“City upon a hill” is a phrase derived from the teaching of salt and light in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. Its use in political rhetoric in United States politics is that of a declaration of American exceptionalism to refer to America acting as a “beacon of hope” for the world. The phrase is a associated with English Puritan John Winthrop.
The idea of a “city upon a hill” made clear the religious orientation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the charter stated as a goal that the colony’s people “may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saulor of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth.” To illustrate this, the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company shows a half-naked Native American who entreats more of the English to “come over and help us.”
