 |
||||
|
Home Welcome Membership Histories Compact Research Officers For Members Links |
||||
|
Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrims who came to the new world brought with them ideals and beliefs that they had held dear in England. Indeed, they came to America in order to have the freedom to live in accordance with those ideals and beliefs. The Pilgrims understood that the settlement founded at Jamestown in Virginia a few years earlier had practically failed due to the lack of a strong government. Committed that this would not happen to them, the Pilgrims agreed to establish a government based on the consent of those it claimed to govern. The document on which this new-world government was based is known as the Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact established that government, by creating a "civil body politic". Widely considered as America's first constitution, the Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 on board the Mayflower, as depicted in the Edward Percy Moran painting above. Consistent with the practices of the day, only male passengers signed the document. In making this compact, the Pilgrims drew upon two strong traditions, the concept of a social contract and their belief in religious covenants. The Mayflower Compact was to bind the Pilgrims to one another and the Pilgrims to their God. It is generally assumed that the original Mayflower Compact does not exist. What does exist is a handwritten copy of the Compact made by Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford, written about 1630 in his manuscript history, Of Plymouth Plantation. The Mayflower Compact was drawn up on board the Mayflower, under the following circumstances as described by Governor William Bradford:"This day, before we came to harbour, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was thought good there should be an association and agreement, that we should combine together in one body, and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows, word for word." |
||||
|
Mayflower Compact IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, 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, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, 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 hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
|
