In contrast, creedal American identity, typically espoused by classically liberal conservatives, is defined by assent to foundational governing principles. The heritage position in the mid-19th century was that American identity and Irish identity were fundamentally incompatible and that the Irish could never become “true Americans.” The strength of the creedal position is that it’s America’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution that made this expansion of identity possible. But, the heritage position rightly retorts, those creedal principles didn’t just materialize out of ahistorical dictates of disembodied reason. They were not only laying the foundation for a future American heritage — they were expressing the American heritage, however incipient, that already defined them.