Seeds of Liberty: Remembering the Mayflower Compact

‘The Constitution Is Not Suspended’: Lawmaker Tells Constituents They Still Have Right to Assemble

A state lawmaker in Colorado told his constituents this week that government cannot abridge the right to assemble laid out in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. State Rep. Mark Baisley, a Republican, said in a letter that the celebration of Thanksgiving serves as “a national day of remembrance for the remarkable story that gave rise to liberty on this continent.” Baisley, 65, said people will have the COVID-19 pandemic on their minds as they gather with others on the holiday. “It is important for Americans to realize, in spite of their good intentions, neither a Governor, a President-elect, nor I as your State Representative have the constitutional authority to restrict the number of family members who gather in your home,” Baisley wrote. “You have a constitutionally guaranteed right…

The year 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World. It’s also the quadricentennial of what came to be called the Mayflower Compact.

Aware that they had landed far north of their intended destination of Virginia and were therefore under the jurisdiction of no government, the Pilgrims feared that their new colony might disintegrate without government of some sort. Moreover, not all of those who arrived with them shared their religious beliefs, which they suspected might also lead to disharmony.

And so, while still aboard the Mayflower, the leaders of this group drafted and signed a short compact, a covenant establishing a way to “enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.”

These 41 men created an extraordinary document, an agreement in which the signers established their own government. Though the Pilgrims later became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Mayflower Compact is the first written social contract in American history, the grandfather of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. By taking matters into their own hands, and by committing themselves, their families, and their descendants to liberty guided by law, they paved the way for American republicanism.

When we’re sitting down to eat our Thanksgiving Day dinner, let’s pause to give thanks to these early settlers for their wisdom and their vision.

Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C., Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog.

Focus News: Seeds of Liberty: Remembering the Mayflower Compact

Georgia Poll Worker Says She Found ‘Pristine’ Batch of Ballots That Went ‘98%’ for Joe Biden

Voyles said she worked at Fulton County’s Sandy Springs poll station and accepted the Fulton County Board of Elections’ request to carry out its hand recount of the election. At one point, Voyles said she noticed a batch of ballots that “was pristine,” while noting that “most of the ballots” she observed “had already been handled; they had been written on by people, and the edges were worn,” showing obvious signs of use. The “pristine ballot” batch, however, showed “a difference in the texture of the paper—it was if they were intended for absentee use but had not been used for that purposes,” and there “was a difference in the feel.” “These different ballots,” Voyles added, “included a slight depressed pre-fold so they could be easily folded and unfolded for…