The Mayflower Compact was signed today in Plymouth Harbor, and you should read it. 

The Mayflower Compact

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SETTLERS AT NEW PLYMOUTH: 1620

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, etc .

Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and 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 of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in 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 Cape Cod, the 11th of November, 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 Domini 1620 .

What was the Compact? It was an agreement between the Puritans and those who were just traveling to the New World but were not part of the religious community. 

The Mayflower had been bound for Virginia but had been blown off course. When the passengers aboard the Mayflower realized this, dissension broke out. The community needed a common agreement on how they would live together if they were to survive in the New World. 

Just like the Founding Fathers, the Compact signers saw their right to self-government as flowing from their faith in God. The Mayflower Company is the antecedent to the Constitution, recognizing fundamental human rights, including religious freedom, the rule of law and private property. 

The Company laid the “seeds of liberty and equality under the rule of law”, which would be more fully realized in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution some 150 years later. We should honor and remember these men.