The Mayflower intended to land in Virginia but was blown off-course to Massachusetts. With the weather too dangerous to sail any more so Captain Christopher Jones insisted the Pilgrims disembark.
With no "king-appointed" person on board with authority to take charge, the Pilgrims had a question - who would be in charge?
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his article "American Civilization, published in The Atlantic Magazine, April, 1862: "America is another word for Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine Providence in behalf of the human race."
- Plymouth, Massachusetts-Pilgrims' Reverend John Robinson and Elder William Brewster;
- Providence, Rhode Island-Reverend Roger Williams;
- Barnstable, Massachusetts-Reverend John Lothrop;
- Exeter, New Hampshire-Reverend John Wheelwright;
- Boston, Massachusetts-Reverend John Cotton;
- Hartford, Connecticut-Reverend Thomas Hooker.
Reverend Thomas Hooker had a conflict with Boston's Puritan Reverend John Cotton over who was allowed to vote in elections: Cotton insisting only Puritans could vote; whereas Hooker said anyone who was a Christian should be allowed to vote.
This led Hooker to lead his "covenant" congregation in 1636 from Massachusetts, through the wilderness, to found the city of Hartford, Connecticut.
Settlers soon asked Reverend Hooker if he could preach a sermon on how they should set up their government.
Nearly a century before Europe's "Age of Enlightenment," Reverend Thomas Hooker preached a sermon, May 31, 1638, explaining: "The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."
This phrase was later reflected in the Declaration of Independence: "... government from the consent of the governed."
This was radically different from Europe where kings did not ask the people for their consent. They claimed to be "divinely appointed" and ruled through fear, having armies to force their subjects to obey.
Hooker explained further: "The privilege of election ... belongs to the people ... according to the blessed will and law of God." This is reflected in the U.S. Constitution: "We, the People."
The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by Gods own allowance ... They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates it is in their power also to set the bounds and limits of the power and places unto which they call them."
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, stated:
"Where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace ... there should be an orderly ... government established according to God ... The people ... conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth ... to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess."
Who were "the people"?" It was Pastor Hooker and his "covenant" congregation. Here again was a church group forming itself into a political group, similar to the Separatist Pilgrims with the Mayflower Compact: "We ... covenant ... ourselves together into a civil body politic."
It is noteworthy that they picked the form of government which would best "preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus."
The ideas proposed in Hooker's sermon were revolutionary as for most of the world, the foundation of authority was the will of a divinely-appointed king, emperor, czar, sultan, maharaja, or chieftain. Nowhere in The Fundamental Orders is any acknowledgement made to the King as in other charters, ie.: "our dread Sovereign"; "our gracious Lord the King."
Psalm 110:3 "Thy people shall be WILLING in the day of thy power."
A marker on the back of Center Church next to Hartford's Ancient Burial Grounds, reads:
"Thomas Hooker 1586-1657 • A Leader of the Founders of this Commonwealth • A Preacher of Persuasive Power who Based All Civil Authority on the Free Consent of the People • This tablet is placed near the site of his burial by The Connecticut Society of The Colonial Dames of America. A.D. 1915."
Hartford's Traveler's Square has a bronze statue of Connecticut's first settlers and a plaque which reads:
"In June of 1635, about one hundred members of Thomas Hooker's congregation arrived safely in this vicinity with one hundred and sixty cattle. They followed old Indian trails from Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Connecticut River to build a community. Here they established the form of government upon which the present Constitution of the United States is modeled."
This is a significant acknowledgment, that their "covenant" congregational church government became their colonial government became the U.S. Constitution. The word "federal" is Latin for "covenant."
A commentary on this was written by Dr. Charles Hull Wolfe, who had been a Marxist till he changed his views after conducting an independent study of American economics. He helped found and was the first executive director of The Plymouth Rock Foundation.
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut added: "According to the truth of the said Gospel ... our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made ... The Governor ... shall have the power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of the Word of God."
In America, God allowed the founders to establish a government where, instead of a single man being the supreme authority, THE PEOPLE are the SUPREME AUTHORITY.
The King of England looked the King Saul and on part of the Bible for his authority - the "divine right" of kings, but in contrast, the colonial founders of America looked to the pre-King Saul part of the Bible, the four hundred year period of the Hebrew Republic, where millions of people were taught the law and were personally accountable to God to follow it.
In essence, the U.S Constitution was a way for the PEOPLE to prevent one person, whether a King or a President, from ruling through mandates and executive orders. It was a way to prevent one-person-rule.
"Never forget that in America our SOVEREIGN is THE CITIZEN ... The state is a servant of the individual. It must never become an anonymous monstrosity that masters everyone."
- Deuteronomy 1:3-13: "How can I myself alone bear ... your burden? ... TAKE YOU wise men, and understanding, and KNOWN AMONG YOUR TRIBES, and I will make them rulers over you."
- Deuteronomy 16:18–19 "Judges and officers SHALT THOU MAKE THEE IN ALL THY GATES which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes."
- Exodus 18:21 "Moreover thou shalt provide OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens."
This message is very powerful. You are to be congratulated for putting together so much information and finishing off your message with stalwart aplomb. WOW!
This message is very powerful. You are to be congratulated for putting together so much information and finishing off your message with stalwart aplomb. WOW!