Around this particular Thanksgiving holiday, especially in the midst of our current travails, we should take a moment to recall that this is the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage, the founding of Plymouth Colony, and the signing, on Nov. 11, 1620, of the Mayflower Compact.

The Mayflower Compact, brief as it is, is worthy of more attention than it has thus far received on this 400th anniversary, during a year in which so much attention has been focused on America’s supposed ills rather than the ideas and ideals embodied in the nation’s foundational principles.