Once upon a time, the United States was referred to as “a city upon a hill.”
A Puritan leader in New England during the 1630s by the name of John Winthrop first invoked this religious metaphor to describe early North American colonial society as a moral and democratic example for the rest of the world. This term would be used and reused over the ages by figures touting American exceptionalism as a way to emphasize a supposed ethical high ground.