"Throughout American history, many of our nation’s leaders and citizens have believed that the United States is an exceptional nation. The roots of American exceptionalism run deep, as far back as the early 17th century and John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill” sermon. “The eyes of all people are upon us,” said Winthrop. In one of his earliest political works, A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, John Adams wrote that he “always consider[ed] the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” The historical record contains many other statements in this vein."(...)