History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II, Part 5

Author: Thompson, Elroy Sherman, 1874-
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 654


USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 5


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59


BRIDGEWATER


Ralph Michael Cummings, Lieutenant, R. F. C., killed in aeroplane crash, Jan. 16, 1918, at Fort Worth, Texas. Enl. June 1, 1917. "After going through Vic- toria College, Toronto, Canada, was appointed instructor and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant at Camp Taliaferro, Forth Worth, Texas."


Ralph Michael Cummings was born December 15, 1895, at Frederic- ton, New Brunswick, son of Michael J. Cummings, of Framingham, 1927, and Minnie (Landers) (died 1913) Cummings; brother of Arthur Michael Cummings (who served as a lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps). Employed by R. H. Stearns Company, Boston.


*John Henry Webster, Private, C. E. F, killed in action, July 22, 1918, at Mericourt, France. Enl. Dec. 27, 1917, Co. C, 87 Bn, Can. Inf.


John Henry Webster was born at Taunton, son of Peter C. Web- ster (born in England).


BROCKTON


*Matthew Joseph Callahan, Private, died May 14, 1917, of wounds received in action. (Thrice wounded previously.) Enl. Sept. 22, 1914, at Toronto.


Matthew Joseph Callahan was born in 1882, at Burke, New York, son of John (deceased) and Mary A. (Boyle) Callahan; brother of James Callahan, of Brockton. (Brockton Memorial Volume, p. 120.) *Albert Cross, C. E. F., reported killed in action. En1. 1914.


Albert C. Cross was born in 1896 (Canada). Brockton Honor Roll, p. 90. Last heard from in 1916.


*James Joseph Dexter, Private, killed in action, Sept. 29, 1918 (wounded on Oct. 30, 1917). Enl. Oct. 2, 1917, served in France, 29 Bn.


James Joseph Dexter was born January 12, 1890, at East Boston, son of Daniel and Mary (Brady) Dexter. Married (1915) Minnie Bilo- deau. Shoeworker. (Brockton Honor Roll, p. 29.)


*Thomas Edward Duffy, "instantly killed" May 16, 1917, in Mericourt Sector, Co. A, Royal Canadian Regiment. Served in U. S. A., 1904-1916.


Thomas Edward Duffy was born August 30, 1878, at Medway, son of Thomas and Margaret (Monahan) Duffy (both deceased) ; brother of William Duffy, of Brockton. Shoeworker. (Brockton Honor Roll, p. 31.)


*George J. Girouard, Private, C. E. F., killed in action, June 8, 1918. Enl.


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PLYMOUTH COUNTY HONOR ROLL


Sept. 22, 1914, 1st Bn. Dis. because of wounds, Feb. 10, 1916. Re-enl. July 28, 1916, 22 Bn. (Wounded April 14, 1917, and May 28, 1918.)


George J. Girouard was born February 14, 1885, at Spencer, son of John B. and Amanda Girouard, of Brockton, 1919. (Brockton Honor Roll and Ottawa War Records.)


*James Joseph Gopsill, Private, killed in action, Aug. 28, 1918 (near Cherisy). Enl. Oct. 1, 1917; served in France, 24 Bn.


James Joseph Gopsill was born June 3, 1895, at Birmingham, Eng- land, son of Arthur and Millicent Annie (Capell) Gopsill. Last maker. Resident in Massachusetts about seven months. Member of First Quebec Regiment, Canadian Black Watch.


*Give Guiseppi, Italian Army, killed in action. Left Brockton for Italy, Sept. 8, 1915, to join Italian forces. (Brockton Walk-Over War Record, p. 28.)


L. Hillex, reported "killed in action." Ottawa Cas. List. Lynn "Item," May 21, 1917. Ottawa War Recs. cannot identify.


*Louis Steve Miller, Private, killed in action, May 2, 1917, in France. Enl. Nov. 5, 1915, at Winnipeg, Man. Served 90 Bn., C. E. F., in England, June 8 to Oct. 21, 1916; in France, Oct. 22, 1916, to death.


Louis Steve Miller was born in 1888, at Rockland, son of Louis F. and Julia Agnes (Hyland) Miller. Widower. Three children. Hotel employee : Winnipeg, Manitoba.


*Fred Muggleton, C. E. F., reported killed in action, April 20, 1918. Enl. soon after opening of war, 1914. Born 1882. Well-known cricket player, member of Brockton and Massachusetts Cricket League clubs. (Boston "Post," May 9, 1918.)


*Donald Francis Saxton, Gunner, died Jan. 4, 1916, in hospital at Canterbury, England. Enl. Sept., 1915, at Liverpool, 1st Lancashire Regt., R. F. A.


Donald Francis Saxton was born May 26, 1898, at Brockton, son of Patrick Henry (died 1913) and Anne Mary (Harrington) Saxton ; brother of Philip Vincent Saxton, of Brockton, Allan J., John J., Marie E., Dorothy A., and Margaret C. Saxton. Shoemaker. (Brockton Honor Roll, p. 77.) Being under age, he enlisted under the name of a cousin, Carl Saxton.


*George Franklin Shoughrow, Private, C. E. F., died Jan. 23, 1918, at Base Hospital, Derbyshire, England, of wounds received in action. (Twice wounded.) Enl. May 5, 1917, at Windsor, Canada, 241st Bn. of Windsor, Canada, Kilties.


George Franklin Shoughrow was born January 15, 1890, in Boston, son of James Ambrose and Mary Ellen (Dolan) Shoughrow (both deceased) ; brother of Anna (wife of Joseph P.) Linehan, of Hing- ham, Mrs. Laura Hefler and James Ambrose Shoughrow. Automobile mechanic, employed in Detroit.


*A. C. Watt, Corporal, 1 Gordon Highlanders, killed in action in Flanders. Son of Mrs. Elizabeth Watt; a brother in service in 8 Can. Bn. Arty. Fought at Ypres. (Boston "Globe," April 25, 1918, p. 7.)


HANOVER


*Florus Feindell, Private, C. E. F., killed in action, April 9, 1917, at Vimy Ridge. Enl. March 4, 1916, 112 Bn., Can. Inf .; served in France in 25 Bn.


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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE


Florus Feindell was born June 30, 1900, at Hanover, son of Charles E. and Bertha (Corlen) Feindell. ((Father resident of Bridgetown, Anna County, Nova Scotia.) (A. G. L., B. 38, Ottawa War Office Records.)


*W. Lake, reported "killed in action." O. C. L. Boston "Trans." 23-1918. Ottawa War Office has: Lake, William Howard, of "North Andover," killed in action Nov. 6, 1918. Enl. May 30, 1917; served in France, 85 Bn., but Andover in World War has no mention of him.


HANSON


*Harold O'Brien, Sapper, C. E. F., died Dec. 6, 1918, of disease, at Birming- ham, England. Enl. June 2, 1916, at Ottawa, Ont. Served 1st Const. Bn., Sept. 23 to Oct. 25, 1916, in England. France, Oct. 25, 1916, to death. (Ottawa War Records.)


MARSHFIELD


*T. C. Lawson, C. E. F., reported "killed in action." Fitchburg "Sentinel," 8-26-18, p. 3.


PLYMOUTH


*Robert Bain, Private, killed in action, Aug. 8, 1918 (shell), at Villers-Bret- tenaix. Enl. Jan., 1917, 176 Bn., Canadian Inf .; trans to 164 Bn .; to 116 Bn.


Robert Bain was born May 31, 1897, at Edinburgh, Scotland, son of James and Elizabeth Miller (Crowe) Bain, of Plymouth; brother of Alexander C., Grace T., and Jessie E. Bain. Shell shocked early in April, 1918.


ROCKLAND


*John William Osborne, Private, C. E. F., died of wounds, Sept. 23, 1918, at Frensham, England. Enl. June 12, 1917, at Fredericton, N. B. Served 236 Bn., England, Aug. 19 to death.


PART II BARNSTABLE COUNTY


Plym-44


CHAPTER XXXI APHRODITE OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE


Pilgrims Were First to See American Government With the Eye and Speak With the Tongue of a Prophet-Misconception Regarding Experiment in Communism - Idea of a Written Constitution and Democracy Started in Provincetown Harbor - William Bradford Didn't Choose to Run But Was Elected Thirty-one Times Governor of Plymouth Colony-His Log of the "Mayflower" Lost One Hundred Years, Containing Pilgrim Chronicles Restored by an Anglican Bish- op in 1897-A Bit of Real American Literature-House of One of the Pilgrims Who Died the First Winter Destined to be Re-erected in Massachusetts, Although It Was One Hundred Years Old When the Pilgrims Were in Holland.


At the dedication of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument at Province- town upon the fifth day of August, 1910, Honorable James T. McCleary, Member of Congress from Minnesota, the chairman of the Committee on Library, to which was referred the bill for the Federal Government appropriation in aid of the building fund for that monument, recalled an old story. It had been told in a lecture by Professor John Fiske regarding a banquet held in Paris, France, on July 4, 1863, by a com- pany of Americans, in honor of that famous natal day of the American nation. One of the toasts proposed was "The United States," in which at that time raged a cruel, civil War. Just how Professor Fiske told the story does not matter but the way in which Congressman McCleary repeated it follows :


The toast was probably proposed by a son of New England, exact and schol- arly. . He said: "Here's to the United States, bounded on the North by the British Possessions, and on the South (and how his voice rang out with faith and courage as he gave this Southern boundary!) by Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico, on the East by the Atlantic, and on the West by the Pacific." And to that toast they drank.


Then up rose another man. He was from farther West, probably from Ohio. He said: "In giving the boundaries of the United States, why not anticipate the future a little? Here's to the United States, bounded on the North by the North Pole, on the South by the South Pole, on the East by the rising of the sun, and on the West by the setting thereof."


Then arose another of the banqueters, a tall chap from one of the prairie States, perhaps from Minnesota, who said: "If we are going to indulge in proph- ecy, why not see with the eye and speak with the tongue of a prophet? Here's to the United States, bounded on the North by the aurora borealis, on the South by the procession of the equinoxes, on the East by primeval chaos, and on the West by the day of judgment."


The United States will extend from pole to pole and from the rising to the setting of the sun! That result was designed when things were in primeval


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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE


chaos, and when it comes it will last until the day of judgment. It will not be the United States of America. God forbid. We have extended to the breaking point already. It will be the United States of the World, modeled after the United States of America, constructed on the two great principles of representa- tion and federation, which our history has shown to be practicable over a vast area.


The banquet story, intended to create a laugh, had something in it of unconquerable patriotism, immensely more important than the fun. It had something of vision and prophecy, and the same line of thought was carried on by Congressman McCleary, who also said that "The world's most valuable secular possession is the Union of the American States. Hundreds of thousands of human lives and thousands of mil- lions of human treasure were given for its preservation, but it is worth to us and to the world infinitely more than it has cost."


We may, with the vision of the prophet, agree with this estimate of one who was not even born under the Stars and Stripes, in his ut- terance on the high ground looking down on the Harbor of Province- town in which rode at anchor the "Mayflower" in November, 1620. We may rejoice in our pride in the United States as it now is or dream of its future as we choose, but we cannot, and do not wish, to forget that it began in that same pleasant harbor.


And the stars heard, and the sea, And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang, To the anthem of the free.


On the Pilgrim Memorial Monument referred to appears an inscrip- tion, written by the orator of the day, President-emeritus Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard University :


INSCRIPTION UPON THE TABLET


ON NOVEMBER 21, 1620, THE MAYFLOWER, CARRYING 102 PAS- SENGERS, MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN, CAST ANCHOR IN THIS


ON THE SAME DAY THE 41 ADULT MALES IN THE COMPANY HAD SOLEMNLY COVENANTED AND COMBINED THEMSELVES TOGETHER "INTO A CIVIL BODY POLITICK." THIS BODY POLITIC ESTABLISHED AND MAINTAINED ON THE BLEAK AND BARREN EDGE OF A VAST WILDERNESS A STATE WITHOUT A KING OR A NOBLE, A CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP OR A PRIEST, A DEMOCRATIC COMMONWEALTH THE MEMBERS OF WHICH WERE "STRAIGHTEDLY TIED TO ALL CARE OF EACH OTHER'S GOOD AND OF THE WHOLE BY EVERY ONE."


WITH LONG-SUFFERING DEVOTION AND SOBER RESOLUTION THEY ILLUSTRATED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND THE PRAC- TICES OF A GENUINE DEMOCRACY.


THEREFORE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THEM SHALL BE PERPETUAL IN THE VAST REPUBLIC THAT HAS INHERITED THEIR IDEALS. HARBOR, 67 DAYS FROM PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND.


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APHRODITE OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE


During the voyage of the "Mayflower," those who had been sent over by the London Company and who were not in sympathy with the Pilgrims in their religious views, endeavored to sow the seeds of discord and made a rough house of the "Mayflower" in their turbu- 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."


ance of faction; it was thought good there should be an association and lence. Winslow made an entry in his journal in which he wrote: "This day, November 11 (Old style) we came to harbour, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appear-


He referred to the Compact signed in the cabin of the "Mayflower" of which Young in his "Chronicles" wrote: "Here for the first time in the world's history the philosophical fiction of a social compact was realized in practice." The Compact still exists, in the writing of Gov- ernor Bradford, so far as the wording is concerned, but the final dis- position of the document itself, with the signatures attached, is a matter of conjecture. The best guess seems to be that it was included with many other records of the Pilgrims in the contents of the County Court House at Plymouth, which early in the nineteenth century, was greatly damaged by fire. This led to a housecleaning and the debris was thrown into the harbor. Presumably the Compact and the original charter, or patent, of the colony was included in the supposedly heap of rubbish which floated out with the tide. The box in which the charter came is, however, still preserved. It is a hundred years too late now to take anyone to task for not keeping the charter in its rightful receptacle.


The Compact was drawn up and signed on the "Mayflower" before any other business was transacted by the Pilgrims. It was, therefore, in Provincetown Harbor that government by the people in America had its first experiences. It was five weeks later that Plymouth Rock was discovered.


Edward Oliver Skelton, of Boston, a member of the New England Historic Society and the Old Planters' Society, published, in 1910, a little book entitled, "The Story of New England," in which he said, referring to the landing of the Pilgrims :


As their eager feet touched first upon that revered granite rock, they gave to it a consecration which will ever more cause it to be looked upon as the most hallowed spot on the Western Continent, for upon that very rock on that very day, there landed -- unconsciously-a state free born, full grown, exercising all local, municipal and national functions through the voice of the whole people, and with a perfected plan or mechanism for a perfect representative government,


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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE


which was the foundation of the Great Republic of the United States (since ampli- fied as the nation's needs required). There landed that day an independent church, having a direct connection with Christ, as did the Church in the be- ginning, but without human link or mediation. All this was accorded through the terms of that wonderful compact signed that November night in the darkened cabin of the "Mayflower" by a people who later proved themselves to be peace- ful, affectionate, moderate in government, just one to another, strong of cour- age, and in both men and women inherent refinement, to whom education and noble behavior were a part of their very selves. It is to such people, who, as they progressed, enacted laws, fundamental but mild, which today serve to control, in part, our great country. To them we owe the first law for the ballot, for trial by jury, for registry of lands in public books, of taxation, of the first customs order, and of the first laws ever enacted in the world, relative to an equal distribution of inheritance among their children. It is with such wise beneficence they formed their colony, and it is under that and the beautiful loving shadows that the Pilgrim father and the sweet, tender Pilgrim mother cast upon us that we are living today, honored, based upon those principles, by every nation on the globe.


The "Mayflower" Compact was the foundation of American gov ernment, the Aphrodite of American jurisprudence, as it literally arose from the sea, the child of the experiences on the "Mayflower" voyage put into language above the foam of Provincetown Harbor. It was as foundationally and characteristically American as the Ten Command- ments delivered by Moses are foundationally the law of every land.


It has many times been stated that the experiment of communism or socialism was grafted on to this plan of government from the first and the result is mentioned explicitly in Governor Bradford's diary. He says: "The experience which was had in this comone course and condition, tried sundrie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of that conceite of Platos and other an- cients, applauded by some of later times ;- that ye taking away of propertie, and bringing in comunitie into a comonewealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this comunitie (so farr as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For ye yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other men's wives and children without any recompence. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, than he that was weake and not able to doe a quarter ye other could, this was thought injuestice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalised in labours, and victails, cloaths, etc., with ye meaner and yonger sorte, thought it some indignitie and disrespect unto them. And for men's wives to be commanded to doe service for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths,


IN YE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.


We whofe names are underwritten, the loyal fubjects of our dread fovereigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, King, defender of ye faith, etc., have- ing undertaken for ye glory of God and advancement of ye Chris- tian faith, and honour of our King and countrie, a voyage to plant ye firft Colonie in 'ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doz by thefe prefents folemnly, and mutualy, in ye prefence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine ourfelves togeather into a civil body politik for our. better ordering and prefervation and furtherance of ye end aforefaid, and by vertue hearof to enacte, conftitute and frame fuch juft and equal lawes, ordinances, acts, conftitutions and offices from time to time, as fhall be thought moft meete and con- venient for ye generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promife all due fubmiffion and obedience. In witnes whereof we have hereunder fubfcribed our names at Cape-Codd ye 11 of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our fovereigne Lord, King James of En- gland, France and Ireland, ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie- fourth. Ano Dom. 1620.


1. John Carver,


2. Willlam Bradford,


3. Edward Winslow,


4. Willlam Brewster,


5. Isaac Allerton,


6. Myles Standish,


7. Jobn Alden,


8. Samuel Fuller,


9. Christopher Martin,


10. William Mollina,


11. William White.


12. Richard Warren,


13. John Howland,


14. Stephen Hopkins,


15. Edward Tilley, 1


16. Jobb Fille),


17. Francls Cooke.


18. Thomas Rogers.


19. Thomas Tinker.


20. John Rigdale,


34. Richard Britteridge,


85. George Soule,


36. Richard Clarke,


37. Richard Gardiner,


35. John ' Allerton,


39. Thomas English,


. 40. Edward Dotey;


27. Moses. Fletcher,


25. John Goodman.


29. Degory Priest,


30. Thomas Williams,


31. Gilbert Winslow,


32. Edmond Margeson,


33. Peter Brown,


21. Edward Faller, ". John Turner.


23. Francis Eaton,


21. James Chilton.


25, John Crackston.


6. John Billington,


41. Edward Lister,


MAYFLOWER COMPACT


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APHRODITE OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE


etc., they deemd it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it. ...


Tributes by Dr. Eliot and Senator Lodge-It must not be inferred that the Pilgrims were communists and held all the property at Plym- outh in common, even experimentally. They were pioneers in the prac- tice of industrial cooperation. President-emeritus Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard University, denied this popular misconception concerning the Pilgrims' communism in his address at the dedication of the monument at Provincetown in 1910 when he said the Pilgrims were "self-support- ing, industrious people who held the soundest views about private prop- erty, on the one hand, and the common duty of productive labor, on the other. They have sometimes been represented as communists and have been supposed to have held all the property at Plymouth in common ; but no one who has read with care the Articles of Agreement under which they left Holland and England will continue to entertain such opinions about them. These Articles of Agreement show that the expedition was a cooperative commercial undertaking under the form of a joint stock corporation."


Referring to another speech made at the dedication of the monu- ment, with reference to the Compact signed in the cabin of the "May- flower," the following interesting facts were recalled by Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge, for many years one of the United States Senators from Massachusetts and a notable historian :


Where we stand today is not one of the famous and historic places on which the foundations of the United States and Canada were laid. These, known of all men, are to be found at Jamestown; in the valley of the St. Lawrence, where the lilies of France were flung to the breeze three centuries ago; at Manhattan, where the Dutch planted their West India Company; on the Delaware, where the Swedes, after an interval of six hundred years, at last carried to a conclusion the voyages of the Vikings; at Plymouth, across the bay, and at Boston and Salem, the seats of the great Puritan migration.


There was no settlement established, no foundation stone of a nation laid ยท here. Yet is this spot perhaps the most memorable of all. Here certain political conceptions, which have affected the belief, the fortunes, and the fate not merely of the American people, but of civilized mankind, were set down on paper and given to the world, a heedless world, which did not note what was done until those who did it had been long mingled with the dust on Burial Hill. Certain thoughts as to government and society were here expressed and recorded one No- vember day, when the darkness settled down early over sand dune and forest, over quiet harbor and restless ocean. There were two or three among the leaders who were men of education and of conspicuous ability, men with empire in their brains, with the "prophetic soul dreaming of things to come," who realized the vastness of the work they were doing. But the company on the "Mayflower" were, for the most part, simple, humble, earnest folk, intent on the duty of the moment. So they gathered in the cabin and drew up the famous Compact, and


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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE


set their hands to it, on the lid of Elder Brewster's chest. They are inscribed now in bronze, those names, and what a roll of honor it is! What American would change his descent from one of those men for an unbroken lineage from the proudest baron who followed the Conqueror across the Channel, or for the longest pedigree of Europe? Their descendants are scattered from one end of this broad land to the other, and they have not proved untrue to their ancestry. The blood of a signer of the Compact flows in the veins of the President of the United States, and the noble tradition of the "Mayflower" is worthily sustained by the man who fills that great office and who joins us today in commemorating the act of his ancestor.


What was that act? Only giving adhesion to certain principles set down on paper. That was all; merely the expression of certain thoughts. But it is thought which finally rules the world of men. The temples of Greece are in ruins, but the words of Plato and Aristotle survive and have influenced the thoughts of inen and moved the world from that day to this.


Here in this Compact of the "Mayflower" I find two conceptions which seem to me of great significance; both potent factors in history since that November day, two hundred and ninety years ago. Three years since, on the laying of the cornerstone, I spoke of one of them, the idea of an organic law, adopted by all the people, changeable only by the act of all the people, above all other laws, the bulwark and defense of certain rights, and the embodiment of certain other fundamental principles, lying at the root of free government. In this conception we see the origin of the written constitution which has played so great a part in modern history.


The other principle, conspicuous in the Compact, is that of democracy. All the men signed. It was the work of all the people. Here there was nothing new; democratic government was not a novel idea. The very word "democracy" is Greek. But the Compact was an assertion, or rather the reassertion of the democratic principle, at a time when that principle had fallen into disuse and almost wholly faded from the minds of men. Athens was democratic, and so were many other Greek cities. Rome was democratic, and, in theory, the rule was that of the whole people assembled in public meeting. But the democracies of Greece and Rome sank alike into despotisms and fell under the rule of a native tyrant, or a foreign master; they became the subjects either of a mighty emperor or of a petty despot, but the end was the same. The Italian city republics, with democratic forms of an extreme type, followed a like course. They swung from anarchy to despotism and ended as provinces of Spain and Austria, as the ap- panages of Hapsburgs and Bourbons. During the same period the liberties of the free cities of the North were curtailed and the customs and laws of once independent States were shorn of their power. It was the age of the consolida- tion of European States, of the rise of unlimited monarchies upon the ruins of feudalism, when the "Mayflower" anchored in yonder bay. Democracy and popular government were well-nigh forgotten words when the Compact em- bodying both was signed. Slowly the principle spread, almost unnoticed, through the American colonies. A century and a half went by, and then the democracy of the "Mayflower" Compact rose suddenly militant upon a world which did not understand. Its voice was heard in Philadelphia; the beat of its drums broke on the air at Lexington; its first shots rang out at Concord Bridge and at Bunker Hill and democracy won in the new world.




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