Note 18 — A RELATION OR JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PLANTATION settled at Plymouth in New England.

The following is the earliest known text of the famous “Mayflower Compact”, the original document has never been found. John Quincy Adams overstated the case when he said that “This is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive social compact which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government.” As evidenced in the signatures, the distinction between masters and servants remained, and women had no legal voice but were still chattel. Nevertheless, it is an unusual document in which the concept of self-government emerges so sharply during a time when the divine right of kings was assumed. It is clearly modelled on the “covenants” or “combinations” which characterized most Separatist congregations, and is presaged in Rev. Robinson’s farewell letter.