Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/77

 CH. III.] some years, they concluded to emigrate to America in the hope, that they might thus perpetuate their religious discipline, and preserve the purity of an apostolical church. In conjunction with other friends in England they embarked on the voyage with a design of settlement on Hudson's river in New-York. But against their intention they were compelled to land on the shores of Cape Cod in the depth of winter, and the place of their landing was called Plymouth, which has since become so celebrated as the first permanent settlement in New-England. Not having contemplated any plantation at this place, they had not taken the precaution to obtain any charter from the Plymouth Company. The original plan of their colony, however, is still preserved; and it was founded upon the basis of a community of property, at least for a given space of time, a scheme, as the event showed, utterly incompatible with the existence of any large and flourishing colony. Before their landing they drew up and signed a voluntary compact of government, forming, if not the first, at least the best authenticated case of an original social contract for the establishment of a nation, which is to be found in the annals of the world. Philosophers and jurists have perpetually resorted to the theory of such a compact, by which to measure the rights and duties of governments and subjects; but for the most part it has been treated as an effort of imagination, unsustained by the history or practice of nations, and furnishing little of solid instruction for the actual concerns of life. It was little dreamed of, that America should furnish an