By David M. Bradford
From his Keynote Address at the 135th Anniversary of the Forefather’s Monument
August 3, 2024
Part 2 of 3
Pilgrims to Patriots
As Americans our ability to sustain freedom and govern ourselves is directly proportional to our obedience to and exercise of these precepts of freedom, virtue, and faith. Our republic depends not upon the constitution and the laws, but, as Montesquieu wrote, “the structures of Freedom and the Spirit of Freedom in the hearts of citizens.” Or what de Tocqueville famously called, “the Habits of the Heart.”
So, what do the Pilgrims have to do with our nation’s founding and the Spirit of America? Well, what we have in the Pilgrims is the ultimate human expression and historical precedent for each of these indispensable supports of our Republic and the American Spirit. In other words, the Pilgrims were the incarnation or personification of freedom, virtue, and faith; the principles essential to this American experiment in liberty. While I would freely grant that a group or individual here or there may challenge the Pilgrims as exemplars of any one of these three essential principles, I submit to you there is no other group of people in American or World history that exemplifies all three of these principles better or more completely than the Pilgrims.
Freedom + Virtue + Faith
Os Guiness’ Golden Triangle of Freedom
Let’s start with:
Freedom – the Pilgrims embodied freedom on at least three distinct levels; personal, spiritual, and political. On a personal level they embraced and pursued freedom of conscience, that is to live their lives according to their understanding of the revealed light of God’s word according to the Scriptures. On the spiritual level, they experienced the greatest liberty of all, which was the freedom from eternal judgement for their individual sins and the guilt and the penalty for their transgressions against the most Holy and Righteous God. Finally, on the political or governmental level, they exercised freedom from the King’s oppression and persecution when they fled their native England for Holland. This political freedom was most clearly displayed through the declaration of self-governance contained in the Mayflower Compact – Where for the first time in the history of the world a covenant was established whereby a group of people asserted the rights of kings and promised obedience to one another in a “civil body politic.” I know we hear this Mayflower Agreement read every November on Compact Day. But listen carefully to the willing declaration of Freedom which initiated this self-governing concept upon this continent.
“In the Name of God Amen…
Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, 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.“
The Pilgrims were exemplars in exercising Freedom!
Then we have Virtue – the Pilgrims personified virtue through their legendary and dedicated commitment in living out the gospel within their families, their Plymouth community, and among the Native Peoples. One of the most poignant demonstrations of their virtue was reported by Bradford during their deadly sickness that first Winter.
“That which is most sad and lamentable was, that in two- or three-months’ time half our company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting for houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases which this long voyage and our in accommodate condition had brought upon us. So as there died sometimes two or three of a day in the aforesaid time, that of 100 and odd persons, scarce fifty remained.
“And of these, in our time of most distress, there were but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendation be it spoken, spared no pains night nor day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched us wood, made us fires, dressed us meat, made our beds, washed our loathsome clothes, and clothed and unclothed us. In a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for us that dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully without any grudging in the least, showing herein their true love for their friends and brethren; a rare example and worthy to be remembered.”
Further down in the same paragraph Bradford reports how their love and compassion was on full display to the ship’s crew in similar time of sickness and death. Bradford writes,
“But such of us as were yet aboard showed them what mercy we could, which made some of their hearts relent, as the boatswain (and some others) who was a proud young man and would often curse and scoff at us. But when he grew weak, we had compassion on him and helped him; then he confessed he did not deserve it at our hands, he had abused us in word and deed. “Oh! (saith he) “you, I now see, show your love like Christians indeed one to another, but we let one another lie and die like dogs.”
Of course, perhaps the greatest illustration of their virtue was demonstrated when Edward Winslow traveled 40 miles on foot to pay tribute to the Massasoit as he lay dying and instead nursed him back to health and before returning to Plymouth the Massasoit himself declared before all his Sachems that were gathered around him, “Now I know the English are my friends and love me and whilst I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.”
The Pilgrims were exemplars in demonstrating Virtue!
And finally, Faith – The Pilgrims were renowned on three continents (even in their own day) for their utter dependence and trust in the Providence of God and Jesus Christ to fulfill His divine purposes in their lives. You cannot open a page of Bradford’s journal without reading his account of events continually acknowledging God’s providential hand in their unfolding story e.g. “It pleased God, By God’s good providence, By the assistance of God’s grace and spirit,” etc.
“(As) professors… whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for His truth, shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage, and as the Lord’s free people joined ourselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto us, according to our best endeavors, whatever it should cost us, the Lord assisting us…Yet I may not omit the fruit that came hereby, for by these so public troubles in so many eminent places our cause became famous and occasioned many to look into the same, and our godly carriage and Christian behaviour was such as left a deep impression in the minds of many.”
The Pilgrims were exemplars in living their Faith!
I hope you see that the Pilgrims were the embodiment of Freedom and American Spirit. They were exemplary in the principles that our Founding Fathers knew and declared were essential to the perpetuation of the Republic.
The Pilgrim legacy is uniquely suited to transcend politics and resonate with all Americans of good will regardless of ideology or political affiliation. Any serious examination of the Pilgrim and Native American histories tell a story that our nation desperately needs to hear. Their friendship with the Wampanoag people exemplifies the respect, cooperation, and mutual edification that we yearn to see demonstrated by our elected officials and fellow citizens today.
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