ABSTRACT
Reverend Elhanan Winchester, of Brookline, Massachusetts, was an ordained Baptist clergyman but became a founding father of American Universalism. In 1774 he was called to a church in Welsh Neck, South Carolina, where until 1779 he preached to congregations including slaves. His condemnation of the slave trade, which he called a 'capital crime', reflected his move from Calvinist principles to declaring free salvation. In An Oration on the Discovery of America Winchester related the establishment and expansion of the United States teleologically to Columbus's exploration of the Americas. Christopher Columbus, in Winchester's address, was a forgotten founder of the American republic. His individualism and persistence to overcome Spanish bureaucratic resistance served as a metaphor of Americans' rejection of European political theory concerning the stability of republican government, and rejection of Europeans' coupling of church and state. Columbus's legacy, through America's fulfilment of its destiny, would be global universalism spread by the Christian democratic republic becoming a liberal empire.
