The Mayflower Compact serves as the rudimentary model for the governance of the United States of America. As a document, it also served as a model for both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution itself. This year is the 400th Anniversary of the establishment of the Plymouth Colony and this deserves to be remembered as the American Thanksgiving Day celebration is just around the corner.

A Most Holy Compact
by Michael Doyle

It isn't just a matter of toleration
There at the beginning of our nation
That the Mayflower Compact was one of liberty
This then is the beginning of our history

As the Pilgrims sought Christian purity
Their need to depart was one of surety
Seeking only to love and study God's divinity
Holland and then off to America was their journey

Jamestown and Plymouth were secured in belief
In commonwealths based on God's given relief
From being forced to follow a tainted theology
Of which God's part was to them a contested mystery

Under the pressure of uncertainty, a covenant was formed
To create a common society by which all would be conformed
Parsing out the lines of meaning in the Lord's name
They worked to provide Plymouth's good frame

There it was that America formed its first community
Bringing in brethren and strangers as common family
This declaration of religious and sacred liberty
Was founded in God's name and in His divine authority

Here began our pilgrim's quest in rarified equality
That would create the basis of America's striving for liberty
To be self-governing in this new form of political society
When even then there was a sense of accepted plurality

There were rough strangers on that Mayflower sailing ship
Some even who were not so constrained in matters of worship
Yet, each passenger, regardless of class, stood together
In the serious and grave belief in the rights of one another

It was something greater than government granted toleration
That created the basis for the coming American nation
These great liberties were given by God's divine light
To follow one's own conscience is everyone's given right

There in the pressures of uncharted circumstance
Rose a social compact before its time driven by happenstance
In it, we might find the need to walk in its inspiration
That would grow through cooperation, not coercion, into our nation

(c) November 12, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved