The Mayflower Compact:

     "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the
     Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the
     Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender
     of the Faith, e&.
     
     Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement
     of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and
     Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern
     parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and
     mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant
     and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick,
     for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
     of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact,
     constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
     Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as
     shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General
     good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due
     submission and obedience.
     
     In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
     at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our
     Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland,
     the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth.
     Anno Domini, 1620."
     
     Signed:
     
         Mr. John Carver           Mr. Stephen Hopkins
         Mr. William Bradford      Digery Priest
         Mr. Edward Winslow        Thomas Williams
         Mr. William Brewster      Gilbert Winslow
         Isaac Allerton            Edmund Margesson
         Miles Standish            Peter Brown
         John Alden                Richard Bitteridge
         John Turner               George Soule
         Francis Eaton             Edward Tilly
         James Chilton             John Tilly
         John Craxton              Francis Cooke
         John Billington           Thomas Rogers
         Joses Fletches            Thomas Tinker
         Mr. Samuel Fuller         Edward Fuller
         Mr. Christopher Martin    Richard Clark
         Mr. William Mullins       Richard Gardiner
         Mr. William White         Mr. John Allerton
         Mr. Richard Warren        Thomas English
         John Howland              Edward Doten
                                   Edward Liester
The Separatists living in Leyden, Holland, desired for various reasons to transplant their colony to America. In 1619 they secured from the Virginia Company a patent for a private plantation. ThePilgrims, reinforced by some seventy persons from London, sailed from Plymouth in September, 1620, and arrived off Cape Cod in November. Some of the London recruits were an "undesirable lot" and, Bradford tells us, boasted that they were not under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company and "would use their owne libertie". In order to establish some form of government, therefore, the Pilgrim leaders drew up the famous Mayflower Compact. The Compact was not intended as a constitution, but was an extension of the customary church covenant to civil circumstances. Inasmuch as the Plymouth settlers were never able to secure a charter, the Mayflower compact remained the only form of constitution of the colony.
See W. Bradford, History of the Plymouth Plantation; A. Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Pathers, 1602-23; J. Fiske, Beginnings of New England; J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, V.1; J.A. Doyle, the English Colonies in America, v.2, pt.1; E. Eggleston, the Beginners of a Nation; J.T. Adams, the Founding of New England; C. M. Andrews, the Fathers of New England; C. M. Andrews, the Colonial Period of American History, v.1; L. G. Tyler, England in America, ch.9; H. L. Osgood, American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, v.1; J. A. Goodwin, the Pilgrim Republic; A. Lord, "The Mayflower Compact", Proc. Am. Antiquarian Soc., 1921; A. C. McLaughlin, Foundations of American Constitutionalism, ch.1; V. L. Parrington, The Colonial Mind.

(From Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History )