of her arrival in the bay; to accompany Carver, Winslow, Bradford,
and Standish, in all their excursions upon the desolate coast; to
follow them into every rivulet and creek where they endeavored to
find a firm footing, and to fix, with a pause of delight and
exultation, the instant when the first of these heroic adventurers
alighted on the spot where you, their descendants, now enjoy the
glorious and happy reward of their labors. But in this grateful
task, your former orators, on this anniversary, have anticipated all
that the most ardent industry could collect, and gratified all that
the most inquisitive curiosity could desire. To you, my friends,
every occurrence of that momentous period is already familiar. A
transient allusion to a few characteristic instances, which mark the
peculiar history of the Plymouth settlers, may properly supply the
place of a narrative, which, to this auditory, must be superfluous.

One of these remarkable incidents is the execution of that
instrument of government by which they formed themselves into a body
politic, the day after their arrival upon the coast, and previous to
their first landing. This is, perhaps, the only instance in human
history of that positive, original social compact, which speculative
philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of
government. Here was a unanimous and personal assent, by all the
individuals of the community, to the association by which they
became a nation. It was the result of circumstances and discussions
which had occurred during their passage from Europe, and is a full
demonstration that the nature of civil government, abstracted from
the political institutions of their native country, had been an
object of their serious meditation. The settlers of all the former
European colonies had contented themselves with the powers conferred
upon them by their respective charters, without looking beyond the