THE SOCIAL COMPACT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN AMERICA
IN the first lecture, attention was called to the words of Robert Browne asserting that the general principles which he had announced were applicable to the civil state. It is my purpose now to discuss briefly the principles of the socialcompact philosophy, which has played a very important rôle in English and American constitutional history. And it is largely because of the importance of this philosophy that I have given so much time to the discussion of the two types of association considered in the preceding lectures. If Browne's assertions were unique, or if the formation of churches by covenant was of significance only in the history of church polity, we should not need to pay much attention to the practice or the theory. In discussing this theory of compact and its prevalence, I shall be laying the basis for understanding the American Revolutionary arguments, and for understanding also the fundamental principles in the character of American constitutions.
The theory or principle of the origin of society and government in compact, which I have sought to connect with the foundation of the Separatist church and also, though with less assurance, with the foundations and the essential character of the trading company, played a great rôle in history. Our appreciation of it is especially necessary for the interpretation of American constitutional history. We should badly distort the facts, however, if we should assume that the origin of the
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