out of England." After remaining in Holland several years,
they obtained permission of the King to sail for North America.

On a December morning the vessel, after five months' tossing upon the
ocean, lay at anchor in the harbor of Cape Cod. Those on board had no
charter of government. They were not men who had had midnight revels in
London, but men who had prayers in their families night and morning, and
who met for religious worship on the Sabbath. They respected law, loved
order, and knew that it would be necessary to have a form of government
in the colony. They assembled in the cabin of the ship, and, after
prayer, signed their names to an agreement to obey all the rules,
regulations, and laws which might be enacted by the majority. Then they
elected a governor, each man having a voice in the election. It was what
might be called the first town-meeting in America. Thus democratic
liberty and Christian worship, independent of forms established by kings
and bishops, had a beginning in this country.

The climate was cold, the seasons short, the soil sterile, and so the
settlers of Cape Cod were obliged to work hard to obtain a living. In
consequence, they and their descendants became active, industrious, and
energetic. Thus they laid the foundations for thrift and enterprise.
They did not look upon labor as degrading, but as ennobling. They passed
laws, that men able to work should not be idle. They were not rich
enough to own great estates, but each man had his own little farm. There
was, therefore, no landed aristocracy, such as was growing into power in
Virginia. They were not able to own labor to any great extent. There
were a few apprenticed men, and some negro slaves, but the social and
political influences were all different from those in the Southern
colonies. The time came when apprenticed men were released from service,
and the slaves set free.

These hard-working men did not wish to have their children grow up
in ignorance. In order, therefore, that every child might become an
intelligent citizen and member of society, they established common
schools and founded colleges. In 1640, just twenty years after the
landing at Plymouth, they had a printing-press at Cambridge.

The cavaliers of Virginia, instead of establishing schools, sent their
sons to England to be educated, leaving the children of the poor men to
grow up in ignorance. They did not want them to obtain an education. In
1670, fifty years after