The Life and Government in Plymouth Colony During The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation, which erupted after the great Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, plunged Europe into religious turmoil. Lasting throughout the sixteenth and into the seventeenth century, resulting in the Thirty Years War and French Wars of Religion. After these wars, religious tolerance improved very little. Persecution of Christians by the Roman Catholic Church and the government was common throughout Europe. This held true for England. The Anglican Church, under the control of King James I, was arguably one of the most powerful institutions in England. King James actively persecuted and often imprisoned all those who were not members of the Anglican Church, including Puritans and Separatists. Separatists, such as myself, fled England and ran to the Dutch, who took us in with open arms. However, though we were able to enjoy religious freedom in the Netherlands, we did not wish to remain immersed in Dutch culture and sought to establish our own colony elsewhere. We are making the treacherous journey across the Atlantic on the Mayflower to establish a new colony in Plymouth, New England.

Before making this journey, we anticipated the many troubles we would encounter after our arrival. We will face the daunting task of not only surviving in a harsh environment in a new land, but also of creating an effective government system that will be both strong and representative of the peoples’ desires. We have to decide what role religion will play in the government and in our day-to-day lives. In addition to the struggles of establishing a new colony and government system, outside forces pose a major threat to the Plymouth colony. We pilgrims will encounter both hostile and friendly native tribes, and must develop a long-term plan to deal with them. While on our journey, we began drafting a formal agreement to establish political institutions, but have yet to address many specific issues I hold dear. It is my opinion that we draft an outline for the Plymouth government. As follows is a framework and justification for such an outline:

The Plymouth colony shall strive to be a God-centered community, advancing cultural, social, political, and economic institutions based on Mosaic Law and Christian principles, which represent an honest aspiration of the Separatist people of Scrooby, England. This aspiration is exemplified by the course of our people’s struggle as we faced religious persecution that forced us to relocate from our homes. Though we have faced great hardship in the past, our difficult journey as a people will soon finally come to an end. Now, at the threshold of this great victory, our people seek a chance at prosperity and religious freedom in this new land.

Life in the Plymouth colony will give our people the freedom to govern according to our own rules and beliefs free from religious persecution. After years of political and religious oppression under a cruel monarch, we strive to create a system of government in which all people are fairly represented. I propose that the Plymouth colony operate with a multi-branch democratic system of government. This will not only allow our colony to run effectively, but also to maintain a balance of power between the people, church, and state.

Our legislative body will consist of The General Court, which will be responsible for drafting laws and implementing policies for the entire Plymouth colony. It will also have the power to implement taxes on residents of the colony, which are crucial for funding the ministry as donations have previously proven to be insufficient. The General Court will be made up of freemen and church members. While church attendance will be mandatory for all residents, church membership will be restricted to those that received God's grace through a personal conversion event. However, in Plymouth Colony, a simple profession of faith is all that should be required for acceptance. The term “freeman” is defined as any adult property-owning male residing in the Plymouth colony that has been approved for freeman status by the General Court. All church members will directly elect the members of the General Court. This method of voting will ensure religious freedom and moralistic governance.

Additionally, there will be local levels of government. Each town in the colony will be granted the authority to establish legislative bodies with locally elected members to create and carry out policy in their respective towns. These local policies may go into effect as long as they are not in conflict with the laws made by the General Court. Towns should establish their own regulations for managing the local, day-to-day affairs of the townspeople to ensure that the needs of all citizens are met. Each town will also be considered an individual church congregation. Individual congregations will be left to their own affairs. There will be no central church imposing on local congregations. Individual congregations will dictate their own standards of membership, hire their own pastors, elders, or deacons, and carry out other daily business.

The governor of Plymouth colony, the head of the executive branch, will act as both the manager of governance and liaison to the outside world. He will be elected by the members of the General Court. As head of the Plymouth colony central government, he will be responsible for overseeing relations with Native Americans and monitoring trade agreements. The governor will also be responsible for organizing defense against outsiders. Additionally, he will have a significant role in the legislative process. After legislation passes in the General Court and receives approval from the church, the governor may choose to veto or sign the law. He may also appoint leaders of local governments and members of the judicial branch. This will establish a balance of powers within the colony to ensure that no single ruler or group wields all policy making power, as was the case under the English monarchy.

The church will act as a part of the third branch of Plymouth’s government. All laws and policies created by the General Court must be approved by small group of the highest-ranking church officials to ensure that they are in accordance basic Christian principles. Should a law be questioned for its adherence to moral and religious principles, the church can rule upon its legitimacy. This will create an even balance of power between church and state and ensure Plymouth remains a theocratic community. A multi-branch democratic system of government will not only meet the needs of all of the colony’s people, but also ensure that the governed have significant representation. In Plymouth colony, this will result in the long-lasting freedom and prosperity that our people were denied under the rule of the English monarchy.

However, even with a sound governmental structure in place, there is still a pressing and urgent issue that may prevent Plymouth from being prosperous. Though we as a colony have claimed the right to self-governance due to our promise to serve the glory of God, just as the English monarchy has always invoked this promise as a source of its own legitimacy, we lack the proper documents to ensure that we can keep this right. We do possess a land patent issued by the New England Council that grants us the right to settle in New England, but the Council does not have the authority to grant us any right to self-governance. I foresee great risks in moving forward without obtaining a charter. Without true legal authority to govern, we may lose our sovereignty soon after the establishment of our colony and once again be forced under the rule of a government that denies us political representation and religious freedom. Therefore, obtaining a royal charter from the Crown must be a top priority in order to preserve the security of the Plymouth colony’s future.

Another threat to our security will be from outside forces. Regarding issue of the natives, I propose that we look toward a pragmatic solution. As Christians wishing to emulate the glory of God, we may seek to perfectly and peacefully coexist alongside Native American tribes. However, recalling the accounts of other settlers, we must prepare for conflict. We are not the first Europeans to attempt to settle in the new world. We may encounter violent tribes occupying the land on which we wish to settle, made hostile due to brutal mistreatment and disease spread by the previous settlers. We may also encounter friendly tribes who are willing to cooperate with us in trade. Regardless, we must exercise caution in either of these scenarios.

In the event that we encounter the former of these situations, we must prepare defenses to preserve our colony and prevent further loss of our own people. Should we encounter a peaceful group of natives, we should treat them with mutual respect and hospitality. Raids, thievery, or violence of any kind against friendly natives would only serve to hinder our economic development, as trade with these tribes may be essential to our survival in the early years of our settlement. Establishing mutually beneficial relationships with native tribes will aid us as a newly established colony, but this will only postpone the inevitable eruption of conflict.

Historically, most relations with natives that began relatively peacefully eventually ended in tension and bloodshed on both sides. In the colony in Jamestown, where Native American-European relations began with a friendly alliance and mutual trade agreement, violence became rampant as settler populations grew and required more land. Natives are destroying crops and killing settlers. These events are devastating not only because of the horrific bloodshed, but also because of the severe economic burden that has been placed on the colony. Early on, Jamestown settlers became dependent on trade with native tribes, resulting in economic strain and widespread starvation once ties with the tribes were severed.

This is what we must aim to prevent in Plymouth colony. Peaceful trade and alliances will be beneficial in order to both protect the colony’s economic standing and prevent early bloodshed in our colony’s fragile state. However, we must not become overly dependent on these trading partnerships, as we saw in the case of Jamestown. As our colony’s population grows, we will need more land to expand. Securing this land will not be a simple quest, as natives seemingly have no concept of private ownership of property and will be reluctant to relocate. A possible solution to this impending conflict is to negotiate with natives to determine a fair price for additional plots of land while making an agreement to share portions of the resources on the land. The exact terms of these agreements cannot be determined until we encounter native tribal leaders firsthand, but this plan will allow us to peacefully gain the land we require and maintain non-violent relations with natives, while still developing economic independence.

Through the adaptation of guidelines written afore, we may prosper.