STATE. James Gillespie Blaine (1830-93), Secretary (1881, 1889-92) and unsuccessful candidate for President in 1884. John Hay (1838-1905), one of the ablest Secretaries of State (1898-1905) this country ever had, was also of Scottish descent. He also held several diplomatic posts in Europe (1865-70), culminating in Ambassador to Great Britain (1897-98).
AGRICULTURE. James Wilson (1835-1920), Secretary (1897-1913) under McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was Regent of Iowa State University, and in 1891 was elected to the chair of Practical Agriculture in the College of Agriculture and Director of the State Experiment Stations. He was wonderfully successful in the expansion and administration of the "most useful public department in the world."
LABOR. William Bauchop Wilson, born in Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1862, Secretary-Treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America (1900-09); Member of Congress (1907-13), and Chairman of the Committee on Labor in the sixty-second Congress, Secretary of Labor (1913).
POSTMASTER-GENERAL. The first postal service in the Colonies was organized by Andrew Hamilton, a native of Edinburgh, who obtained a patent for a postal scheme from the British Crown in 1694. A memorial stone on the southwest corner of the New York Post Office at Thirty-third Street commemorates the fact. John Maclean (1785-1861), Postmaster-General from 1823 to 1829, was later Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court of Ohio, and unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1856 and again in 1860. He took part in the famous Dred Scott case, in which he dissented from Taney, maintaining that slavery had its origin merely in power and was against right. James Campbell (1812-93), of Ulster Scot parentage, Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Pierce, made a record by reducing the rate of postage and introducing the registry system. Montgomery Blair (1813-83) was Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Lincoln. Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Assistant Postmaster-General, later became Vice-President.
SCOTS IN THE SENATE
John Ewing Colhoun (1749-1802), Member of State Legislature of South Carolina and Senator from the same state (1801), was of the same family as John C. Calhoun. George Logan (1753-1821), a man of high scientific attainments, grandson of James Logan, Quaker Governor of Pennsylvania, went to France in 1798 with the design of averting war with that country, Senator from Pennsylvania (1801-07). John Rutherfurd (1760-1840) was grandson of Sir John Rutherfurd of Edgerston, Scotland. James Brown (1766-1835), Senator and Minister-Plenipotentiary to France, was of Scottish descent. Jacob Burnet (1770-1853), Jurist and Senator, was the grandson of a Scot. His father, William Burnet (1730-91), was a skilful physician and Member of Congress. John Leeds Kerr (1780-1844), lawyer and Senator, was the son of James Kerr of Monreith. Alexander Campbell (1779-1857), Senator, was of Argyllshire descent. Walter Lowrie (1784-1868), Senator (1819-35) and thereafter Secretary of the Senate for twelve years, was born in Edinburgh. His four sons all became prominent in law and theology. Simon Cameron (1799-1889), grandson of a Cameron who fought at Culloden. His ancestor emigrated to America soon after the '45 and fought tinder Wolfe against the French at Quebec. Simon Cameron was also for a time Secretary of War in Lincoln's Cabinet and Minister to Russia. He named his residence at Harrisburg "Lochiel." His brother James was Colonel of the New York Volunteers, the 79th Highlanders, in the Civil War. James Donald Cameron (b. 1833), son of Simon Cameron, was President of the Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (1863-74), Secretary of War Under General Grant, and Senator from Pennsylvania. Charles E. Stuart (1810-87), Lawyer and Senator, was a descendant of Daniel Stuart who came to America before 1680. Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813-61), Senator and unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency in 1860, was of Scottish origin. Joseph Ewing MacDonald (1819-91), who held a foremost place among constitutional lawyers and was Democratic candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1864, was of Scottish ancestry. Francis Montgomery Blair (1821-75), a descendant of Commissary Blair of Virginia, was Senator from Missouri (1871-73), and Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1868. James Burnie Beck (1822-90), born in Dumfriesshire, was Member of Congress (1867-75) and Senator from 1876 to 1890. He served on many important committees. Joseph McIlvaine (1765-1826), United States Senator from 1823 to 1826, was grandson of a Scot. His father fought on the Colonial side in the Revolution. Randall Lee Gibson (1822-92), of Scottish ancestry, Major-General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, was United States Senator from Louisiana from 1883 till his death. His grandfather, Randall Gibson, was one of the founders of Jefferson College, Mississippi. John Brown Gordon (1832-1904), Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army, thirty-fifth Governor of Georgia and United States Senator, was grandson of a Scot. Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1837-1904) was also partly Scottish descent. Calvin Stewart Brice (1845-1898), Chairman of the Democratic Campaign Committee (1888) and Senator from Ohio (1891-97), claimed descent from Bruce of Kinnaird. Daniel Hugh McMillan (b. 1846), was much identified with the welfare of Buffalo. His grandfather was "John the Upright," arbiter of the Hollanders of the Mohawk Valley during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Alexander McDonald (d. 1903), Senator from Arkansas (1868-71), was the son of John McDonald who came to the United States in 1827, and was one of the first to discover and develop bituminous coal mines on the west branch of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. John Lendrum Mitchell (1842-1904), grandson of John Mitchell, farmer of Aberdeenshire, was State Senator of Wisconsin, Member of Congress from Wisconsin (1891-93), and Senator from the same state (1893-99), was also noted as a capitalist. Samuel James Renwick MacMillan (d. 1897), Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, was of Covenanting descent.
SCOTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Only a very few names of Members of Congress of Scottish birth of descent can be dealt with here. Some additional names will be found in other sections of this work. William Houston (b. about 1755), son of Sir Patrick Houston, was a Member of the Continental Congress. John Morin Scott (1730-84), grandson of the second son of Sir John Scott of Ancrum was Brigadier-General of New York State troops at the Battle of Long Island and Member of Congress from 1779 to 1783. William Burnet (1730-91), of Scottish parentage, physician and Member of Congress. Among his sons the following are worthy of notice: Dr. William Burnet of New Jersey, Major Ichabod Burnet of Georgia, Jacob Burnet, pioneer of Ohio, and David G. Burnet, Provisional President of the Republic of Texas. William Crawford (1760-1823), Member of Congress from 1809 to 1817, was born in Paisley. William Fitzhugh Gordon (1787-1858), Member from Virginia (1829-35), of Scottish descent, is said to have been the originator of the Sub-Treasury system. The town of Gordonsville, Virginia, was named after him or after his family. Leonidas Felix Livingston (b. 1832), grandson of Adam Livingston from Scotland, who served in the Revolutionary War, was a Member of the Georgia Legislature and Member of Congress. John Louis Macdonald (b. 1838), newspaper editor, State Senator, etc., was born in Glasgow. James Buchanan (b. 1839) of Scottish descent, was Member from New Jersey to 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd Congress. David Bremner Henderson (1840-1906), born at Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, served in the Civil War and lost a leg at Corinth, was Member from Iowa (1880-99), and Speaker of the House of Representatives (1899-1906). William Grant Laidlaw, born near Jedburgh, Scotland, in 1840, served in the Civil War and was Member of Congress from 1887 to 1891. John Edgar Reyburn (b. 1845), Member State Senate of Pennsylvania, Member of Congress 1890-1907; and James Fleming Stewart (1851-1904), were both of Scottish descent.