he Mayflower Compact—once called the “Plymouth Combination”—is the first constitution known to have been written in the New World. Drafted aboard the Mayflower before the Pilgrims from Holland and their fellow travelers landed in North America, it was signed on November 11, 1620, by the 41 men on the ship. (Depiction of the signing of the Mayflower Compact via the Library of Congress, painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, public domain)
The Mayflower Compact—once called the “Plymouth Combination”—is the first constitution known to have been written in the New World. Drafted aboard the Mayflower before the Pilgrims from Holland and their fellow travelers landed in North America, it was signed on November 11, 1620, by the 41 men on the ship. Pilgrim leader William Bradford was worried that some of the settlers were planning to "use their owne libertie" to ignore common rules (Foner and Garraty 1991: 708).
The written constitution is one of America's most important contributions to the idea of government
Whereas England has an unwritten constitution that embodies the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, one of America’s most important contributions to the idea of government by law is that of the written constitution, unchangeable by ordinary legislative means. The roots of such constitutions, to which bills of rights were later added, can be traced to the biblical idea of a covenant between God and man, which more secular thinkers such as John Locke later portrayed as a social compact among individuals themselves.
After citing their common loyalty to King James I, the signatories to the Mayflower Compact pledged to “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 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.”
The Mayflower Compact was regarded as law until 1686. Colonies, states, and in time the nation as a whole continued to rely on written documents both to create their own identities and to limit government powers.
John Vile is a professor of political science and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. This article was originally published in 2009.
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SEE ALSO
- John Locke
- Puritans
FURTHER READING
Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty, eds. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
Frohnen, Bruce. The American Republic: Primary Sources. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, 2002
Lutz, Donald S. “From Covenant to Constitution in American Political Thought.” Publius 10 (1980): 1–34
Vile, John R. “Mayflower Compact.” In The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of America’s Founding. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
The Mayflower Compact
Jacoby, Jeff. "How the Mayflower compact sowed the seeds of American democracy." Boston Globe, Nov. 22, 2017.
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It was a idea for the constitution. -the ideas of self government from the Mayflower Compact help Americans to be united as a whole. -Was the first democratic government to be established in the colonies – The colonists agreed to choose their leaders and make their own laws which they agreed to follow.Click to see full answer. Keeping this in view, what is the Mayflower Compact and how did it influence the constitution?The Mayflower Compact was a set of rules and governmental ideas written by the people aboard the ship, The Mayflower, as they set sail for the New World. Seeking religious freedom, the some of the people aboard, known as Pilgrims, and others decided to create a new set of rules to allow them to govern themselves.One may also ask, how did the Mayflower Compact serve as an important step toward American democracy? They needed laws to create stability and security in the new land. The Mayflower Compact was important because it was a key step in the development of representative, democratic government in America. how is the Mayflower Compact similar to the constitution? The people of the Mayflower together wrote a compact a form of a constitution that would govern their colony. This compact was based on the Biblical principle that people derived their rights from God not from Kings, Governments, or a ruling elite.What document allowed the pilgrims to govern themselves democratically? The Mayflower Compact