Trump recalled that the community celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America the following year despite unprecedented hardship in the New World.

The president recalled that the Mayflower Compact developed by the pilgrims was the beginning of democracy in America.

“Defined by majority rule through elected leaders responsible for creating ‘just and equal laws,’ the Mayflower Compact represents the first chapter in the long tradition of self-determination and rule of law in America,” he wrote, noting that 156 years later, the Founding Fathers enshrined that concept when forming the United States government.

He also recalled that the pilgrims lost nearly half of their community to exposure, disease, and starvation in the winter that followed, but they never lost their faith in God.