That Hopkins Fomented The Discord Is Well-Nigh Certain.

It caused him, as elsewhere noted, to receive sentence of death for insubordination, at the hands of Sir Thomas Gates, in the first instance, from which his pardon was with much difficulty procured by his friends.

In the present case, it led to the drafting and execution of the Pilgrim Compact, a framework of civil self-government whose fame will never die; though the author is in full accord with Dr. Young (Chronicles, p. 120) in thinking that "a great deal more has been discovered in this document than the signers contemplated," - wonderfully comprehensive as it is. Professor Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, says in his admirable article in the Magazine of American History, November, 1882 (pp - 798 799): "The fundamental idea of this famous document was that of a contract based upon the common law of England," - certainly a stable and ancient basis of procedure. Their Dutch training (as Griffis points out) had also led naturally to such ideas of government as the Pilgrims adopted. It is to be feared that Griffis's inference (The Pilgrims in their Three Homes, p. 184), that all who signed the Compact could write, is unwarranted. It is more than probable that if the venerated paper should ever be found, it would show that several of those whose names are believed to have been affixed to it "made their 'mark.'" There is good reason, also, to believe that neither "sickness" (except unto death) nor "indifference" would have prevented the ultimate obtaining of the signatures (by "mark," if need be) of every one of the nine male servants who did not subscribe, if they were considered eligible.

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