controversy. As strangers in the land, it is presumable that they
wisely and honorably avoided entangling themselves in the political
contentions involved with it. Yet the theoretic principles, as they
were drawn into discussion, could not fail to arrest their
attention, and must have assisted them to form accurate ideas
concerning the origin and extent of authority among men, independent
of positive institutions. The importance of these circumstances
will not be duly weighed without taking into consideration the state
of opinion then prevalent in England. The general principles of
government were there little understood and less examined. The
whole substance of human authority was centred in the simple
doctrine of royal prerogative, the origin of which was always traced
in theory to divine institution. Twenty years later, the subject
was more industriously sifted, and for half a century became one of
the principal topics of controversy between the ablest and most
enlightened men in the nation. The instrument of voluntary
association executed on board the Mayflower testifies that the
parties to it had anticipated the improvement of their nation.

Another incident, from which we may derive occasion for important
reflections, was the attempt of these original settlers to establish
among them that community of goods and of labor, which fanciful
politicians, from the days of Plato to those of Rousseau, have
recommended as the fundamental law of a perfect republic. This
theory results, it must be acknowledged, from principles of
reasoning most flattering to the human character. If industry,
frugality, and disinterested integrity were alike the virtues of
all, there would, apparently, be more of the social spirit, in
making all property a common stock, and giving to each individual a
proportional title to the wealth of the whole. Such is the basis