SCOTS AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Presbyterians in the Colonies, being dissenters, were untrammeled and free to speak their mind in defence of their country's right, and history shows that they did not fail their opportunity: the doctrine of passive obedience never finding favor with them. In the Colonies the Presbyterian ministers claimed equal rights, religious freedom, and civil liberty. Their teaching had great influence, particularly in the South, and Patrick Henry of Virginia, David Caldwell, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Rev. Alexander Craighead (d. 1766), and James Hall of North Carolina, the two Rutledges and Tennant of South Carolina, William Murdoch of Maryland, James Wilson and Thomas Craighead of Pennsylvania, Witherspoon of New Jersey, Read and McKean of Delaware, Livingston of New York, and Thornton of New Hampshire, with their associates had prepared the people for the coming conflict. In Maryland the lower house of the General Assembly was a fortress of popular rights and of civil liberty. Its resolutions and messages, beginning in 1733, and in an uninterrupted chain until 1755 continually declared "that it is the peculiar right of his Majesty's subjects not to be liable to any tax or other imposition but what is laid on them by laws to which they themselves are a party." These principles were reiterated and recorded upon the journals of every Assembly until 1771. The resolutions, addresses, and messages of the lower house during this period discuss with remarkable fullness and accuracy the fundamental principles of free government, and most of them emanated from William Murdoch, born in Scotland (c. 1720), who was one of the leading spirits and the directing force of the discussion. He led in the resistance to the Stamp Act and in other ways he united his colony in solid resistance to the attempt to levy taxes and imposts without their consent. In May, 1775, the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church met in Philadelphia and issued its famous "Pastoral Letter," which was sent broadcast throughout the Colonies, urging the people to adhere to the resolutions of Congress, and to make earnest prayer to God for guidance in all measures looking to the defense of the country. This powerful letter was also sent to the legislature in every colony. Adolphus in his "History of England from the Accession of George III. to the Conclusion of Peace in 1783," published in London in 1802, declared that the Synod and their circular was the chief cause which led the Colonies to determine on resistance. There is no question that from the Scots Presbyterians and their descendants came many of the leaders in the struggle for independence, as Bancroft has well pointed out in the following words: "The first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." Joseph Galloway (1730-1803), the Loyalist, than whom, says Ford, "there could be no better informed witness," "held that the underlying cause of the American Revolution was the activity and influence of the Presbyterian interest," and further, that "it was the Presbyterians who supplied the Colonial resistance a lining without which it would have collapsed." And Joseph Reed of Philadelphia, himself an Episcopalian, said: "The part taken by the Presbyterians in the contest with the mother country was indeed, at the time, often made a ground of reproach, and the connection between their efforts for the security of religious liberty and opposition to the oppressive measures of Parliament, was then distinctly seen. A Presbyterian loyalist was a thing unheard of." Parker, the historian, quotes a writer who says: "When the sages of America came to settle the forms of our government, they did but copy into every constitution the simple elements of representative republicanism, as found in the Presbyterian system. It is a matter of history that cannot be denied, that Presbyterianism as found in the Bible and the standards of the several Presbyterian churches, gave character to our free institutions." Ranke, the German historian, declared that "Calvin was the founder of the American Government;" and Gulian C. Verplanck of New York, in a public address, traced the origin of our Declaration of Independence to the National Covenant of Scotland. Chief Justice Tilghman (1756-1827) stated that the framers of the Constitution of the United States were through the agency of Dr. Witherspoon much indebted to the standards of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in molding that instrument.
SCOTS AS SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Of the fifty-six Signers of the Declaration of Independence, no less than nine can be claimed as directly or indirectly of Scottish origin. Edward Rutledge (1749-1800), the youngest Signer, was a son of Dr. John Rutledge who emigrated from Ulster to South Carolina in 1735. The Rutledges were a small Border clan in Roxburghshire. William Hooper (1742-1790), was the son of a Scottish minister, who was born near Kelso and died in Boston in 1767. Hooper early displayed marked literary ability and entered Harvard University when fifteen years of age. At twenty-six he was one of the leading lawyers of the colony of North Carolina. George Ross (1730-79), was also of Scottish parentage. His nephew's wife, Elizabeth (Griscom) Ross (1752-1832), better known as "Betsy Ross," was maker of the first national flag. Matthew Thornton (1714-1803), the distinguished New Hampshire statesman and physician, was brought to this country from the north of Ireland by his father when about three years of age. He accompanied the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, was President of the Provincial Convention in 1775 and Speaker in January, 1776. In September, 1776, he was elected to Congress, and in November following signed the Declaration of Independence, although he had not been one of the framers. Thomas McKean (1734-1817), was a great-grandson of William McKean of Argyllshire who moved to Ulster about the middle of the seventeenth century. He was a member of Congress from Delaware (1774-83), Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1777-99), and Governor of the state from 1799 to 1808. George Taylor (1716-81), described as the son of a clergyman and "born in Ireland," was most probably an Ulster Scot. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania from 1764 to 1770 and again in 1775. James Wilson (1742-1798), whose fame was to become as wide and lasting as the nation, was born in St. Andrews, the old university city of Fifeshire. He was a Delegate to Congress from Pennsylvania in 1776, Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 till his death. He strongly advocated independence as the only possible means of escape from the evils which had brought the various commonwealths into such a state of turmoil and dissatisfaction. Philip Livingston (1716-1778), grandson of Robert Livingston, the first of the American family of the name, was Member of Congress from New York in 1776. "His life was distinguished for inflexible rectitude and devotion to the interests of his country."
Last but greatest of all to be mentioned is the Rev. John Witherspoon (1722-94). Born in Yester, Scotland, educated in Edinburgh, minister in Paisley, he was called in 1768 to be President of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He said he had "become an American the moment he landed." He took an active part in the public affairs of the colony of New Jersey, and in the convention which met to frame a constitution he displayed great knowledge of legal questions and urged the abolition of religious tests. In June, 1776, he was elected to the Continental Congress, and in the course of the debates he displayed little patience with those who urged half measures. When John Dickinson of Pennsylvania said the country was not ripe for independence, Witherspoon broke in upon the speaker exclaiming, "Not ripe, Sir! In my judgment we are not only ripe, but rotting. Almost every colony has dropped from its parent stem and your own province needs no more sunshine to mature it." He further declared that he would rather be hanged than desert his country's cause. One of his sons was killed at the battle of Germantown.
SCOTS IN THE PRESIDENCY
Of the twenty-nine Presidents of the United States five (Monroe, Grant, Hayes, Roosevelt, and Wilson) are of Scottish descent, and four (omitting Jackson who has been also claimed as Scottish by some writers) are of Ulster Scot descent, namely, Polk, Buchanan, Arthur, and McKinley. Jackson may possibly have been of Ulster Scot descent as his father belonged to Carrickfergus while his, mother's maiden name, Elizabeth Hutchins, or Hutchinson, is Scottish. She came of a family of linen weavers. Benjamin Harrison might also have been included as he had some Scottish (Gordon) blood. His wife, Caroline Scott Harrison, was of Scottish descent.
James Monroe, fifth President, was descended from Andrew Monroe, who emigrated from Scotland in the middle of the seventeenth century. President Grant was a descendant of Matthew Grant, who came from Scotland to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. George Hayes, ancestor of Rutherford B. Hayes, nineteenth President, was a Scot who settled in Windsor prior to 1680. Theodore Roosevelt was Dutch on his father's side and Scottish on his mother's. His mother was descended from James Bulloch, born in Scotland about 1701, who emigrated to Charleston, c. 1728, and founded a family which became prominent in the annals of Georgia. Woodrow Wilson's paternal grandfather, James Wilson, came from county Down in 1807. His mother, Janet (or Jessie) Woodrow, was a daughter of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, a native of Paisley, Scotland. James Knox Polk, eleventh President, was a great-great-grandson of Robert Polk or Pollok, who came from Ayrshire through Ulster. Many kinsmen of President Polk have distinguished themselves in the annals of this country. James Buchanan, fifteenth President, was of Ulster Scot parentage. Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first President, was the son of a Belfast minister of Scottish descent. William McKinley, twenty-fifth President, was descended from David McKinley, an Ulster Scot, born about 1730, and his wife, Rachel Stewart. The surname McKinley in Ireland occurs only in Ulster Scot territory.