Oh, how little things have changed.

The idea of conversion still seems as relevant here as it did during colonial America. Now, in addition to religious conversion, the success of the American revolution in overthrowing tyranny and the trial of the Civil War has created a new passion for democratic "expansion" as McCullough puts it. It seems that iron sharpens iron, as the strength of both political rhetoric and religious rhetoric are increased by the blurring lines between of mission with "expansion." 

I wonder how religious groups like the ultra-American Mormons and Jewish immigrants added to the rhetoric and conversation. Mormons as a previously domestically persecuted developed an American rhetoric and were prominent in the contemporary practice of Mission while groups like Jewish immigrants, previously persecuted in past centuries by Spanish crusades, were attempting to assimilate American culture and I am sure had something to add to the conversation.