Bridge of Wills

On September 16th, 1620, the forefathers of the forefathers of our American Revolution departed from Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers. It is said by John Locke that “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power without his consent.” These pilgrims, acting under the natural rights endowed upon every man by their creator- cast off the yoke of religious oppression by the British Empire and set sail toward a new horizon of freedom.

The Journey

Alone on September 16th, 1620, the Mayflower set off into the rolling seas of the Atlantic. The Mayflower had set sail twice in July 1620, but it was forced to turn back twice because of leaks; this was already an ugly omen of what their journey would bring upon them. What these 102 passengers -half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs- would encounter can be compared to torture from hell. On that vessel that promised freedom, they traversed over 3000 miles with conditions that would make even a day unbearable, let alone three months. Cold and damp, the stench of death and illness coming off every wall of the ship, an agonizing movement that would move even the firmest boulder- all these problems were augmented by the fact that the Mayflower was a cargo vessel and NOT a passenger vessel, meaning that its bulky design was designed to hop along the European coastline rather than a giant Trans-Atlantic journey. On many days of their journey, the bulky Mayflower moved backward rather than forward; it is ironic that a people seeking to take a step towards freedom be blown back with the force of fierce winds that labored to impede their righteous goal. The Pilgrims’ resolve remained firm, and the testament to their perseverance is the utopia of liberty that surrounds us, one that billions have and will continue to bask in for centuries to come.

The Mayflower Compact

“By virtue hereof [we] do enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions.” Sound familiar? The document being referenced, the Mayflower Compact, signed on November 11th, 1620, off the coast of Cape Cod- hundreds of miles off their destination at the mouth of the Hudson River- ordained upon the Pilgrims’ ranks the first framework of government conceived in North America. The framework drew upon the ancient tenets of past societies, like Rome, with concepts like the social contract. Falling upon their knees and thanking God, these pilgrims set into motion- in a watershed moment- the events that would change history forever.

The Shining City Upon A Hill

Ten Years after the signing of the compact and the arrival of the first Pilgrims, a second group of Puritan refugees arrived just south of the original Plymouth colony. John Winthrop- the person who would ultimately become the first governor of the new Massachusetts Bay Colony- gave a sermon containing the phrase that would set the colony’s tone and, much later, America would have. “We shall be a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” Posterity has vindicated this statement beyond what words can say, and I add, as nothing more than a humble citizen, posterity will continue to vindicate it for the course America continues to remain free. It would do us good to remember that timeless phrase from time to time: above all the mud we sling at each other, beyond the division that has no signs of abating, we’re all inhabitants of a city upon a hill that was ordained to be the freest order humanity has ever created. If we lose our city, posterity will record our failure or, more dreadfully, not record at all, as the words freedom and America will not be in their vocabulary. Let us resolve to dedicate all our efforts to our shining city and to never see the extinguishment of freedom in our era and safeguard it so it does not extinguish in all succeeding ours.