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In this crisis, the greatest in our national affairs since 1861, I hope we shall profit by the example of the founders of Plymouth, who, as Palfrey wrote, "gave diligent heed to arrangements for the military defence of the colony." It may be also that Providence will give us, in the descendant of a Pilgrim, the captain who shall be both our shield and our weapon as Myles Standish was the shield and the weapon of your ancestors.

ssss1

ssss1 Remarks responding to the toast, "The Mayflower Compact," at the twenty-first annual banquet of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York, held at the Hotel St. Regis, New York, November 23, 1915.

ssss1 Lafcadio Hearn, Kokoro, pp. 289-290.

ssss1 The original manuscript of the Mayflower Compact has been lost or destroyed. The text, as preserved by Governor Bradford in his annals entitled "Of Plimoth Plantation," is as follows:

"In y^e name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-writen, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y^e grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for y^e glorie of God, and advancemente of y^e Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by those presents solemnly & mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y^e ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e generall good of y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd y^e 11. of November, in y^e year of y^e raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, France, & Ireland y^e eighteenth, and of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. An^o: Dom. 1620." Printed in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, vol. III, pp. 89-90. See also the text in Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, ed. W.T. Davis (1908), p. 107.