Observations from the 350th

On the eve of the quadricentennial of the Pilgrim arrival in Plymouth on the Mayflower, we recall the historic efforts of the town of Plymouth to celebrate the 350th anniversary in 1970. Plymouth 350th executive committee member, Dr. Charles Wolfe, identified key elements of the Pilgrim legacy including spiritual liberty, religious liberty, economic liberty, the defense of liberty, political liberty and constitutional liberty. Below are some of his comments on the Pilgrim legacy:

Partisans of multiculturalism may contend that the American pilgrimage began with the establishment of St. Augustine in 1565, but that picturesque, historic town was simply a Spanish military outpost, and Florida was not one of the thirteen original colonies that joined together and declared independence on July 4, 1776.

Partisans of our British heritage can make a stronger case that the American pilgrimage began with the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 since this was the first permanent English settlement, the first representative assembly met here in 1619, and Virginia produced more than its share of distinguished Founding Fathers.

But Jamestown was founded simply as an extension of the English status quo, and the first settlers were less than Britain’s best. It was merely nominally religious, class-conscious Britain transported to a New World wilderness, and it struggled long with a series of frightening massacres and terrible insurrections before it began to resemble an orderly community or a prototype of American civilization.

On the other hand, an impartial observer can make a much more convincing case that the American Pilgrimage - and the unique American identity - began in the experience of the Pilgrim Fathers and settlement of Plymouth in 1620.

The Pilgrims were the very embodiment of “American exceptionalism” - their lives demonstrated an exceptionally clear understanding of and deep commitment to the principles of liberty with order, tangibly expressed in spiritual, religious, political, and economic self-government under a written constitution: a prototype of “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.”