The Founding of a Nation

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Excerpt from The Founding of a Nation: The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, Their Voyage on the Mayflower, Their Early Struggles, Hardships and Dangers, and the Beginnings of Ameri-Can DemocracyThis Story is a narrative-history of the Pilgrims of Plymouth. Though not entirely in accordance with popular traditions, which in many instances are erroneous, it is in accordance with historical facts.To thoroughly understand the historical setting, it is essential that one discriminates between the Pilgrims and the Puritans, often confounded in the popular mind as being one and the same, when as a matter of fact they were entirely different. To properly interpret these differences one must understand that the colonists of the Mayflower were Englishmen of the period of 1608, whilst the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay colony (Salem and Boston) were Englishmen of the period of 1628. The name "Pilgrims" was given to the Plymouth colonists by Governor William Bradford, who was a passenger on the Mayflower. The name Puritans was applied to reformers of all classes in England in the early part of the seventeenth century by the supporters of the court and king.When the Pilgrims fled from England to Holland in 1608, the Stuart dynasty had not fully developed its despotic theory of the divine right of kings. The commoners at this period were still loyal. The Pilgrims, themselves, attributed their persecutions to the bishops of the established church and not to the king. But in 1628 Kings James I and Charles I had denied many of the ancient rights of the English parliament and people, and disloyalty was rife throughout the nation.It is evident, therefore, that the men of these two periods were not impelled by the same motives. The Pilgrims came to America to enjoy religious freedom. The Puritans came to America to enjoy political as well as religious freedom. Considering the conduct of the two colonies in after years toward the mother country, it is reasonable to assume that at no time during the life of the Plymouth colony could the Pilgrims have written the Declaration of Independence.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.