22 PART oNE • THE AmERiCAN sYsTEm
By the time of the American Revolution, the compact was well on its way toward
achieving mythic status. In 1802, John Quincy Adams, son of the second American
president, spoke these words at a founders’ day celebration in Plymouth: “This is perhaps
the only instance in human history of that positive, original social compact, which specula-
tive philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government.” 2Pilgrim Beliefs. Although the Plymouth settlers—later called the Pilgrims—committed
themselves to self-government, in other ways their political ideas were not those that are
prevalent today. The new community was a religious colony. Separation of church and
state and most of our modern civil liberties were alien to the settlers’ thinking. By the time
the U.S. Constitution was written, the nation’s leaders had a very different vision of the
relationship between religion and government. We look at some of the founders’ beliefs
in this chapter’s At Issue feature on page 24.more Colonies, more Government
Another outpost in New England was set up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.
Then followed Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and others. By 1732, the last
of the thirteen colonies, Georgia, was established. During the colonial period, Americans
developed a concept of limited government, which followed from the establishment ofThe mayflower Compact was signed on board the Mayflower, off the coast of
Massachusetts, in 1620. Was it a constitution? Why or why not? (MPI/Getty Images)- Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (New York: Penguin,
2007), p. 352.
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