...1765, just before the Stamp Act, contains a theory of the meaning of America already fully worked out: "I always consider the settlement of America with...wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design of Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind...

...emblem of these two different ideas of the national experience. In 1765 Adams had written in his diary, "I always consider the settlement of America with...of the slavish Part of Mankind all over the Earth." In his rhetoric is the certainty ("I always consider") of America's destiny as the world's "redeemer...

...draft, as recorded in his diary for February, 1765, contains one sentence of very different import: "I always consider the settlement of America with...of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." Here is a very early suggestion that the American settlements may be destined to be the nucleus not...

...in mind exactly the same kind of renovation, his words bear quoting. "I always consider," he wrote, "the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scheme and design in Providence for the illumination and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind...

...early as the Stamp Act crisis John Adams pointedly described the original settlement of the colonies as "the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence...emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."74 This traditional idea of a special American destiny was phrased in distinctively millennial...

...theology can be seen in John Adams's view of the Revolution "as merely the opening of a grand scheme and design in Providence for the illumination of the...of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." It is also evident in Andrew Jackson's belief that God had charged the United States with the unique...

...A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765): "I always consider the settlement of America ... as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence...the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind." Here we have in one sentence the mythologized rendering of American history that Joel Barlow was ultimately...

...establishment of religious and political liberty, he was able to write with awe of the settlement of America as "the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence...of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." To eradicate ignorance and protect liberty, the founders had set up schools and colleges and encouraged...

...ultimate subserviency to the glory of God, in converting the world."68 Similarly, John Adams noted, "I always consider the settlement of America with...emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."69 Coordinating these views with the march of time, Americans suggested that the last days were...

..."glorious task assigned to us by Providence," and Adams considered the settlement of the American colonies "as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence...emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."104 Washington wrote to the Jewish congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and...