Not until 1894 did descendants of the passengers of the _Mayflower_
organize to perpetuate the ideals and commemorate the memory of their
ancestors. The first Society was formed 22 December 1894 in New York,
followed by societies in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania
within 18 months. These societies founded the General Society 12
January 1897. The General Society now consists of 40 State Societies,
with a membership of over 7600 men and women.
19 February 1923 the General Society was incorporated under the laws
of Massachusetts. Among those signing the petition to the Great and
General Court were Major General Leonard Wood, William Howard Taft,
and Henry Cabot Lodge. The Mayflower Society is not interested in the
wealth of its members, or their social standing, or their politics,
although two Presidents of the United States have been members. Two
others were eligible but passed on before its organization. It is
proud, however, of the notable achievements of many of its members.
Some of the patriotic Societies were in early days largely social in
character. Many joined solely of pride in their ancestry. Democracy
was not then under attack and needed no defenders. The country’s
growth since the turn of the century has brought to the United States
a tremendous number of persons fleeing from Old World conditions. Our
melting pot did well for a time; of recent years our freedom has been
attacked. The Society now has a mission—that of spreading the wisdom
and ideals of our ancestors to the masses who have come to our shores.
The Society has accomplished much in its effort to discover and
publish matter relating to the Pilgrims. It has aided in establishing
memorials and has contributed over $100,000.00 toward the Bradford
Memorial Tablet, the Provincetown Monument, the Monument to the
Pilgrims at Southampton, England, the Sarcophagus on Cole’s Hill,
Plymouth, the Aptuxet Trading Post, at Bourne, the Mayflower Index,
and to lesser memorials throughout the country. One of the most
important things accomplished is the purchase and restoration of the
Mayflower Society House. This is more than a National Headquarters.
It is propaganda for Americanism. It is a landmark that will inspire
those who visit Plymouth to increase their knowledge of the Pilgrims
and thus help make better citizens of them, and it is a contribution
to patriotism. Plymouth welcomes another museum house, particularly
an 18th century one, where visitors may learn more of Colonial life
and customs. The important thing is that visitors to the Mayflower
Society House, who number thousands each year, coming from every
state in the Union, find there exists an organization to perpetuate
the memory and carry forward the ideals of the Pilgrims.
When the General Society of Mayflower Descendants was organized, it
adopted a declaration of purpose, the most important part of which
is to commemorate and honor the Pilgrims, to defend the principle of
civil and religious liberty, as set forth in the Mayflower Compact,
to discover and publish original matter pertaining to the Pilgrims,
and to authenticate, preserve, and mark spots of Pilgrim association.
These things the historian, orator, and poet have helped do. In our
libraries are carefully prepared writings on the subject by Fiske,
Dexter, John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster, Choate, Everett and
Sumner, and so on down to Henry Cabot Lodge, Calvin Coolidge, and the
third Governor Bradford. So diligent have writers and speakers been,
it is difficult to find and add new facts.
There are those who say, “It’s not what my ancestors did, it’s what
I’ve done. I live in the present, not the past.” One must make good,
but statistics prove those most successful are the first to preserve
the best of the past.
It is fitting and proper that the descendants of the Pilgrims should
gather in Plymouth from time to time and give expression to the
respect, gratitude and admiration they feel for the Pilgrims. To
express sympathy for them for the terrible months they spent crossing
the stormy Atlantic, and the added months on shipboard while shelters
were being erected on shore for the first winter in a foreign land,
when nearly half the company died of scurvy and ship fever, in spite
of which not one member gave up and returned to England when the
_Mayflower_ sailed.
The Pilgrims believed in the equality of all men before God; they,
therefore, made all men equal before the Law. On the Sarcophagus,
which contains the remains of some of the Pilgrims, is this
inscription:
“This monument marks the first burying-ground in Plymouth of the
Passengers of the Mayflower. Here, under cover of darkness, the
fast dwindling Company laid their dead; levelling the earth above
them lest the Indians should learn how many were the graves.
_READER_, History records no nobler venture for Faith and Freedom
than that of this Pilgrim band. In weariness and painfulness, in
watchings often, in hunger and cold they laid the foundations of
a State wherein every man, through countless ages, should have
liberty to worship God in his own way. May their example inspire
thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading throughout the
World the lofty Ideals of our Republic.”
We must admire the Pilgrims for their courage and piety, for their
attachment to civil rights and religious liberty in exile, under
unhappy conditions.
There was a famine the first year, but no actual starvation as there
were wild fowl, shellfish, and berries in abundance, but there was
cold and snow, and there were Indians and sickness to cope with.
A great disaster befell the community the second year which seldom
seems to be mentioned, but which would have discouraged less resolute
souls. The ship _Fortune_ carrying their entire year’s yield of furs
and products to England to be sold, was captured by the French as a
prize.
The gist of the preface of a book entitled “The Pilgrim Fathers,” by
W. H. Bartlett, published in London, England, in 1853, is—
“Of the many heroic emigrations from our island, which have covered
the face of the earth, no one is more singular than the band of
sectaries driven forth in the reign of James I. In an age when
toleration was unknown, they were thrust forth from their native
land, thus the harshness of the rulers became the instrument which
planted on American shores a mighty republic, the proudest and most
powerful offshoot of the mother country, whose institutions, as
thus founded, are not without a powerful reaction upon her own.
“The details of the story are unknown to the mass of English
readers, while across the Atlantic they are known to almost
every child, and numerous are the works published about them and
many are the Americans who visit Boston, Scrooby and Leyden, but
these publications and researchers are all unknown in England and
therefore this continuous narrative.”