THE ENDURING LEGACY OF THE COMPACT

THE LEYDEN PRESERVATION GROUP “IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutu- ally, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at , the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty- fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.” “IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.

The Mayflower left Delfthaven in Holland on September 6th, 1620. After a boisterous passage of sixty-three days, anchored within Cape Cod. In her cabin the first Republican government in America was solemnly inaugurated. That vessel thus became truly the ‘Cradle of Liberty’ rocked on the free waves of the ocean. THE AMERICAN COVENANT the american experiment in liberty began with a covenant under god and between free men. America began with a covenant. The was a voluntary and binding covenant, establishing the principle of self-government under God, with far-reaching economic, religious, and legal implications for all of society. What began in 1620 in Provincetown harbour would establish the American precedent of free men covenanting to maintain a “civil body politic” of self-government under God and culminate in the halls of Philadelphia in the 1780s with the formulation of the Constitution. The year 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of this covenant.

Pilgrim historian Charles Wolfe (PhD) observed: “In forming the Pilgrim Republic, and framing not only the Mayflower Compact (1620) but America’s first constitution (1636), they formed a prototype of the American Republic, and an inspiration and an example for a succession of compact and constitution makers, right up to the Framers of the United States Constitution.” Dr. Paul Jehle explains, “A compact is a covenant. Since the Pilgrims were children of the Reformation, their view of covenant came from the Bible. It was God who initiated the concept of covenant with Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:15-17 and 2:24). Throughout the Bible, covenants were used both vertically (with God directly) and horizontally (with people) to depict God’s process of bringing people into unity with Him and one an- other... It elevated the common good, or what is best for all, encouraging people to work together.”

The doctrine of Christian self-government under God was a cornerstone of the Pilgrim theology. Fourteen years prior in 1606, those Pilgrims resisting religious persection and meeting in Scrooby, England, signed a church covenant as the Lord’s “free people.” This covenant was made by the people, not just leaders, demonstrating that self-government under God was a cornerstone of ecclesiastical authority. The Pilgrims believed that the Scriptures established the right of men to freely associate, and to covenant to form church and civil governments. Furthermore, they believed they had the right to select officers to administer both civil and church responsibilities. WHY THEY SIGNED THE THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT

On November 8, 1620, after sixty six days at sea, the crew of the Mayflower sighted land off Cape Cod. Their next step was to sail south to the Hudson River where they had originally intended to settle. The journey around the outer shoals of the Cape proved perilous, so they turned back. On November 11, they anchored off Provincetown harbour.

As the passengers faced little prospect of reaching their intended destination and were exhausted from the journey, grumblings and controversies arose on board. Some of the crew suggested leav- ing the Separatists and abandoning their agreement. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. It was determined that, for their survival and future prosperity, a new and mutally-agreed upon covenant was required. The result was the Mayflower Compact, a document which marks the origins of representative republican government in America. The Mayflower Compact, which was likely composed by William Brewster, was an extension of the Pilgrim understand- ing of church covenants. It was signed by nearly all the adult male colonists, including two of the indentured servants. NOVEMBER 11, 1620 PROVINCETOWN HARBOUR “...occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT some of the strangers amongst them had let fall from them in the ship: that when they came ashore they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them...” William Bradford AMERICA’S FIRST FOUNDING FATHERS

THE SIGNERS

Mr. John Carver Mr. William White Edward Fuller William Bradford Mr. John Turner Mr. Francis Eaton Mr. William Brewster Mr. Stephen Hopkins Mr. John Crackstone Capt. John Tilley Mr. Thomas Rogers John Goodman Mr. Christopher Martin Mr. William Mullins John Rigsdale Thomas Williams AMERICA’S FIRST FOUNDING FATHERS

Gilbert Winslow Edmund Margeson Peter Browne Richard Britteridge George Soule Richard Clarke Richard Gardiner John Allerton Thomas English Edward Leister THE MEANING OF THE TEXT

The Mayflower Compact founded , the second permanent settlement in the original thirteen states. The wording of the Mayflower Compact logically set forth: (1) The ultimate true source of their authority; (2) Their submission to author- ity and the rule of law; (3) The true purpose for establishing their government; (4) The nature of their covenant based on representative self government; (5) The formation of their specific civil government; and (6) The specific goals of their civil government.

1. “In the Name of God, Amen...”

God is the source of law and liberty. The acknowledgment of God is the starting place for just laws and governments. Just government does not exist apart from God.

2. “We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James…”

There is a natural progression of authority. It begins with Almighty God, is entrusted to authorities like the King to safeguard on behalf of the people. But ultimately it resides with the people.

3. “Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and Honor of our King and Country…” The purpose of civil government was not to aggregate power for the elite. Nor was it for THE MEANING OF THE TEXT national glory. The principle purpose was to advance the Christian religion. 4. “...solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, Covenant and Combine....”

The right to participate in representative government is not restricted to those of a particular Christian denomination. Every representative of a household shared an equal vote.

5. “...ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic...”

The Pilgrims believed that God created spheres of authority. These spheres included the individual, the family, the church, and the state. By forming a “civil body politic,” they were submitting to the God-ordained institution of civil government.

6. “...to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws…”

They further believed that the creation of a self-governing civil society would autho- rize them to equitably order their affairs with liberty and justice for all. SIGNING OF MAYFLOWER COMPACT A CIVIL BODY POLITIC the compact shaped an american view of a self- governing society in which representatives would enact “laws, ordinances, acts, constitu- tions, and offices…” for the good of society.

In the years leading up to the 1920 Mayflower tercentenary of the arrival of the Pilgrims and the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrim Monument was erected in Provincetown, , to honor the document’s legacy of civil and religious liberty and representative self-government.

At the base of the Pilgrim Monument is a marker which explains:

“On November 21st, 1620, The Mayflower, carrying 102 passengers, men, wom- en and children, cast anchor in this harbor 67 days from Plymouth, England. The same day the 41 adult males in the company solemnly covenanted and combined themselves together ‘into a civil body politick.’

The body politic established ... a state without a king or a noble, and church with- out bishop or a priest, a domestic commonwealth the members of which were ‘straightly tied to all care of each other’s good and of the whole by every one.’ For the first time in history, they illustrated with long suffering dedication and sober resolution the principles of civil and religious liberty in the practice of a genuine democracy. Therefore the remembrance of them shall be perpetual in the great republic that has inherited their ideals.” “It is not too much to say that the event [the signing of the Mayflower Compact] commemo- rated by the monument which we have come here to dedicate was one of those rare events which can in good faith be called of world importance. The coming hither of the Pil- grim three centuries ago, followed in far larger numbers by his sterner kinsmen, the Puritans shaped the destinies of this continent and therefore profoundly affected the destiny of the whole world. “

Theodore Roosevelt 1907, Provincetown, Mass. The Pilgrim Monument “FOR THE CAUSE OF OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY” THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS The Mayflower Compact was signed jointly by the Separatists fleeing persecution, and the “Strangers” who did not hold to the nonconformist religious views of the Pilgrims. The Compact drew inspiration from the Pilgrim’s church Covenant of 1606, and marked the beginnings of both religious and civil liberty in America. “In forming the Pilgrim Republic and framing not only the Mayflower Compact (1620), but America’s first constitution (1636), they formed a prototype of the American Republic, and an inspiration and example for a succession of compact and constitution makers, right up to the framers of the United States Constitution.

To do that, they had to live out step by step the various aspects of the principle of Christian self­- -government that allowed them to experience, in an orderly, logical sequence, the basic constitu- ents of a comprehensive, genuine, human free- dom: first, spiritual liberty, then religious liberty, then in turn political, economic, and Constitu- tional liberty. “

Charles Wolfe, PhD THE LEGACY OF LIBERTY what began on board the mayflower blossomed into a legacy of spiritual, religious, and political liberty.

1. Spiritual Liberty - 1600 Pilgrim scholar Charles Wolfe (PhD) explained that: “Encouraged and inspired by the gifted Reformed pastors Richard Clyfton and John Robinson to get and read their own Bibles (then against the law of England) and to receive Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Saviour (then no part of the teaching of the Church of England), the Pilgrims experienced a considerable degree of spiritual liberty ... and thus learned how to practice Christian self- government. As William Bradford wrote, ‘by the travail of some godly and zealous preach- ers, and God’s blessings on their labors ... many became enlightened by the Word of God and had their ignorance and sins discovered unto them, and began by His grace to reform their lives and make conscience of their ways.’”

2. Religious Liberty - 1607 The Pilgrim story of religious liberty begins in 1607 with the signing of the Scrooby church covenant. Drawing from the patterns and principles of Scripture, the Pilgrims cre- ated an alternative spiritual community from that of the official government church. They rejected the intolerance of the Church of England which persecuted them and demanded of them submission to a ritualism they found contrary to their liberty of conscience. By signing a written covenant, they committed thmselves to self-government under God and laid a foundation for the principles enshrined in the Mayflower Compact.

3. Political Liberty- 1620 The Pilgrims took the biblical principles of covenant, representative self-government, and sphere authority which they had applied to their church covenant, and then applied it to civil authority through their political covenant, The Mayflower Compact. While the Pilgrims did believe that lawful civil authority begins with the acknowledgement of God, they rejected the notion that individuals must subscribe to one national church to partici- pate in government or enjoy the benefits of civil freedom. 4. Defense of Liberty - 1621 On February 21, 1621, the Pilgrims elected Miles Standish as their military com- mander entrusted with the safety of the colony. The election, which took place on the land presently curated by the Leyden Preservation Society, known as Lot #1, was the first recorded act of popular sufferage to occur in the Pilgrim colony. It was a direct extension of the rights and responsibilities established by the Mayflower Compact. It reflected the Pilgrim belief in what 20th century leaders would describe as “peace through strength,” the military readiness to safeguard the lives and liberties of citizens. Consequently, the Pilgrims carried weapons to church, wore mail coats, erected barricades and fortresses for their common defense.

5. Economic Liberty - 1623 After a brief experiment in communal ownership demanded by the private inves- tors who backed the fledgling colony, the Pilgrims pointedly rejected communal, socialistic economic systems, arguing that such defied the biblical principles of private property ownership. Once individuals were incentivized by private property ownership and the “reap what you sow” principle of human labor, the colony began to experience ecomomic prosperity.

5. Constitutional Liberty - 1636 The Mayflower Compact would serve as a form of preamble to the constitution which followed in 1636. The Mayflower Compact bound the colonists together under God to create a just society, but it did not attempt to define constitutional government. In 1636, drawing from fifteen years of experience in self government, the Pilgrims held a mini-constitutional convention during which time they adopted the Laws of Plymouth, which would continue to govern the colony for decades. “So many ... whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for his truth, shook off this yoke of anti- christian bondage, and as the Lord’s In 1802, speaking at Plymouth, the free people, joined themselves future president John Quincy Adams (by a covenant of the Lord) into a underscored the lasting importance church estate, in the fellowship of of the agreement signed aboard the the gospel, to walk in all His ways Mayflower more than 180 years made known, or to be made kn.own, earlier, calling it “perhaps the only according to their best endeavors, instance, in human history, of that whatsoever it should cost them,, the positive, original social compact, Lord assisting them. And that it cost which speculative philosophers them something this ensuring his- have imagined as the only legitimate tory will declare. “ source of government.” William Bradford

John Quincy Adams THE DECLARARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION the most important legacy of The Mayflower Compact may be as the foundation for the two formulative documents of the United States of America.

The Mayflower Compact was a proto-constitution, the first of its kind, and the first declaration in the West of the legitimacy and benefits of consensual self- government. A century and a half later, the framers of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution built upon the foundation of the Mayflower Compact as they drafted their own revolutionary documents. Like the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence declared God to be the ultimate source of laws and liberty, and proclaimed that governments derive their powers “from the consent of the governed."

The legacy of the Mayflower Compact was further enshrined during the years 1787-90, when Americans ratified a new federal Constitution in what one scholar described as "probably the most democratic national decision making procedure in history ... In all states, even men of modest means could vote for delegates to the state ratifying conventions. In some states, the electorate included women and/or free African-Americans. " THE DECLARARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION The preamble to the United States Constitu- tion echoes the purpose statements found in the Mayflower Compact. Where the May- flower explained that the purpose of the compact was to “covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and fur- therance of the ends aforesaid... for the gen- eral good of the Colony,” the preamble to the Constitution echoed: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more per- fect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- terity, do ordain and establish this Constitu- tion...” THE PILGRIM 400TH MAYFLOWER COMPACT DAY Mayflower Compact Day was once a celebrated event. Americans gave thanks for the origins of republican self- government under God. November 21 (November 11, under the old calendar system) 2020, marks the 400th anniver- sary of the signing of the compact. One hundred years ago, for the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower landing, Governor Calvin Coolidge, who became President a few years later, came to Plymouth and made the following comments about the meaning and legacy of the Mayflower Compact.

“The compact which they signed was an event of the greatest importance. It was the foun- dation of liberty based on law and order, and that tradition has been steadily upheld. They drew up a form of government which has been designated as the first real constitution of modern times. It was democratic, an acknowledgment of liberty under law and order and the giving to each person the right to participate in the government, while they promised to be obedient to the laws.

But the really wonderful thing was that they had the power and strength of character to abide by it and live by it from that day to this. Some governments are better than others. But any form of government is better than anarchy, and any attempt to tear down govern- ment is an attempt to wreck civilization.” Governor Calvin Coolidge, who became President a few years later, visited the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth. Here he examines the relief to the Mayflower Compact. THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT HONORED

BAS RELIEF PARK WITH THE SIGNING OF THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT MEMORIAL IN PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.

The origins of American self-government under God which trace directly to the The Mayflower Compact are honored at the Mayflower Compact Memorial in Province- town, Massachusetts. Although the Pierce Patent would be issued a year later in 1621, the Mayflower Compact remained the foundation for the body of laws which would later be enacted creating a commonwealth based on a miniature constitution. THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT HONORED HOW THE INFLUENCE OF THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT SPREAD TO THE NATION AND BEYOND

Alexis De Toqueville travelled to America in search of the reasons why the United States was becoming the most prosperous, just, and free society in the world. Look- ing to the foundations established by the Mayflower Pilgrims, De Toqueville ex- plained:

“It [The Mayflower Compact]was the germ of a great nation by Providence to a predestined shore...The Principles of New England spread at first to neighboring states; they then passed succesively to more distant ones; and at last, if I may so speak, interpenetrated the whole confederation. They now extend beyond its limits, to the whole world.”

Alexis De Toqueville Democracy in America, 1831

“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise!”

—William Bradford,

CONNECT WITH US Website — 400th.org Email — [email protected] Social Media — @pilgrim400th Mailbox — P.O. Box 3333 Plymouth, MA 02361