THE FIRST MANIFESTO OF AMERICAN ANGLO–ISRAELISM – THE ELECTION SERMON OF EZRA STILES (1783)

The article examines the ideology of Anglo-Israelism in the 1783 sermon «The United States has risen to glory and honor» by the American Congregationalist priest and scientist Ezra Stiles (1727-1795). The analysis of the political, religious, historical and philosophical ideas contained in it is carried out. It is shown that, despite the protection of constitutional rights and religious freedom, the author of the sermon defended the monarchy and was a supporter of the rule of an elected elite, an elected «democratic aristocracy». It seems that the principles of conservative Christianity advocated by Stiles were combined with support for the concept of «a City upon a Hill» in 1630, i.e. ideas about the God-chosen Puritans – the first settlers, who created the New Jerusalem or Zion in America. The author supported the pseudo-historical theory of the origin of ethnic groups. In the United States, he saw a «new Israel», chosen by God, called to command the conquered and subordinate «Canaanites» – the American aborigines. Europeans were considered descendants of the Biblical patriarch Japheth, which corresponded to the existing Christian tradition. In the Indians of the New World, related to the peoples of Siberia, he saw the descendants of representatives of the tribes, expelled by the ancient Israelites after the conquest of Palestine, described in the Bible and scattered throughout the world. In his opinion, the continued mass migration from Europe to America will lead to the decline of the Old World. Immigration will give a new impetus to the development, effective development and economic prosperity of the American continent, where the number of people of European origin will increase significantly. In the future, according to Stiles, there will allegedly be an extinction of races other than Caucasians (Indians and African Americans). Such ideas served as the rationale for American exceptionalism, Western-centrism, Eurocentrism and territorial expansion of the United States.