November 21 · This Day in America
The Mayflower lies at anchor in the hook of Cape Cod, far north of where its passengers had a charter to settle. Some aboard mutter that on this unauthorized shore, no one's rules bind them. So before anyone steps onto land, forty-one men sign a single short paragraph. They "covenant and combine" themselves into a "civil Body Politick," agreeing to make and obey "just and equal Laws" for the general good of the colony. It is signed November 21, 1620, by the New Style calendar the Pilgrims would come to keep. They were not philosophers; they were cold, hungry, and frightened, and winter was coming. But they had grasped something the Revolution would shout 156 years later: that legitimate government can rest on the consent of the governed. It begins here, on a crowded ship, with a pen passed hand to hand.
Source: www.gilderlehrman.org
Also on this day · 1789
More than a year after the Constitution took effect, North Carolina had refused to ratify it, balking at a strong central government with no bill of rights. Then Washington was inaugurated, a Bill of Rights was promised, and a second convention met. On November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified by a decisive 194 to 77, becoming the twelfth state. Sometimes a citizen joins the experiment only after extracting a promise — and the promise here became the first ten amendments.
Source: avalon.law.yale.edu