March 1

[In my March 1, 1790 letter to William Hunter, a merchant and mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, I write from New York just as I am preparing to assume my current position as Secretary of State under the new federal government. I declare my unyielding conviction that a republican system is the only form of government that does not wage perpetual warfare against the rights of humanity, and I express my deep hope that the American experiment will serve as a guiding beacon for other nations struggling to overthrow their own domestic tyrants. My passionate assertion that our young nation is pointing out the way to struggling nations highlights my early, sweeping vision of American exceptionalism; I viewed our local revolution not merely as a domestic victory, but as the opening chapter of a global crusade for human liberty.]

Convinced that the republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind, my prayers and efforts shall be cordially distributed to the support of that we have so happily established. It is indeed an animating thought, that while we are securing the rights of ourselves and our posterity, we are pointing out the way to struggling nations, who wish like us to emerge from their tyrannies also. Heaven help their struggles, and lead them, as it has done us, triumphantly through them.