[7] The original manuscript of the Mayflower Compact has been lost or destroyed. The text, as preserved by Governor Bradford in his annals entitled "Of Plimoth Plantation," is as follows:
"In ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-writen, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by those presents solemnly & mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye 11. of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth. Ano: Dom. 1620." Printed in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, vol. III, pp. 89-90. See also the text in Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, ed. W.T. Davis (1908), p. 107.
[8] The legislation against the Quakers as enforced in the Plymouth colony seems to have been essentially political. The records, so far as we have them, indicate that the Quakers were proceeded against because of their attempts to disturb the peace and overthrow established law and order, and not because of their religious beliefs.
[9] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, vol. III, pp. 134-136.
CONSTITUTIONAL MORALITY[10]
The text of this address is taken from Grote's "History of Greece." The historian, reviewing the state of the Athenian democracy in the age of Kleisthenes, points out that it became necessary to create in the multitude, and through them to force upon the leading men, the rare and difficult sentiment which he terms constitutional morality. He shows that the essence of this sentiment is self-imposed restraint, that few sentiments are more difficult to establish in a community, and that its diffusion, not merely among the majority, but throughout all classes, is the indispensable condition of a government at once free, stable and peaceable. Whoever has studied the history of Greece knows that the Grecian democracy was ultimately overthrown by the acts of her own citizens and their disregard of constitutional morality rather than by the spears of her conquerors.
We American lawyers would be blind, indeed, if we did not recognize that there is at the present time a growing tendency throughout the country to disregard constitutional morality. On all sides we find impatience with constitutional restraints, manifesting itself in many forms and under many pretences, and this impatience is particularly strong with the action of the courts in protecting the individual and the minority against unconstitutional enactments favoring one class at the expense of another. However worded and however concealed under professions of social reform or social justice, the underlying spirit in most instances is that of impatience with any restraint or rule of law.
We are meeting again the oldest and the strongest political plea of the demagogue, so often shown to be the most fallacious and dangerous doctrine that has ever appeared among men, that the people are infallible and can do no wrong, that their cry must be taken as the voice of God, and that whatever at any time seems to be the will of the majority, however ignorant and prejudiced, must be accepted as gospel. The principal political battle-cry to-day seems to be that, if the people are now fit to rule themselves, they no longer need any checks or restraints, that the constitutional form of representative government under which we have lived and prospered has become antiquated and unsatisfactory to the masses, and that we should adopt a pure democracy and leave to the majority itself the decision of every question of government or legislation, with the power to enforce its will or impulse immediately and without restraint.