Is The Puritan Presence In John Winthrop's City Upon A Hill

When Ronald Regan referenced John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill”, he described it vaguely, saying it was tall and strong, god-blessed and wind-swept. But what about the values of this city and the people that lived there? The Puritan presence in America did not simply end with the failure of Winthrop’s vison for a Puritan utopia, the ideas put forward in that continued to be a pervasive presence in America in the years to come, and still influence America today. Puritan morals played a crucial role in developing American mindsets and prejudices.
Puritan ideals were based of the ideas that puritans must be individual, and individuality begat exceptionalism. These values would change slightly, but still carry throughout American history. The Puritans were

As Thomas Jefferson argued; "No longer should [Parliament] persevere in sacrificing the rights of one part of the empire to the inordinate desires of another; but deal out to all equal and impartial right.” This line of thinking mirrors the Puritan view that people will better commune with God and be better Christians if they can have their own relationship rather than having to go though the Catholic church, analogous to a large national governing body, in the case of states rights. This Puritan ideal was also strengthened by the move to New England, and amplified into what would become another American ideal, that of exceptionalism, or the belief that what they were doing was the best idea. As John Winthrop put it in his now-famous sermon “for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us”. In this sermon, Winthrop follows it up by saying that Puritans must carefully adhere to their ideals, as to be a model for the superior puritan ideas and way of living for the rest of the world. This idea of America as a place that represents a shining ideal for people to look up to remains pervasive through