also have Latin on our money too. Our alphabet is the Latin alphabet. They were still teaching primarily IN Latin at universit

It is not a US thing. Europeans also have Latin on our money too. Our alphabet is the Latin alphabet. They were still teaching primarily IN Latin at universities around the war of independence. Yes, you read that right, you spoke and read Latin as your primary learning language. The American universities copied the practice from their home countries. Until the 1960s in the UK you had to know Latin to learn Medicine or Law. It was still taught in many schools, and I think has been having a resurgence. I was taught Latin at school. The Americans didn't cunningly adopt it to lend themselves legitimacy. It's as simple as the European settlers brought it with them. It was the culture of European intellectuals.