The Scotch-Irish in America
The Scotch-Irish of Tennessee
By Rev. D. C. Kelley, D.D.

In this honorable presence, it is well to express, in the beginning of what I shall attempt to say, my regret that the task assigned me had not fallen into far more competent hands.

I had little dreamed, when I began the inadequate study I have had time and opportunity to make, of the richness of the mine into which I was to strike my pick. My childhood had been amused, my wonder aroused, and my ambition for a virtuous life kindled around the fireside where tales of a Scotch-Irish ancestry were the theme of the winter evening talk. When the true magnitude of the work before me began to appear, I should have quickly withdrawn my promise to speak for the Scotch-Irish of Tennessee, had it not been for a sense of obligation to those teachers of my childhood. The traditions of childhood mingling with ancestral blood bade me do what the race has ever done — "my simple duty as best I could." As my best apology, however, for standing here, allow me to make good my right by blood. Perhaps few of the race have claims of earlier date. My paternal blood speaks for itself, going back to the early Irish chiefs, to which is added the Thompson blood of North Ireland. My maternal claims are as follows:

Before the work of royal plantations in Ireland had begun, as early as 1584, "a thousand Scotch Highlanders, called Redshanks, of the septs and families of the Campbells, Macdonnell, and Magalanes, led by Surleboy, a Scottish chieftain, invaded Ulster. These invaders in time intermarried with the Irish, and became the most formidable enemies of England in her designs of settlement. It was ostensibly to root out this Scottish colony that Elizabeth sent Essex to Ireland; but his failure only fixed them more firmly in their place."

But a more singular settlement than this of the Scotch Redshanks was one effected by private speculation, namely, that of the Montgomeries in the Ardes of Down. [Montgomery Papers.] The head of this new and important settlement in the Ardes was Hugh Montgomery, the sixth laird (esquire) of Braidstane, in Scotland; his father had married the daughter of Montgomery, laird of Haislhead, an ancient family descended of the earls of Eglintown. The first laird of the name, Robert Montgomery, was second son of Alexander Montgomery, earl of Eglintown.

Hugh, the leader of the Montgomeries into Ireland, was thus a well descended adventurer, and in addition to his good birth he possessed spirit and talent. The circumstances which led to his settlement in Down are these: In 1603, an affray took place in Belfast, between a party of soldiers and some servants of Conn O'Neill, who had been sent with runlets to bring wine from that town to their master, "then in great debauch at Castlereagh with his brothers, friends, and followers." The servants came back with more blood than wine, having got into a melee with some soldiers, who captured the servants and sent home the messengers with a severe handling. They confessed to Conn that they were more numerous than the soldiers, on which, "in rage, he swore by his father, and by all his noble ancestors' souls, that none of them should ever serve him or his family if they went not back forthwith and did not revenge the affront done to him and themselves by those few Baddagh Sassenach." The result was a violent affray, and some of the soldiers were killed. An office of inquest was held upon Conn and his followers, and a number of them were found guilty of levying war on the queen. O'Neill was sent to prison to Carrickfergus, and Elizabeth in the meantime dying, the Laird Montgomery, who knew these matters well, with thrift speed which became his country, made his humble application to the new Scotch monarch for half Conn's estates, leaving the remainder to Conn himself. But the modest proposal was not accepted, and he hit upon a happier expedient, which was to obtain a grant from Conn O'Neill himself of half his lands on the condition of effecting his escape and giving him a shelter. The grant was obtained. Some change was subsequently made in these letters, by the intervention of a courtier of the name of Sir James Fullerton, one of "the busiest bodies in all the world in other men's matters which may profit themselves," who having an eye for a friend, Mr. James Hamilton, and anxious to obtain for him a share of Conn's lands, represented, in a courtier's way, that the two moieties granted were too large for two men, forgetting or omitting the small circumstance that they were their own by right, and prevailed on the king to make a fresh division. "But the king, sending first for Sir Hugh, told him (respecting the reasons aforesaid) for what loss he might receive in not getting the full half of Conn's estate, by that defalcation, he would compensate him out of the Abbey lands and impropriations, which in a few months he was to grant in fee, they being already granted in lease for twenty-one years, and that he would also abstract, out of Conn's half, the whole great Ardes for his and Mr. James Hamilton's behoof, and throw it into their two shares; that the sea-coasts might be possessed by Scottish men, who would be traders proper for his majesty's future advantage, the residue to be laid off about Castlereagh (which Conn had desired), being too great a favor for such an Irishman."

Whether the Campbells, Montgomerys, and Hamiltons were known to each other in Ireland, tradition does not tell. We find from these Campbells, Duncan Campbell, whose son, John Campbell, came from Donegal, Ireland, and settled in Donegal township, Lancaster county, Pensylvania. His descendants passed down the valley of the Shenandoah to South-western Virginia, where we find among the branches on an old family tree, revived and added to from time to time, General William Campbell, of King's Mountain fame, and his grandson, Wm. C. Preston; the brothers, Colonel Arthur and Captain John Campbell, of Virginia (the latter of whom was the father of Governor David Campbell, of Virginia); Judge David, of the State of Franklin, afterward the State of Tennessee, with their cousin and brother-in-law, Colonel David, of Campbell's station, East Tennessee; his son, General John Campbell, of the War of 1812; grandson, Governor William B. Campbell, of Tennessee. Another branch bears upon it the name of the gallant Confederate, General Alex. W. Campbell, of West Tennessee. Scotch-Irish on both sides.

From these before-mentioned Montgomerys, we find in North Carolina, at Saulsbury, in the Revolutionary War, Hugh Montgomery, who equipped a regiment of patriots for the Continental army — a man with the shrewd business characteristics of his ancestors. From him we trace the children, Hugh and Jane; Hugh, the father of Major Lemuel P. Montgomery, a brilliant young lawyer of Nashville, who fell leading a dashing charge at the battle of Horseshoe, and for whom the fair city of Montgomery, Ala., is called; and Hugh, a lawyer of Chattanooga, for whom the beautiful avenue in that city is named. Jane became the wife of Samuel Cowan, the first merchant of Knoxville; later, was married to Colonel David Campbell, before mentioned, a private in the battle of King's Mountain, the founder of Campbell's Station, near Knoxville. Of this union of the Scotch-Irish Campbells and Montgomerys, your annalist of to-day is, in the second generation, the only living representative. Three of his children have in their veins the added blood of the Hamiltons, Hays, and Cunnynghams. And yet two other Scotch-Irish additions, the history of which is here given as an illustration of the methods by which this blood has been so widely spread in our country:

John Bowen, a wealthy planter of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, as was the custom of the times, at harvest, gathered the lads and lassies of the surrounding country to his harvesting. One of these, Lilly McIlhenny, by her grace and beauty, so attracted the old bachelor's heart that he bowed at the shrine of matrimony. From this marriage came Captain William Bowen, the Indian fighter, and the more celebrated Reese Bowen, who was killed at King's Mountain. Captain William was one of the early settlers of Sumner county; the father of John H. Bowen, lawyer, and idol of his county of Sumner, and of whom the venerable Judge Thomas Barry says, he was the best and most loved man he ever knew. Such was his reputation for probity, that the juries gave him credence when he differed with the court on a point of law; he was elected to Congress before he was of the age to take his seat. His sister married David Campbell, a son of Colonel David Campbell, and brother of General John Campbell, of the war of 1812. This David Campbell and Catherine Bowen were the father and mother of Governor William B. Campbell, of our good State of Tennessee. Speaking, therefore, for our home, your annalist and his wife, daughter of W. B. Campbell, represent, of the Scotch-Irish blood, the united strains of the Kelleys, the Thompsons, the Montgomerys, the Hamiltons, the McIlhenuys, the Cunninghams, Hays, and Adams.

My only claim to be heard is the blood that tingles in my veins, and the love and veneration in which I hold the race which first spoke for independence on American soil, which poured out the first blood for liberty from "taxation without representation," and which, in the language of Bancroft (Ransey, p. 102), when defeated in the first battle of the Revolution (Alamance), "like the mammoth, they shook the bolt from their brow and crossed the mountains." Of this mammoth, Tennessee is the child — I speak for this goodly child on her own soil in the fairest domain of America — in old Maury, par excellence the home of the race, which, having spoke first for American independence, made good her words with the first blow to tyranny. The race which gave to liberty not only the first blood, but if we are to accept the authority of the author of the "Rear Guard of the Revolution," twice at the most critical juncture of the Revolutionary struggle,

CUT THE COILS

of the anaconda, which, with its head on the lakes and its extremities in Southern Georgia, combined in one gigantic plan, embracing British power and pelf combined with Indian hate and lust of gain, threatened to crush by a single concerted movement the hopes of the young America. Nursed in the heart of this race, the mammoth of liberty has proven thenceforward not only too strong to be held in restraint by the coils of the anaconda of tyranny in America, but has become the apostle of freedom to all the world.

The contribution the Scotch-Irish of Tennessee have to bring to this honorable gathering would be a meaningless fragment without a few words showing the origin of the race, and tracing the source of their marked characteristics.

WHY HAVE THE SCOTCH-IRISH CONTRIBUTED MORE TO CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY
THAN ANY OTHER PEOPLE?

In the little sketch of the immigration, as early as 1584, of the Scotch Campbells, McDonnells, Montgomery's, and Hamiltons into Ireland, given in our introduction, we have the settlement of a hardy, industrious, sturdy, and liberty-loving population, in the midst of a brave, reveling, quick-witted, emotional, and law-hating race. The two begin to act and react, the one upon the other. Henry the Eighth's contest with the religion of his realm brings a new element to the compound. More Scots come over, to escape wars and persecution at home. Henry VIII. sets up religious persecution, and begins the long-continued and oft-repeated attempt to transfer the possession of Irish lands to the hands of Englishmen. When Elizabeth had come to the throne of England, she continued the work begun by her father. By conquest or by contract, she gave to her favorites, Raleigh and Essex, and other English adventurers, vast estates in Ireland, to be peopled by English.

Following upon her imperfect work, came the more extensive plan of Lord Bacon, under James the First, by which hundreds of thousands of acres of Irish lands were parceled out by allotments to "English and Scots, requiring the Irish to remove from the precincts allotted to them."

During the reign of Charles I., no scruples were felt by the king in awarding to adventurers who had been of service to him estates in Ireland as a reward, nor did the adventurers hesitate as to the morality of the methods used to possess themselves of their estates. But the great settlement of Ireland by English and Scots came about under the government of Cromwell. I have taken from first hands. ["Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,'' by Prendergast — a book in the hands of Colonel Thomas Boyers, of Gallatin — the shortest epitome that can be made intelligible of the motives and methods of these settlements.]

"From the days of the first invasion, the king and council of England intended to make English landed proprietors in Ireland the rulers of Ireland, as William the Conqueror had made the French of Normandy landlords and rulers of the English. Though the government of England were interrupted in this course by the wars of Edward I. for the subjection of the Scotch, by the wars of Edward III. and his successors for the crown of France, and finally by the civil wars of England, called the 'Wars of the Roses,' the design was never abandoned. And when Henry VIII., disencumbered of any foreign war or domestic treason, had time to destroy the house of Kil-dare, he projected the clearing of Ireland to the Shannon and colonizing it with English. But the new conquest of Ireland only really began in the reigns of his three children, Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, when the conquest of the lands of the Irish for the purpose of new colonizing or planting them with English was resumed, after an interval of more than three hundred years. During this interval, the English Pale, or that part of Ireland subject to the regular jurisdiction of the king of England and his laws, had been gradually contracting — partly by the English of Ireland throwing off the feudal system, and partly by re-conquests effected by the Irish, until in the reign of Edward VI., the Pale was nearly limited by the line of the Liffey and the Boyne. Beyond the Pale the English and the Irish dwelt intermixed. And in all the plans for restoring the regular administration of the king's laws in Ireland it was proposed that these English should be brought back to their ancient military discipline, and should conquer from the Irish the lands in their possession, in order that they might be given to English under grants on feudal conditions by the king.

"But the English of Ireland clearly foresaw that the effect of the complete conquest of the Irish would be to give the government of Ireland to the English of England. Their armed retainers, called Gallowglasses and Kerne, would be put down, as there would no longer remain the pretense of defending the land from the king's Irish enemies. With the regular administration of English law would come back wardships, marriages, reliefs, escheats, and forfeitures, which they were only too happy to have thrown off in the days of Edward II.; and the final result would be to bring over new colonists from England who would be rivals to supplant them in the favor of the government and in all the offices of the state. The English of Ireland, consequently, were secretly indisposed to effect the reconquest, and it was not until they were subdued that the second conquest began.

"The first blow to the English of Irish birth was the limiting the power of the Parliament. In the reign of Henry VII., Sir Edward Poynings forced from the Irish Parliament a statute whereby the Privy Council of England were made virtually a part of the Parliament of Ireland; from thenceforth it could originate no statutes, and could pass only such as had been first approved by the Privy Council of England. The Parliament had, in fact, long become devoted to the earls of Kildare, who had thereby become too powerful for the kings of England. The next and final blow to the power of the English of Ireland was the fall of the House of Kildare, when Silken Thomas, Earl of Kildare, and his five uncles, were executed at Tyburn for treason, at the end of Henry VIII.'s reign. The head of the ancient English of Ireland had now fallen; their parliament had been already deprived of its power; the main obstacles to the design of England were removed, and in the following reigns the reconquest of Ireland by plantation began.

"At first it was the native Irish that were stripped, as the O'Moores, the O'Connors, and the O'Neils. The earl of Desmond's great territories, extending over Limerick and Kerry, Cork and Water-ford, were next confiscated and planted. Finally, in James I.'s reign, the native Irish, not only of Ulster, but of Leitrim and where-ever else they continued possessed of the original territories, were dispossessed of portions of their lands, varying from one-third to three-fourths, to form plantations of new English. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the old English of Ireland, though they agreed in point of religion with the native Irish, always adhered to the English in any rebellion of the Irish, as in a national quarrel. In James I.'s reign, as all the planters were of the new religion, the old English found themselves supplanted by them in all the offices of the state, as the Irish found themselves supplanted by them in their native homes.

"It is needless here to recapitulate the long continued injuries and insults by which the ancient English of Ireland were forced into the same ranks with the Irish in defense of the king's cause in 1641. Chief among them were the attempts to seize their estates under the plea of defective title, in order to plant them with new English. It was thus Lord Stafford got Connaught and parts of Tipperary and Limerick into his power, with the intention of forming a new plantation at the expense of the DeBurgos and other old English. One of the old English in 1644 thus graphically expresses their feelings: ' Was it not the usual taunt of the late Lord Stafford and all his fawning sycophants, in their private conversations with those of the Pale, that they were the most refractory men of the whole kingdom, and that it was more necessary (that is, for their own crooked ends) that they should be planted and supplanted than any others,' and that ' where plantations might not reach, defective titles should extend.' He had known many an officer and gentleman, he adds, who had left a hand at Kinsale in fighting in defense of the Crown of England, when the Spaniards and the Earl of Tyrone were defeated by Lord Mountjoy, to be afterward deprived of his pension for having refused to take the oath of supremacy and allegiance in the Protestant form, though, as one of them answered, on being questioned before the state for matter of recusancy (as they termed it), ' it was not asked of me the day of Kinsale what religion I was of.'

"The Scotch and English, however, having rebelled against the king in 1639 (for the march of the Scottish rebels to the border in that year was on the invitation of the leaders of the popular party in England, though they themselves did not openly take the field till 1642), the Irish rose in his favor. They were finally subdued, in 1652, by Cromwell and the arms of the Commonwealth, and then took place a scene not witnessed in Europe since the conquest of Spain by the Vandals. Indeed, it is injustice to the Vandals to equal them with the English of 1652, for the Vandals came as strangers and conquerors in an age of force and barbarism, nor did they banish the people, though they seized and divided their lands by lot; but the English in 1652 were of the same nation as half of the chief families in Ireland, and had at that time the island under their sway for five hundred years.

"The captains and men of war of the Irish, amounting to 40,000 and upward, were banished into Spain, where they took service under that king; others of them, with a crowd of orphan boys and girls, were transported to serve the English planters in the West Indies; and the remnant of the nation, not banished or transported, were to be transplanted into Connaught, while the conquering army divided the ancient inheritances of the Irish amongst them by the lot."

This writer, in speaking of old English, includes under that term Scotch as well.

Space does not allow more detail. Our object has been to show you the original training which made of the Scotch Irish the race we find then afterward.

ELEMENTS WHICH MAKE THE CHARACTER OF THE COMPOUND.

The Scotch-Irish in the earlier years of the settlement were often intermarried. We quote a paper which throws light on this point, and on much more: [Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.]

"The humble petition of the officers within the precincts of Dublin, Catherlough, Wexford, and Kilkenny, in the behalf of themselves, their souldiers, and other faithful English Protestants, to the lord deputy and council of Ireland."

They pray that the original order of the council of state in England, confirmed by Parliament, September 27, 1653, requiring the removal of all the Irish nation into Connaught, except boys of fourteen and girls of twelve, might be enforced: "For we humbly conceive (say they), that the proclamation for transplanting only the proprietors, and such as have bin in arms, will neither answer the end of safety, nor what else is aimed at thereby. For the first purpose of the transplantation is to prevent those of natural principles (i. e., of natural affections), becoming one with these Irish, as well in affinity as idolatry, as many thousands did, who came over in Queen Elizabeth's time, many of which have had a deep hand in all the late murthers and massacres. And shall we join in affinity (they ask) with the people of these abominations?

"Would not the Lord be angry with us till he consumes us, having said, 'The land which ye go to possess is an unclean land, because of the filthiness of the people that dwell therein. Ye shall not, therefore, give your sons to their daughters, nor take their daughters to. your sons,' as it is in Ezra, ix, 11, 12, 14. 'Nay ye shall surely root them out before you, lest they cause you to forsake the Lord, your God.' Deut. vii,"2, 3, 4, 16, 18."

We have mention, in the documents giving details of the transplantation, of the names of many high born persons who had thus intermarried. Even Cromwell's old soldiers, full of pious cant and great fear of the abominations of idolatry in the lands where thousands of Irishmen had been slaughtered, and tens of thousands sent out of the land into Spain and the West Indies, found the charms of the Irish maidens, full of vigorous life, chastity, and redolent with healthful beauty, more than they could resist, and so made them wives of the daughters of the land.

We have thus the indomitable, prudent, calculating, metaphysical, God-fearing, tyrant-hating Scotch, brought by marriage into blood relationship with the brave, reckless, emotional, intuitive, God-loving, liberty-adoring Irish.

We shall see the results when we find these people the cautious builders of free constitutional government, and at the same time, the pioneers of American civilization.

ENVIRONMENT.

The Scotch settlers in Ireland, for the government of which the English and Irish were often at war, found themselves so greatly in the minority that they could only stand and see their own civil and religious rights the foot-balls of a government where they had no representation. Their religious and civil rights subject to the whims of kings, courtiers, lord lieutenants, bishops, either Romish or Protestant.

In one reign rewarded for services by wrongful gifts of Irish estates, in a subsequent, deprived of their possessions and their services forgotten that more hungry adventurers, or the exchequer of needy monarchs might be replenished. They had for three hundred years been compelled to know by actual daily experience the evils of provincial government by kingly favorites, the arrogance, hate, and cruelty of episcopal interference and control. Added to these they felt the narrow hatred and hypocritical cruelty of the Puritan soldiers who prayed to God for strength to visit untold horrors on the men, women and children whom they were robbing in their acts of transportation. Besides these ever recurring religious and political perplexities, they saw their industries at the mercy of the orders of the throne or the English parliament. In other words, government without representation had burnt its evils into their very souls, until in despair of any desirable future to be found in Ireland, and in resolute determination to win a future on the high plane of their own value of manhood and liberty, they deliberately chose to hazard the wilds of America. Their reasons for seeking America had little in common with the adventurers who had been induced by large promises to emigrate from England. They were in nowise allied to the people transplanted by force from England. They were the very people the English most desired to remain in Ireland. They had more in common with the Puritans than with their other persecutors, but even from these had marked distinctions. The strong points and virtues of the two were much the same. A sentence may show the line of distinction, they held in more contempt a restricted hospitality than they did May-poles, their laugh was as hearty, musical, and manly as the groan of the Puritans was affected, grating and inhuman. With this necessary allusion to the blood and environment which gave form, vigor and fitness to this race, we come to the period of their emigration to and settlement in America.

Before passing to the settlement of America, there are a few bright factors entering into the environment of our forefathers in Ireland that we pause on a moment with pleasure. Bishop Echlin, who was himself a native of Scotland in the ordination of Robert Blair, who came as a missionary from the Presbyterian church of Scotland to Ireland, attained a position of lofty Christian manhood little known to bishops of any era. Aided by the influence of Scotch Presbyterian learning and love of liberty, the University of Dublin was founded on very liberal principles. To Dr. James, afterward Archbishop Usher, a professor in this university, was assigned the task of drawing up a confession of faith for the Irish church. To him we are largely indebted for one of the most liberal and comprehensive confessions of faith ever drawn up in Christendom. Afterward, as archbishop, we find this great man standing firmly for liberty of conscience and the protection of the Scotch Presbyterian preachers, until overruled by orders from England. Again to Oliver Cromwell we turn for the exhibition of tolerance far in advance of the Puritan parliament.

These acts of toleration and protection were not without their due influence on the minds of our ancestors. They saw then what the world is slow to learn, that the highest tolerance and the broadest freedom belong to the greatest men; not to one form of government; not to one form of doctrine. The men grand enough to outgrow their environment, and defend freedom of thought for those who differ from them, have as yet been too few to pass by their names or forget their influence, in even the most meager historical sketch of the age to which they belong. These were grand beacon-lights, which shone on the struggling days of our forefathers.

Usher towered above the Church of England. Cromwell breached the iron walls of Puritanism. All honor to men who thus grow to proportions which may gladden our hope and confidence in the possibilities of the race.

EMIGRATION.

"The Protestant settlers in Ireland at the beginning of the seventeenth century were of the same metal with those who afterward sailed in the Mayflower — Presbyterians, Puritans, Independents — in search of a wider breathing-space than was allowed them at home. By an unhappy perversity they had fallen under the same stigma, and were exposed to the same inconveniences. The bishops had chafed them with persecutions. . . . The heroism with which the Scots held the northern province against the Kilkenny parliament and Owen Roe O'Neil, was an insufficient offset against the sin of nonconformity. . . . This was a stain for which no excellence could atone. The persecutions were renewed, but did not cool Presbyterian loyalty. When the native race made their last effort, under James II., to recover their lands, the Calvinists of Derry won immortal honor for themselves, and flung over the wretched annals of their adopted country a solitary gleam of true glory. Even this passed for nothing. They were still dissenters; still unconscious that they owed obedience to the hybrid successors of St. Patrick, the prelates of the Establishment; and no sooner was peace reestablished than spleen and bigotry were again at their old work. Vexed with suits in the ecclesiastical courts, forbidden to educate their children in their own faith, treated as dangerous to a state which but for them would have had no existence, and deprived of their civil rights, the most earnest of them at length abandoned the unthankful service. If they intended to live as free men, speaking no lies, and professing openly the creed of the Reformation, they must seek a country where the long arm of prelacy was still too short to reach them. During the first half of the eighteenth century, Down, Antrim, Tyrone, Armagh, and Derry, were emptied of Protestant inhabitants, who were of more value to Ireland than California gold mines." "In two years," says Froude, "which followed the Antrim evictions, thirty thousand Protestants left Ulster for a land where there was no legal robbery, and where those who sowed the seed could reap the harvest. . . . The south and west were caught by the same movement, and ships could not be found to carry the crowds who were eager to go."

A minister of Ulster, writing to a friend in Scotland, in 1718, laments the desolation occasioned in that region "by the removal of several of our brethren to the American plantations. Not less than six ministers have demitted their congregations, and great numbers of the people go with them." Ten years later, Archbishop Boulter wrote to the English Secretary of State respecting the extensive emigration to America: "The humor has spread like a contagious distemper; and the worst is, that it affects only Protestants, and reigns chiefly in the North." About the same time, we find James Logan, the President of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania, who had identified himself with the Quakers, and was prejudiced against the emigrants from Ireland, expressing "the common fear that, if they (the Scotch-Irish) continue to come, they will make themselves proprietors of the province." He further, in 1729, expresses "himself glad to find that the Parliament is about to take measures to prevent their too free emigration to this country. It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants hither; for last week not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also." Dr. Baird, in his History of Religion in America, states that, "from 1729 to 1750, about 12,000 annually came from Ulster to America."

These emigrants landed at the ports of Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Comparatively few entered the country by way of New England. Those that did so, settled mainly in New Hampshire, while others found their way to Pennsylvania, and helped swell the tide which was pouring into this state by way of Philadelphia. These Irish settlers occupied the eastern and middle counties, bordering on the wilderness still occupied by the Indians. Such as landed at Charleston, located themselves on the fertile lands of North and South Carolina and Georgia. The settlers in Pennsylvania afterward turned southward through the valley of Virginia, till, "meeting those extending northward from the Carolinas, the emigration passed westward to the country then called 'beyond the mountains,' now known as Kentucky and Tennessee." At a later period, Western Pennsylvania was occupied by the descendants of the settlers in the middle counties of the state, with Pittsburg as a center. From these points of radiation, the Scotch-Irish have extended to all parts of the country, and, being an intelligent, resolute, and energetic people, have left their name and mark in every state of the Union.

Their youth, at this early period, "were generally educated at home, and under parental instruction, and trained to obedience and subordination, as the unbending law of the family. The schools established by Presbyterian ministers, confirmed and extended the home education. The impress of such instrumentalities was not only manifested in the families of church members, but, by association and influence, extended beyond the pale of organized congregations, and their tendency was to reform and elevate public sentiment and morals' as well as the habits and manners of the people."

The mass of these emigrants were men of intelligence, resolution, energy, religious and moral character, having means that enabled them to supply themselves with suitable selections of land, on which they made permanent homes for their families, and from which they derived an ample support. By their own enterprise and industry they hewed out for themselves valuable farms from the primeval forest; and the toils, sacrifices, and perils, incident to their life in the New World, formed, in both men and women, the characters which were requisite to endure the hardships and dangers of their frontier situation. These traits of character were manifest also in their descendants. Brought up under such education and training, they have since been the "pioneers and founders of settlements in the North-western Territory, and the states formed out of it, and have been amongst the most prominent, useful, and distinguished citizens of the republic." "They were a God-fearing, liberty-loving, tyrant-hating, Sabbath keeping, covenant-adhering race; trained by trials, made resolute by oppression, governed by conscience, and destined to achieve a mission and place in the history of the church and the race."

Of the early ministers, a very large proportion were from the Irish church. Francis Makemie (1682) was a member of Lagan Presbytery. George McNish (1705) was from Ulster. John Henry (1709) was ordained by the Presbytery of Dublin John Mackey was from Ireland. Samuel Young, of New Castle Presbytery, belonged originally to the Presbytery of Armagh. Robert Cross, Alexander Hutcheson, Thomas Craighead, Joseph Houston, Adam Boyd, John Wilson, and many other useful and honored ministers, were accessions to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in this country previous to 1730. And from this period, the number who came was continually on the increase. Nor would it be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all sincere inquirers after truth, that we are indebted to these same men "for the germs of our civil liberties and institutions, as really as for our own noble system of faith and order." As might be expected from their antecedents and providential training, they were ardent lovers, and strong defenders of civil liberty. They hated tyranny with almost "perfect hatred." They had received a discipline that could never be lost, and of all the memories of childhood, none could remain more fresh and impressive than those received from the lips of parents numbered among the heroic champions of freedom at Derry and Enniskillen. And the earliest Scotch-Irish emigrants to America were men who had been participants, or children of those who were participants, in the terrible drama which closed with the battle of the Boyne. Accordingly we find that these men were among the earliest champions of freedom, and the most earnest and persistent defenders of the rights of the people, as against the unjust actions of the British government. No less an authority than the historian Bancroft, states that, "the first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." Abbe Raynal, in his history contemporary with our Revolutionary struggle, though on the side of American independence, does not hesitate to say that the provocations by the British government to the American colonies were so much less than those to which the age was every-where accustomed that it was a matter of deep surprise how the Americans could have been brought to so heroic resistance on grounds so slight. He traces the fact that in the early years of the struggle the mass of our people were little interested in the result. The masses of Americans who had known nothing for generations of provincial government without representation were in no condition to see the dangers which threatened them.

The Scotch-Irish who landed in Boston and New York found colonists too readily submissive to foreign dictation, and preferred to seek Pennsylvania and Maryland, where the proprietary governors and the people governed were in immediate contact. There they pressed to the frontier, where they could organize local governments of their own choosing. Those who reached Virginia passed again to the frontier; they loved neither the aristocratic government nor the episcopal dictation of this colony. Those landing in the south passed north and west in search of similar freedom, so soon as they had met in sufficient proportions to realize their own power. They were led to find homes where they could exercise their attachment to the doctrine affirmed by one of their ministers, speaking for all, as early as 1650, when required by the Long Parliament to subscribe to the oath against a government of king, lords, and commons; in refusing, he said:

"Men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people, whom they govern; and for men to assume unto themselves power, is mere tyranny and unjust usurpation." This he said on account of the self-constituted authority of this Parliament. This doctrine, new to civil government, which they had derived from religious convictions, traditions, and struggles, was first to receive the baptism of blood, May 10, 1771, at

ALAMANCE CREEK.

Having mentioned the battle of Alamance, and finding that in some of our histories the character and purposes of the Regulators engaged in this conflict have been greatly misunderstood, I offer the following extract from the life of David Caldwell, D.D., by Rev. E. W. Caruthers, of North Carolina.

"A people who have been religiously educated, as a majority of the Regulators had been, and who had been taught to regard the Bible as ,a revelation from heaven, are not apt to rise at once in open rebellion against the established government, or bid defiance to the regularly constituted authorities of the land. This is the work of time and reflection. There must be consultation and inquiry into facts for the purpose of satisfying their own consciences, and of justifying themselves before the world. There will be some regard to the voice of reason : some efforts will be made to obtain a redress of grievances without the hazard and sufferings attending a conflict with ' the powers that be.' And then they must have mutual encouragement and mutual pledges of fidelity and support. This is just what we find in the men whose principles and conduct are now under consideration, and it does not appear that hitherto they had as a body made any direct resistance to the operations of government. Fanning and others, who had in the same way become obnoxious to the people, were made the subjects of ridicule or of merriment by the wits and wags of the day, and, as usual in such cases, caricatures and pasquinades abounded. The meeting at Maddock's mills, as we have seen, resolved that they would pay no more illegal taxes, unless they were forced; that they would pay no more exorbitant fees to officers, except by compulsion, and that they would bear an open testimony against it; that they would hold frequent meetings for conference, which they would request their representatives to attend for the purpose of giving them information respecting what was done in the legislature, and of consulting together about the measures that ought to be adopted for the common welfare; that they would select more suitable men for the various offices in the gift of the people; that they would petition the assembly, governor, council, king and parliament, for redress of their grievances; that they would contribute to collections for defraying whatever expenses might be necessary in this undertaking ; that whenever a difference of opinion might arise they would submit to the majority; and as a pledge of their fidelity in the performance of these things they bound themselves by an oath or affirmation." In all this we see nothing but the principles and spirit which covered the patriots of '76 with immortal honor; and only because they were belter sustained, had more ample resources, and were more successful.

This battle was followed by the call of Colonel Thomas Polk, on the 19th day of May, 1775, for the convention, which gave an "unanimous aye" to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, a declaration remarkable for its heroism, and at the same time its provision for continued government; there was no moment of anarchy between their Declaration of Independence from the British crown, and the erection of a government of their own ordination.

THOMAS POLK.

I have in my possession ample evidence of the Scotch-Irish blood of the Polks. The evidence of genealogy, and the details of service rendered by this distinguished family would occupy more space in this address than your time allows.

I shall, therefore, file these papers with the custodian of the historical papers of the society, and content myself with the mention of only a few prominent events in the lives of a few of the most distinguished members of the family. While dealing with Colonel Thomas Polk, we will complete what we have to say of his direct line, adding a few incidents not to be found in the regular histories. As has already been said, Thomas Polk, as colonel of the militia of the district, called the convention which passed unanimously the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The document, which had been written before the meeting by his son-in-law, Ephraim Brevard, was read to the convention, submitted to a committee for revision, as revised, was re-read, unanimously adopted, and read by order of convention, at the courthouse door to the assembled people by Colonel Polk. This had been immortality enough for one man or one family, but Colonel Polk was later a member of the colonial congress, and brigadier-general, was at the battle of Germantown, and in the colonial congress of North Carolina, which was the first to instruct for independence, April, 1776.

John Simpson, one of the witnesses of the Declaration of Independence, of May 20, in giving his testimony (before committee of North Carolina legislature), relates this anecdote: "An aged man near me, on being asked if he knew any thing of this affair (Declaration of 20th), replied: 'Och, aye; Tarn Polk declared independence lang before any body else.'"

COLONEL WILLIAM POLK, [MS. furnished by granddaughter.]

Son of General Thomas Polk and Susan (née Spratt), was born, 1759. He left Queens College, Charlotte, when sixteen years of age (1775), and entered the army as lieutenant in Colonel Thompson's (Old Danger) regiment. He was detailed by Colonel Thompson with thirty men to watch the movements of tories in South Carolina. He was led into an ambuscade by his guide (one Sol. Deasou) and was badly wounded in the shoulder, from which he did not recover in a year. "This was the first blood shed south of Lexington," so says General Andrew Jackson, in a sketch written in 1844, when James K. Polk was a candidate for the presidency, also an autobiography written by Colonel Polk, for Judge Murphy, of North Carolina.

General Jackson was a small boy at school with Colonel Polk, at Charlotte, North Carolina. They were life-long friends, and I think that Jackson, although not of military age, was a short time in service with Colonel Polk.

Colonel William Polk's Memoir.

He was with General Davis as volunteer captain at Beaver Creek (Wheeler, 190 page).

At Cowans Ford, July 20, 1780, by the side of General Davidson when he fell (Wheeler, 235).

With General Nash at Germantown, when he (Polk) was wounded in the cheek.

Captain in charge when liberty bell was removed from Philadelphia.

He was the first representative from Davidson county (Tenn.) in North Carolina legislature.

Member of North Carolina assembly, 1787, 1790, 1791.

President of North Carolina state bank.

Was appointed by Washington supervisor of all the ports of North Carolina, which he retained until the office was abolished.

Was a member of the Cincinnati society.

At the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

At the "Cowpens," where his brother Thomas was killed.

Query: Did not Colonel Polk give the name of Nashville and Davidson to the city and county? Having been at the side of General Davidson when he fell, and with General Nash when he was killed, and being the first representative from Davidson, I think confirms the tradition that he named or caused them to be so named. Colonel Polk was offered the commission of brigadier-general by Madison, in the war of 1812 and '13, which he in a patriotic letter declined, and then tendered his service to the governor of North Carolina.

"It was certainly creditable to the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina, as they were the first to secede from the mother country, and so remained that the blood of one of their sons was the first shed (South) in the cause of Liberty," says Bancroft.

General Bishop Leondias Polk, whose life was given in the cause of the South, was a son of Colonel William Polk. General Lucius E. Polk is a grandson.

ANTOINETTE POLK.

A granddaughter of Colonel William Polk, Antoinette Polk, married Baron de Charette, nephew of Comte De Chambord, the Orleans claimant, until his death, of the French throne. She is a charming and noble woman, and is well remembered in Maury county for her courage and daring horsemanship, and also for a famous race.

Before Columbia, Tenn., was taken possession of by either army, General Wilder and his cavalry made a dash into the town to surprise and capture Confederate soldiers, who were scattered at Ashwood and country houses near the town.

Antionette Polk, then a girl of sixteen, was at her uncle's, Dr. William Polk's home, the site of the present U. S. arsenal. Hearing of the raid, she ran to the stable, saddled her fine blooded horse, and not taking time for gloves, started off to give the alarm to the soldiers along the pike, and at Ashwood. As she emerged from the woods she saw she was pursued by several cavalrymen. A countryman, seeing her danger, jumped from his cart, threw wide open the gate, and through she darted, followed by the cavalrymen, and then they raced six miles down the Mt. Pleasant pike. Though they picked up the long ostrich plumes and hat with which she whipped her horse, the lady, the soldiers said, vanished from their sight; but when she was taken fainting from her horse near Mt. Pleasant, she had accomplished her work, and not a soldier was taken prisoner at Ashwood.

The part taken by this distinguished family in the late war between the states is beyond the limits our time will allow.

Bishop (General) Leonidas Polk, and General Lucius Eugene Polk will appear in future history as the peers of the foremost men of their day. President James K. Polk belongs to another place in this address.

Let us return to our proper chronological point, the Declaration of Independence of Mecklenburg, May 20, 1775. The first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connections with Great Britain came from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. To those at Mecklenburg are to be added an assembly of the same people at Hanna's Town, Western Pennsylvania, May, 1776.

ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD.

If Presbyterians were the first, and Scotch-Irish in the front line of advance in the march toward American independence, I would be untrue to history if I did not direct attention to the fact that Alexander Craighead was the single file at a good distance in front of the column. As early as 1743, we find Mr. Craighead in Pennsylvania, charged by Thomas Cookson, one of his majesty's justices for Lancaster county, before Presbytery, for the publication of a pamphlet "which tended to dissatisfaction with the civil government that we are now under." Later we find Mr. Craighead in Hanover, Va., and from thence we follow him to Mecklenburg, North Carolina, where we hear him thus spoken of by Rev. A. W. Miller in his centennial discourse, delivered at Charlotte, North Carolina, May 20, 1875.

"To the immortal Craighead, a Presbyterian minister of Ireland, who finally settled in Mecklenburg in 1755, 'the only minister between the Yadkin and the Catawba,' who found in North Carolina what Pennsylvania and Virginia denied him — sympathy with the patriotic views he had been publicly proclaiming since 1741 — to this apostle of liberty, the people of Mecklenburg are indebted for that training which placed them in the forefront of American patriots and heroes. It was at this fountain that Dr. Ephraim Brevard and his honored associates drew their inspirations of liberty. So diligent and successful was the training of this devoted minister and patriot; so far in advance even of the Presbyterians of every other colony had he carried the people of this and adjacent counties, that on the very day, May 20, 1775, on which the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church, convened in Philadelphia, issued a pastoral letter to all its churches, counseling them, while defending their rights by force of arms, to stand fast in their allegiance to the British throne, on that day the streets of Charlotte were resounding with the shouts of freemen, greeting the first declaration of American independence."

As we found an ancestor of Alexander Craighead (viz.) Rev. Robert, standing for liberty at a critical hour in the history of the church in Ulster, so we find later his son, Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, in Haysborough, six miles east of Nashville, the first President of Davidson Academy. The academy was erected into Davidson College, July 9, 1805, and Mr. Craighead became the first president. He, with John Hall, of Sumner, and Geo. McWhirter, of Wilson county, all Scotch-Irish, did more than any men of that day, west of the Cumberland mountains, to form on a high moral plane the manhood of the youth of the earlier part of the nineteenth century. Robust manhood, a high sense of honor, devotion to liberty, enthusiastic patriotism, with excellent mental training, gave to our state a bevy of great men in all that constitutes true greatness.

The first settler in Tennessee was perhaps Captain Wm. Bean, whose relation to the Scotch-Irish race is unknown. In 1770, came Scotch-Irish James Robertson, who should have by right the appellation of father of Tennessee. He was among the first settlers of Watauga. The troubled state of affairs in North Carolina soon begot a steady stream of hardy, daring settlers.

THE WATAUGA SETTLERS,

in convention assembled, formed a written constitution, and elected as commissioners thirteen citizens. They were: John Carter, Charles Robertson, James Robertson, Zach Isbell, John Sevier, James Smith, Jacob Brown, William Bean, John Jones, George Russell, Jacob Womack, Robert Lucas, William Tatham Of these John Carter, Chas. Robertson, James Robertson, Zach. Isbell, and John Sevier, it is believed, were selected as the court — of which William Tatham was the clerk. It is to be regretted that the account of the lives of all these pioneers is so meager and unsatisfactory. The biography of each of them would be now valuable and interesting. All of the names mentioned, except Sevier, seem to be, from their agreement with the names of well known Scotch-Irish in North Carolina and the valley of Virginia, of the same race.

So far as I have been able to trace the facts, after some care bestowed upon the question, this is not only what Ramsey calls it, "the first written compact of civil government west of the Alleghanies," but the

FIRST WRITTEN CONSTITUTION

born of a convention of people on this continent. The old colonies brought with them the common law of England; they received charters from the English throne, added legislation under these charters; but of constitutions having their origin in the breast of the people, and born of a convention of the people, this is the first recorded in history. This act bears date 1772. The constitution of Virginia bears date, June 12, 1776; North Carolina, December 18, 1776; Maryland, August 14, 1776; New Jersey, July 2, 1776 ; Massachusetts, 1779.

These, so far as time has enabled me to ascertain, are the earliest state constitutions. I leave to the future historian the query as to whether Alexander Craighead or Patrick Henry deserves the first place as pioneers of American independence. Whether to James Robertson or Alexander Hamilton we are to give the name of constitution builder. In either case, the Scotch-Irish, with a trace of Huguenot blood, win the pre-eminence over all other races. Or if to Madison the greatest credit of the constitution belongs — his ancestors being unknown — we have the Scotch-Irish Donald Robertson, his first teacher.

It is a marvel how we have slept over these glorious achievements of our fathers, and have come to the last moment of possible rescue before we arouse ourselves to see that history shall do them justice. Had we begun this work, even thirty years ago, priceless facts had been saved from the oblivion to which they have gone. Massachusetts makes a rival constitutional claim, founded on the paper drawn up and signed by the Pilgrims before landing on Plymouth Rock. But this paper recognizes the loyalty of the signers to the king, and is destitute of the Scotch-Irish doctrine, long before announced, that right government must have its origin in the breast of the people. The author of the "Rear Guard of the Revolution," evidently on grounds of fancy, rather than proof, gives the chief credit of the constitutional movement at Watauga to John Sevier. I would pluck no laurel from the brow of Tennessee's first governor. He has many, and wears them worthily, but by every token of well attested history of the two men, this act is much more like the

SCOTCH-IRISH ROBERTSON

than the French Sevier; much more the act of the statesman than the soldier. Sevier was vivacious, frolicsome, brave; Robertson, sedate, subtle, wise, and brave, as well. The superior diplomatic powers of Robertson are seen in the early meeting with the Indians to settle the question of title. [Ramsey, and "Rear Guard of the Revolution."] Robertson was the spokesman. When all had been settled, on the last day of the gathering it had been arranged that a foot-race should take place between the younger braves and the young men of the settlement, on the open ground along the southern bank of the river. The race was in full progress, and among the younger men all was mirth, hilarity, and good-natured emulation, and even the older chieftains, catching the spirit of the occasion, had relaxed from their habitual gravity, and were cheering on the contestents, when suddenly a musket-shot echoed over the grounds, and one of the young braves, the near kinsman of a chieftain, fell in his tracks lifeless. The report came from the woods near the race-ground, and pursuit failed to discover the assassin, but there could be no question that

HE WAS A WHITE MAN.

It was as if the shot had been fired into a magazine of gunpowder. The Cherokees were there without arms, or there might have followed a bloody tragedy. As it was, they silently gathered their goods together, and, with threatening gestures and faces presaging a bloody vengeance, rapidly stole away into the forest.

It was subsequently discovered that the murderer was a young man named Crabtree, from the Wolf Hills (now Abingdon), Virginia, about fifty miles to the north-east. A brother of his had, not long before, been killed by the Shawnees, while engaged in exploring with Boone in Kentucky, and he had taken this inopportune time for his revenge. The Indians had left hastily, giving the whites no time for explanation or parley. Revenge — blood for blood — was the cardinal doctrine of their theology, and, if something were not done at once to avert it, war, bloody and exterminating, would soon be upon the settlers. What could be done to avert it? To flee the country would be to merely invite pursuit, and a hundred miles of wilderness lay between them and any safe asylum. To remain was just as hazardous, for how could this handful of one hundred men sustain a conflict with

THREE THOUSAND INFURIATED SAVAGES?

Hastily, the settlers gathered together in council, and then it was that Robertson volunteered, like Curtius, to ride into the breach — at the peril of his life, to visit and endeavor to pacify the enraged Cherokees. It was a hundred and fifty miles through an unbroken forest, with death lurking behind every tree that grew by the way; but what, he said, was one life periled to save five hundred? Thus Robertson reasoned with his neighbors and friends; and then, giving a parting kiss to his wife and child, he mounted his horse and rode off into the wilderness. History contains few acts so daring, so full of the highest courage, so truly altruistic. To charge with comrades on the field of battle in no sense reaches to the sublime height of an act like this. He succeeded in his mission, and four years of peace followed.

Robertson, as is well known, came early to the French Lick settlement on the Cumberland, now Nashville. Here he repeated the same act of founding constitutional government in which he had led at Watauga. Here he repeats his skillful diplomacy with Indian and Spanish agent alike. His manly bearing, his great strength of character, and profound knowledge of men, make him the trusted leader. After detailing many of his military expeditions and negotiations, Ramsey, the venerable historian, says: "The people of Tennessee have reason to

VENERATE THE MEMORY

of James Robertson, alike for his military and civil services, and the earnest and successful manner in which he conducted his negotiations for peace and commerce. His probity and weight of character secured to his remonstrances with Indian and Spanish agents respectful attention and consideration. His earnest and truthful manner was rarely disregarded by either."

While Robertson was thus building up constitutional government and laying broadly the foundation of western empire, Sevier allowed himself to become involved in the unfortunate feuds of the State of Franklin. Every-where he appears the glorious soldier, the magnanimous friend; but had Robertson been at Watauga instead of French Lick, Colonel Arthur Campbell, who was the real originator of the State of Franklin, could never have led him to the steps taken by Sevier. He, Robertson, would never have been led to the grave mistake of the attack on Tipton's house. Colonel Arthur Campbell was a restless spirit, full of theories; a man of much more educational culture than either Robertson or Sevier; did the writing that produced the State of Franklin; prepared the constitution first presented to the convention. Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, says, in a communication to the legislature: "The limits proposed for the new government of Frankland by Colonel Arthur Campbell, and the people of Virginia, who aimed at a separation from that state, were expressed in the form of a constitution, which Colonel Campbell drew up for public examination."

His county in Virginia did not follow his wishes and become connected with the new state. His brother-in-law, Colonel Wm. Campbell, of King's Mountain fame, opposed the movement, and was more influential with the people. Judge David Campbell, his brother, though not originally favoring the formation of a state, became afterward its ablest counselor and apologist, yet so retained, by his conservative course, the confidence of both parties, that he held the highest judicial positions under both states. I have no disposition to pursue the question growing out of the formation of the State of Franklin further than to make good a claim that the origin or maintenance of well-organized government in Watauga and in the French Lick settlement are to be attributed to the same great pioneer genius, James Robertson. I have seen the private papers of Colonel Arthur Campbell, which manifest a subtle genius, a fondness for elaborate writing. His letters, to the last, were very long, almost equal to a modern newspaper, and filled with political discussion. He was more than once on military expeditions with Sevier. In one of the most extended of the Sevier expeditions enumerated to the credit of Sevier in the "Rear Guard of the Revolution," he, and not Sevier commanded. I have seen his official report of the expedition in his own chirography.

I had at one time proposed to give the names of the early settlers of Tennessee, both east and middle, that could be identified as Scotch-Irish, but have been led to abandon that purpose for several reasons: First. We are a generation too late in attempting to gather many of the necessary facts the last generation might have given them; this generation can not; many families have not preserved the records back of the first settlers. I have found many descendants of our more prominent families ignorant of the fact that their ancestors were Scotch-Irish, when on examining the material at hand, I have been able to find ample proof of the fact; it would therefore be invidious to offer a list of names of families unless the list could be made comparatively complete. Second. On further study of the question, it is evident that an overwhelming majority of the early settlers of our state were Scotch-Irish, so that every Tennessean descending from our first hardy settlers is to be put down as of this people, if he can not prove his descent to be otherwise. The author of the "Rear Guard" thus speaks of the early settlers who came to Watauga after Robertson's peace with O-ka-na-sto-ta:

"They were nearly all from Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish descent, generally poor, and threading the old Indian war-path, or some narrow trace blazed by the hunters, with only a single pack-horse, which carried all their worldly possessions. But they had strong arms and stout hearts, and added at once to the wealth and security of the young community. They became, by the mere act of settlement, large land-owners, and their names are borne to-day by many of the leading families of the south-west. Forts, modeled after the one at Watauga, were built for the protection of the outlying settlers, and the colonists soon felt as secure as in their old homes in Virginia."

Later, Ramsey tells of further Scotch-Irish under Colonel David Campbell, forted near Knoxville, old soldiers of King's Mountain. To show that these were not the ignorant people the author of the Rear Guard seems to indicate, I here give the names of books taken from a single shelf in my library which have come down to me — books from homes of old Scotch-Irish:

Abbe Reynal's Histories, 1750 begun.
Hume's History.
Female Spectator, 1775.
Essays, Hugh Knox, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1804.
Pollock's Course of Time.
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, 1766.
Dodridge's Works, 1792.
Life of Ireland, Winchester, Va., 1819.
Newton's Works, 1792.
Night Thoughts, 1770.
Hervey's Meditations.
Pope's Essays.
Newton on Prophecies, 1782.
Discourses on God's Sovereignty, 1772, by Elisha Coles.
William Cowper, 1792.
The Boston Collection of Hymns, 1808.
"A Plan for Female Education," by Erasmus Darwin, 1798.
On Solitude. Michael W. Hogan, Limerick, on one of the blank pages. Title page gone.
Sin in Believers, John Owen, D.D., Glasgow, 1758.
Josephus.

Taking the early histories of North Carolina, and the annals of the settlement of middle Tennessee, it is easy to see that the largest proportion of the settlers were from the Scotch-Irish counties of North Carolina and Virginia. Among the first we have from Ramsey: "A settlement of less than a dozen families was formed near Bledsoe's Lick (1778), isolated in the heart of the Chickasaw nation, with no other protection than their own courage, and a small stockade in-closure. In the early spring of 1779, a little colony of gallant adventurers, from the parent hive at Watauga, crossed the Cumberland Mountain, penetrated the intervening wilds, and pitched their tents near the French Lick, and planted a field of corn where the city of Nashville now stands. This field was at the spot where Joseph Park since resided, and near the lower ferry. These pioneers were Captain James Robertson, George Freeland, William Neely, Edward Swanson, James Hanly, Mark Robertson, Zachariah White, and William Overhall.

"While Robertson and his co-emigrants were thus reaching the Cumberland by the circuitous and dangerous trace through the wilderness of Kentucky, others of their countrymen were

UNDERGOING GREATER HARDSHIPS,

enduring greater sufferings, and experiencing greater privations upon another route, not less circuitous and far more perilous, in aiming at the same destination. Soon after the former had left the Holston settlements on their march by land, several boats loaded with emigrants and their property left Fort Patrick Henry, near Long Island, on a voyage down the Holston and Tennessee, and up the Ohio and Cumberland. The distance traversed in this inland voyage, the extreme danger from the navigation of the rapid and unknown rivers, and the hostile attacks from the savages upon their banks, mark the emigration under Colonel Donelson as one of the greatest achievements in the settlement of the west."

Without going into details, which would protract too much the time, I quote from Phelan's "Tennessee" his summary, leaving out such names as are known to be of other blood:

"The names of these adventurous navigators and bold pioneers of the Cumberland country are not, all of them, recollected ; some of them follow : Mrs. Robertson, the wife of James Robertson, Col. Donelson, John Donelson, Jun., Robert Cartwright, Benjamin Porter, James Cain, Isaac Neely, John Cotton, Mr. Rounsever, Jonathan Jennings, William Crutchfield, Moses Renfroe, Joseph Renfroe, James Renfroe, Solomon Turpin, ------ Johns, Sen., Francis Armstrong, Isaac Lanier, Daniel Dunham, John Boyd, John Montgomery, John Cock-rill, and John Caffrey, with their respective families; also Mary Henry, a widow, and her family, Mary Purnell and her family, John Blackmore, and John Gibson. These, with the emigrants already mentioned as having arrived with Robertson by the way of the Kentucky trace, and the few that had remained at the bluff to take care of the growing crops, constituted the nucleus of the Cumberland community in 1780. Some of them plunged at once into the adjoining forests, and built a cabin with its necessary defenses. Col. Donelson, himself, with his connections, was of this number. He went up the Cumberland and settled upon Stone's river, a confluent of that stream, at a place on its south side. The situation was found to be too low, as the water, during a freshet, surrounded the fort, and it was, for that reason, removed to the north side."

The names Nashville and Davidson county are testimonials to the blood of the inhabitants, while Montgomery county adds another, and Sumner is dotted with licks and creeks which retain the names of these early Scotch-Irish settlers. The original Maury county is a cluster of Scotch-Irish with scarcely a drop of alien blood. The bravery of these people, coupled with their sturdy endurance of privation and savage warfare, is without any parallel in the early settlement of America. In the north-west the settler followed the soldier, often also the settler followed the roads ; here the settler was the only soldier, and no roads were known until he created them under his own organized government.

At first, as we have seen, emigrants came by a circuitous route through Kentucky or along the dangerous navigation of the Tennessee; as soon as the settlers could organize they cut a road more than two hundred miles in length from Campbell's Station, in East Tennessee, to Nashville, and sent properly officered squads to protect the emigrants en route. The stories of the heroic actions and brave endurance of many of the women on these long journeys kindled in my boyhood a passionate admiration never to be forgotten. The part taken by Mrs. Buchanan in the fort just east of Nashville, molding bullets and carrying in her apron over an uncovered space to the men as they fired from the port-holes, has been often told. At Campbell's Station, on occasion of an attack, when the men reached the house from the field, they found the women had already barred the doors, loaded the rifles, and the commander of the fort found his wife, gun in hand, at the port-hole.

While two armies, one under General Harmar and another under General St. Clair, and, finally, a third, under that thunderbolt of war, General Anthony Wayne, had been sent forward by the general government for the protection of the north-western settlers, the Tennessee settlers were left to work out their own destiny, tempted by Spanish officers, importuned by French promises. "The Indians, incited by the British and Spaniards, constantly harried around the stations, the springs, and the fields, ambushed the paths from station to station, roamed the woods like sleuth-hounds to seize the adventurous hunter, stole their horses, killed their cattle, drove off the wild game to produce famine. So terrific at one time became the ordeal, that all the stations were abandoned except Eaton's and the Bluffs (Nashville). The stationers went in armed squads to the springs, and plowed while armed sentinels guarded the fields." Deaths by Indians were of almost weekly occurrence. Many of the settlers left in despair; but the Scotch-Irish blood in the veins of Robertson, Ewing, Rains, Buchanan, and Donaldson, after solemn counsel and compact, said, we will stay. [Address of General Bright. ] On the 22d of April, 1781, the Indians, by a well planned stratagem, attempted to take the Bluffs, which was considered the Gibraltar of the Cumberland. A decoy party drew the men away from the fort into an ambush. When they dismounted to give battle, their horses dashed off toward the fort, and they were pursued by some Indians, which left a gap in their lines, through which some whites were escaping to the fort. Just then another large body of Indians were seen from the fort emerging from another ambush, intercepting the whites and making for the fort. All seemed lost. We are ready to shut our eyes upon the horrid scene, and stop our ears against the wail of women and children as they are sinking under the tomahawk and scalping-kuife. But no! the heroic women, headed by Mrs. James Robertson, seized the axes and idle guns, and planted themselves in the gate, resolved to die rather than give up the fort. Just in time, she ordered the sentry to turn loose a pack of dogs, selected for their size and courage to encounter bears and panthers, and that were frantic to join the fray. They dashed off, outyelling the savages, who recoiled before the fury of their onset, giving the men time to escape into the fort. It is said that Mrs. Robertson "patted every dog as he came into the fort."

Through it all, our first progenitors held true to their first compact of equal rights, mutual protection, impartial justice, with the reserved power of removing the unfaithful from office, and to the soil where they had elected to make their struggle for liberty and homes.

To give the temper of the Scotch-Irish women, I give the following:

A WHIG WEDDING IN DERBY DURING THE REVOLUTION.

In Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet for June 17, 1778, then published at Lancaster during the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, we find the following reference to the marriage of Jane, daughter of the Rev. John Roan, to William Clingan. Jr.:

"Was married last Thursday (June 11, 1778), Mr. William Clingan, Jr., of Donegal, to Miss Jenny Roan, of Londonderry, both of this county of Lancaster; a sober, sensible, agreeable young couple, and very sincere Whigs. This marriage promises much happiness as the state of things in this our sinful world will admit. This was truly a Whig wedding, as there were present many young gentlemen and ladies, and not one of the gentlemen but had been out when called on in the service of his country; and it was well known that the groom, in particular, had proved his heroism, as well as Whigism, in several battles and skirmishes. After the marriage was ended, a motion was made, and heartily agreed to by all present, that the young unmarried ladies should form themselves into an association by the name of the 'Whig Association of Unmarried Young Ladies of America,' in which they should pledge their honor that they would never give their hand in marriage to any gentleman until he had first proved himself a patriot, in readily turning out when called to defend his country from slavery, by a spirited and brave conduct, as they would not wish to be the mothers of a race of slaves and cowards."

All honor to the memories of those patriotic women of Dauphin in the war for independence! This was a Scotch-Irish county. Rev. John Roan was a Presbyterian, and the uncle who reared Archibald Roan, afterward governor of Tennessee. The latter was among the earlier settlers, and married the sister of Judge David and Colonel Arthur Campbell.

There are two men, Duncan Robertson and Montgomery Bell, who, on grounds of distinguished philanthropy and liberality, deserve to be mentioned in every sketch of the Scotch-Irish of our county of Davidson.

Monette, in his "Valley of the Mississippi," says: "Tennessee, not inaptly, has been called the mother of states. From the bosom of this state have issued more colonies for the peopling of the great valley of the Mississippi than from any one state in the American Union. Her emigrant citizens have formed a very important portion of the population of Alabama, of the northern half of Mississippi and Florida. They have also formed the principal portion of the early population of the states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.

The first settlers of Tennessee not only through years of manly struggle and endurance combined the work of the pioneer settler with that of soldier, but early won as volunteers the rightful claim of protector of the regions beyond them south and west. We do not deem it proper to enter into the part taken by the Scotch-Irish of western Virginia and Tennessee, and North and South Carolina, in the critical battle of Kings Mountain — that has been left for others. I may be allowed to say the men who fought that battle were almost to a man of this heroic race. In their history they are three times called upon during the revolutionary struggle to repel the combined attempt of English and Indians to crush the struggling colonies — each time they cut the lines of the advancing foe, and so dismembered the parts of the plan of operation as to thwart its ends. This is the work so brilliantly described in the pages of the "Rear Guard of the Revolution." It is too well known to detain you with its recital.

As we find a band of Scotch-Irish grouped around William Campbell at Kings Mountain, so we find in the second period of Tennessee history,

ANDREW JACKSON,

Whose father came from Carrickfergus, Ireland, to North Carolina, becomes the central figure of all the military movements of the southwest. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana alike, find in him and the Tennessee volunteers, who come at his call, their deliverers from Spanish, Indian, and British foes. The leaders who are the arms of his power are of his own race. Generals Coffe and Carrol, General Winchester, General William Hall and Colonel Henderson. In the fiercest hours of the struggle others of the race arrest the pen of history at the battle of Horseshoe. The Thirty-ninth regiment, under Colonel Williams, the brigade of East Tennesseeans, under Colonel Bunch, marched rapidly up to the breastwork and delivered a volley through the port-holes. The Indians returned the fire with effect, and, muzzle to muzzle, the combatants for a short time contended. Major L. P. Montgomery, of the Thirty-ninth, was the first man to spring upon the breastwork, where, calling upon his men to follow, he received a ball in his head, and fell dead to the ground. At that critical moment, young ensign Houston mounted the breastwork. A barbed arrow pierced his thigh; but, nothing dismayed, this gallant youth, calling his comrades to follow, leaped down among the Indians, and soon cleared a space around him with his vigorous right arm. Joined in a moment by parties of his own regiment, and by large numbers of the East Tennesseeans, the breastwork was soon cleared, the Indians retiring before them into the underbrush. The wounded ensign sat down within the fortification, and called a lieutenant of his company to draw the arrow from his thigh. Two vigorous pulls at the barbed weapon failed to extract it. In a fury of pain and impatience, Houston cried, "Try again, and if you fail this time, I will smite you to the earth." Exerting all his strength, the lieutenant drew forth the arrow, tearing the flesh fearfully, and causing an effusion of blood that compelled the wounded man to hurry over the breastwork to get the wound bandaged. While he was lying on the ground under the surgeon's hands, the general rode up, and recognizing his young acquaintance, ordered him not to cross the breastwork again. Houston begged him to recall the order, but the general repeated it peremptorily and rode on. In a few minutes the ensign had disobeyed the command, and was once more with his company, in the thick of that long hand-to-hand engagement, which consumed the hours of the afternoon. Toward the close of the afternoon it was observed that a considerable number of the Indians had found a refuge under the bluffs of the river, where a part of the breastwork, the formation of the ground, and the felled trees, gave them complete protection. Desirous to end this horrible carnage, Jackson sent a. friendly Indian to announce to them that their lives should be spared if they would surrender. They were silent for a moment, as if in consultation, and then answered the summons by a volley, which sent the interpreter bleeding from the scene. The cannon were now brought up, and played upon the spot without effect. Jackson then called for volunteers to charge: but the Indians were so well posted, that, for a minute, no one responded to the call. Ensign Houston again emerges into view on this occasion. Ordering his platoon to follow, but not waiting to see if they would follow, he rushed to the overhanging bank, which sheltered the foe, and through openings of which they were firing. Over this mine of desperate savages he paused, and looked back for his men. At that moment he received two balls in his right shoulder; his arm fell powerless to his side; he staggered out of the fire, and lay totally disabled. His share in that day's work was done. After being elected governor of Tennessee, this man became the Washington of Texas.

A CHARACTERISTIC INCIDENT

of General Jackson, which I have not seen in print, was given me by Judge Thomas Barry, of Sumner county, who knew the general well. The judge himself is a fine specimen of the race. General Jackson, after his popularity had given him a large number of namesakes through the country, was invited to a public dinner in his honor at Hartsville, now in Trousdale county. After dinner, the fond parents claimed the privilege of a hand-shake for the namesakes. Judge Barry said that at a little distance he noted the fact that to each of the boys the general gave a silver coin, accompanied by a remark he could not hear. Selecting one of the larger boys, he asked him what the general had said to him. The boy replied, "He put his thumb-nail on the word liberty, and said, 'For this our country fought through seven years; never give it up but with your life.'" To him liberty had a meaning. Men who followed him adored it. There was a sacredness and awe in the tones in which they spoke of it, showing its profound impress upon the strong mold of their natures. Jackson not only delivered the south-west, but gave us much of what is distinctive in the principles, and all of what is marked in the methods of the Democratic party, affecting the life of the nation as no man after Washington and before Lincoln has done.

THE CONSTITUTION OF TENNESSEE,

in the formation of which he took a prominent part, was pronounced by Thomas Jefferson the "most republican of all the constitutions adopted by the states." Jackson's love of liberty and of the Union atone for much of his personal tyranny when in office. His force of will brooked no opposition; his intensity allowed no friendship beyond the bounds of agreement; his fiery temper was an exaggeration of true Scotch Irish devotion to principle and enthusiasm for right.

Besides the prominent soldiers who co-operated with Jackson, we have" among his contemporaries of Scotch-Irish blood Hugh L. White, who in one of Jackson's greatest extremities left the judicial bench to lead a party of volunteers to the rescue. A man who was brave as Jackson, as deeply enamored of his country's freedom, but one who knew no arts to win popular applause beyond lofty adherence to principle, the man who as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States won the vote of his own state over Jackson's active opposition, one of the purest and ablest of American statesmen, second only as a statesman to one Tennessean — John Bell.

The father of John Bell, Samuel Bell, came from North Carolina to Tennessee. His wife was Margaret Edmonson, of a family largely represented in the battle of King's Mountain, and in all subsequent military expeditions from Tennessee — Scotch-Irish on both sides.

JOHN BELL

was a student with Craighead in his boyhood; elected to Congress over Felix Grundy, who was supported by the warm personal influence of General Jackson; a warm admirer of J. C. Calhoun, but of such thorough independence of character, that he was placed as chairman of the committee in the House before which it was supposed Mr. Calhoun's resolutions would come for consideration; elected speaker of the House over James K. Polk; supported Hugh L. White for President, and while White carried the state, Bell carried the Hermitage district over the whole force of the administration and the indomitable exertions of General Jackson; entered the Senate, where he stood for the Union through every change of administration; favored the right of petition on the part of the abolitionists when the whole South and many of the northern statesmen refused them the privilege; was secretary of war under Harrison ; resigned when he could not agree with Tyler; declined the offer of re-election to the Senate, on the grounds that E. H. Foster deserved it at the hands of his party — rare man; was re-elected at the next vacancy; stood for the compromise of 1850; opposed the doctrine "to the victor belongs the spoils." One of the best, most independent of American statesmen, who through all his career loved the American Union more than he loved party or power.

Before leaving John Bell, duty to the race whose place in American civilization we are seeking to indicate, demands a reference to the remarkable attitude held by him and Stephen A. Douglas at the second most critical juncture in American history. We have seen our ancestral part in the earlier era; again, in the trying epoch of the nation, when the hour came to test the power of the Union to hold in one the states which had been gathered under the constitution, the race stands out with a prominence that I have seen accorded them in no annals of the times.

In the Presidential contest of 1860, Lincoln represented the extreme opinions of the North, Breckinridge the extreme opinions of the South. The Scotch-Irish Bell and Douglas stood for the Union under the constitution. They represented, the one, the conservatism of the old Whig party, the other, the conservative element in the Northern Democratic party. Whatever of honor there is in love of the Union, we claim that honor for the Scotch-Irish, as represented by these two sons in the hour of our country's greatest peril.

The chronological order of events demands that we turn back to the period of the last Indian war, with the Seminoles in Florida, when Tennessee again is found with her volunteers in the fore-front of the fight. General Robert Armstrong, Colonel Wm. Trousdale, and Captain Wm. B. Campbell, leading spirits of the hour, were all from Scotch-Irish ancestors. These we have traced; many, perhaps all others, were of the same blood, but the proof has not come to us, though asked for again and again.

We ought to mention that pure man, Mr. Sommerville, cashier of the bank at Nashville, by whose indomitable energy the money was raised that enabled General Carrol to reach New Orleans at the critical moment for the battle of New Orleans, where Jackson, with two Scotch-Irish general officers and an army of like blood, won deathless fame. The world has kept the name of the warrior, but allowed to be almost forgotten the name of the quiet patriot who "handled millions, but died poor."

JAMES K. POLK.

We have found the first President Tennessee gave to the United States of Scotch-Irish blood, so we find the second, James K. Polk. It is said by a historian that the most brilliant career of any man in the White House was that of James K. Polk. About his early career gather White, Bell, Cave Johnson, Catron, and the great Socratic lawyer, John Marshall, of Williamson county. They, with his first opponent for governor of the state, Newton Cannon, were of the same race. In this canvass the latest historian of Tennessee says: "Polk opened the campaign on his side by an address to the people of Tennessee perhaps the ablest political document which appeared in this state up to the time of the war."

His agency in adding the boundless West to the domain of the United States needs no eulogy at this late day. Without the Pacific coast, as we have it, the United States would have been one of the great nations of the world; with it, she inevitably must hold at no distant future an unrivaled pre-eminence. The time is now on us when the world must realize that in potency we can be classed with no other nationality.

In the Mexican war again we look for the Tennessee volunteers, and in addition to the names of Trousdale and Campbell, that of B. F. Cheatham, who had gone as captain in the First, when that regiment was disbanded at the close of the year for which it was enlisted, raised another regiment, of which he was made colonel. Cheatham had the blood of James Robertson in his veins. He proved in the war between the states a veritable thunderbolt of war; a man of the staunchest integrity. All the men from Tennessee prominent in the Mexican war were of Scotch-Irish blood, with, perhaps, the exception of General Gideon Pillow. I believe him to be of the same blood, from his relation to Colonel Wm. Pillow, of whom Ramsey says: "Among other emigrants from North Carolina to Cumberland was the father of William Pillow. He came through the wilderness with the guard commanded by Captain Elijah Robertson, and settled four miles south of Nashville, at Brown's station. The son, William Pillow, was in most of the expeditions carried on against the Indians, from the time of his arrival in the country to the close of the Indian war."

He was the hero and victor of Fort Donelson in the recent war. He has never been accorded his due for his brilliant fighting there. The Mexican war showed the volunteer spirit of Tennessee undimmed. Ten men volunteered their services for one accepted. Phelan's history thus speaks of two of Tennessee's soldiers in this war:

GENERAL WILLIAM TROUSDALE,

whose popular sobriquet was the "War Horse of Sumner County," was born September 23, 1790, in Orange county, North Carolina, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. In 1796, his father removed with him to Davidson county, Tennessee. When a boy at school he had joined the expedition against the Creek Indians, and was at Tallahatchie and Talladega. During the Creek war, in pursuance of some duty, he swam the Tennessee river, near the Muscle Shoals, being on horseback, although unable to swim himself. He was also at Pensacola and New Orleans during the War of 1812. In 1835, he was in the state senate, and in 1836 major-general of the militia. He fought through the Seminole war of 1836. In 1837, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. In 1840, he was a Van Buren elector. He fought through the Mexican war with great bravery, and was twice wounded at Chapultepec. He was made brigadier-general by brevet in the United States army for gallant and meritorious conduct in that engagement. Trousdale was a man of sound understanding and pure character, and intellectually not inferior to his competitor. He was elected by a majority of 1,390.

WM. B. CAMPBELL,

who opposed Trousdale in the next gubernatorial race, was descended from a line of distinguished Revolutionary heroes. He finished his education, which was solid and liberal, under his uncle, Governor David Campbell, of Virginia, under whose supervision he studied law. He returned to Tennessee, and in 1829 was elected attorney-general. In 1836, he resigned his seat as a member of the legislature, and as captain entered the Florida war, through which he fought with honor. In 1837, he defeated General Trousdale for Congress, and again in 1839. In 1841, he was elected without opposition. He fought gallantly through the Mexican war as colonel of the First Regiment, whose desperate bravery won for it the sobriquet of "The Bloody First." Campbell himself led the charge at Monterey, and his troops hoisted the first flag on the walls of the Mexican city. This was perhaps the most brilliant feat of arms accomplished during the war. The form of Campbell's command to charge, "Boys, follow me," became historic, and was also the favorite battle-cry of the Whigs during the campaign that elected him governor. In 1848, he was elected circuit judge by the legislature, and in 1851 he was nominated by acclamation for governor by the Whigs. Trousdale and Campbell were cast in the same mold. Both were men of pure character, of high purpose, of stern integrity, possessing sound practical sense, without brilliancy of parts or fluency of tongue, and both were conservative and courageous. "Two gamer cocks," says one writer, "were never pitted against each other in a canvass for governor."

"Virginia and Massachusetts are the only states which have furnished more names that stand higher on the national roll of honor than Tennessee. Not to mention Tennesseans who, like Tipton, of Indiana; Houston, of Texas; Benton, of Missouri; Garland and Sevier and Hindman, of Arkansas; Claiborne, of Louisiana; Henry Watterson, of Kentucky; Sharkey and Yerger, of Mississippi; Gwin, of California; and Admiral Farragut, have attained influence and celebrity either local or national in other states, Tennessee has given the national government a number of

PRESIDENTS AND CABINET OFFICERS

entirely out of proportion to its wealth and population. George W. Campbell was secretary of the treasury under Madison. Andrew Jackson was President from 1829 to 1837. John H. Eaton was secretary of war under Jackson. Felix Grundy was attorney-general under Van Buren. John Bell was secretary of war under Harrison and Tyler. Cave Johnson was postmaster-general under Polk, and Polk himself was President from 1845 to 1849. Tennessee has furnished the House of Representatives two speakers, Bell and Polk, and the Senate one presiding officer, in the person of H. L. White, in 1832.

"In addition to this, Tennessee has had two unsuccessful candidates for the Vice-presidency, James K. Polk, in 1840, and A. J. Donelson, on the ticket with Fillmore, in 1856, and two unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency, H. L. White, in 1836, and John Bell, in 1860. John Catron was on the supreme bench of the United States from 1837 to 1865. Joseph Anderson was the first comptroller of the United States, from 1815 to 1836. William B. Lewis was the second auditor from 1829 to 1845. Daniel Graham was register of the treasury from 1847 to 1849, and A. A. Hall from 1849 to 1851 and 1853.

"In addition to this, Tennessee has furnished innumerable representatives to the diplomatic service abroad, two of them, George W. Campbell and Neil S. Brown, to the same court — Russia."

"The quaintest, the most striking, the most original figure in south-western history was David Crockett. Brownlow, the fighting parson, the caustic writer, the politician, was a Tennessean—governor and senator. The filibustering expeditions, just preceding the war, were full of romantic episodes. The leading figure in them was William Walker, the 'Grey-eyed Man of Destiny,' whose exploits in Nicarauga for a time attracted the gaze of Europe and America, and whose sad and tragic fate has been described in the glowing and sensuous verses of Joaquin Miller. The war between the states brought to the surface many men of strong character and pronounced individuality, but the most brilliant, the most original, the most attractive, the most dashing of all, was

N. B. FORREST,

a Tennessean. Joe C. Guild, the odd wag and the quaint humorist, whose memory still lives in the traditions of the story-teller and the anecdote-monger, was a Tennessean. Bailie Peyton, the peripatetic politician and brilliant orator, was a Tennessean. The period from 1836 to 1860 was an era of great men and great orators. The style of oratory was characteristic, and nearly always brilliant — full of fire and gorgeous flights of fancy and rhetorical adornment. Gus Henry was the eagle orator. James C. Jones was a figure of national prominence, and was frequently suggested as a candidate for speaker. M. P. Gentry was a leader in Congress, and an orator of the first magnitude. After his first speech in Congress, John Quincy Adams, who took pleasure in observing new members of Congress, declared that he was 'the greatest natural orator in Congress.' Landon C. Haynes, the Confederate senator, was also noted for the dazzling brilliancy of his rhetoric." The Irish-Scotch William Walker, here mentioned, was descended from the McClellans, a family whose genealogy is traced back through many of the early settlers of Virginia, Tennessee, and Worth Carolina to the north of Ireland, and thence to Scotland in the twelfth century, where they held noble position. To the same family belongs Prof. A. H. Buchanan, of Cumberland University. The record involves many of the best families of Lincoln and Giles counties, and of North Alabama. It will be filed with the historical papers.

PRESBYTERIANS.

We turn from the secular to the religious, and in as compact manner as possible give the place of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in Tennessee; as the family is largely represented in Tennessee, I begin with Dr. Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. [Omitted, as he was fully represented by another speaker.]

Dr. Caldwell, of North Carolina, first president of the State University, has worthy descendants in Tennessee. The family honor has been maintained in the worthy representative in Congress from the Hermitage district, the Hon. Andrew Caldwell. Caruthers, of North Carolina, has a large progeny in Tennessee. One was Judge A. Caruthers, founder of the celebrated law school of Cumberland University, whose influence as lawyer and Christian has gone far toward peopling the south-west with Christian lawyers. His brother, Judge Robert L. Caruthers, of the Supreme Court, the most powerful force in giving success to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. E. B. Currie, of North Carolina, whose descendants have held distinguished places in Tennessee history, especially in the postal service. Rev. Gideon Blackburn was a right arm of power to General Jackson through all the struggles of the early settlement of Tennessee. "It is worthy of remark that the first four prominent educators of Tennessee, Doak, Craighead, Carrick, and Balch, were all of Scotch-Irish descent, and members of the same Presbytery. The Bible and the school-book were borne together across the Alleghanies by men in whose veins flowed the blood which had withstood the oppression of three centuries."

That America should have owed its independence at the era when it occurred, to the Scotch-Irish settlers, and foremost among them to

THE PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS,

that at the close of the revolutionary struggle, with the popularity and decided prestige which belonged to that ministry, with the education and purity of life which was theirs in so eminent a degree, with the priority of occupancy, that they should have been so quickly distanced in the struggle for the rescue from sin and vice of the hardy settlers and their children by the Methodist preachers, is a matter for profound study. The Presbyterians held, as pioneers of liberty, the foremost place in the popular mind and heart, and deserved the place they held. The Methodist preachers came out of the struggle almost without a single laurel of freedom on their brows. as preachers ; as men, many of them were soldiers before they became preachers. The government of America had been fashioned in its fundamental principles after the pattern set them by the Presbyterian Church.

Before my recent studies, I had given to Thomas Jefferson and French political theories credit for a much larger share in our governmental principles and forms than I can ever do again. The great principle of no taxation without representation, we owe to the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. For the insertion of the constitutional provision against the union of church and state, we are alike indebted to them. With all this debt of gratitude, we do well to ask why has a church whose government for nearly a hundred years gave no voice to the people on questions of taxation, and allowed little more individual freedom than Jesuitism itself, so surpassed in its growth the church of our fathers? Results so stupendous as these are not matters of chance. This is neither the time nor place to discuss the problem. I present it because it is incumbent on some future philosophic Christian historian of the race to solve it for the world's good.

Do we find a part of the solution the following?

Dr. McDonald, in his history of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, just from the press, says:

"The Southern Presbyterian Church, which has been so wonderfully conservative, is seriously considering the propriety of changing its standard on this subject. A standing committee has been appointed to investigate the question. A long circular has been sent out by one of that committee, ably advocating the change. This circular shows that the ratio of increase in a hundred years between the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches is as 47 to 1051. It shows that 'aptness to teach,' which is a Bible qualification, is not proved by the possession of a college diploma, which is not. Indeed, there is no essential connection between the two."

SCOTCH-IRISH THREAD IN METHODISM.

We find the Scotch-Irish represented among the early Methodist preachers of Tennessee, by Thomas Logan Douglass, Hubbard Saunders, who married a daughter of General Russell, of revolutionary fame, whose wife, Madam Russell, was a sister of Patrick Henry, James Gwin, chaplain, adviser, and trusted friend of General Jackson, at some of the most critical periods in his stormy career, John McGhee, who, with his brother, a Presbyterian preacher, had a large part in the revival out of which sprung the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Among the early laymen we find as members of the first society organized at Nashville, General James Robertson and wife; a little later, Colonel Robert Weakley. Among the earliest converts in Sumner county, Lindsay, McNelly, Crane, the Carrs, Cages, and Douglass family. But a little later, Mrs. Bowen, who was another daughter of General Russell, and pronounced by general Jackson the most remarkable woman he ever knew — her place of prayer and devotional reading, the hollow of a sycamore tree, I have seen, the interior of which she had lined with devotional clippings, prose and poetry.

The bishop, who had most to do in planting Methodism in Tennessee, Bishop William McKendree, and the bishop who last died in the state, Bishop McTyeire, were, as I take it, both Scotch-Irish. Their names and places of birth indicate the fact, while their mental characteristics are markedly of the racial type. Both of them bold and urgent for the enfranchisement of the rank and file of the church before they were separated from the mass by their elevation to the episcopacy. Bishop McKendree, before he came under the personal influence of Asbury, sympathized greatly with O'Kelly in his cry for freedom of government, a cry which gave birth to Protestant Methodism.

H. K. M'TYEIRE,

Before his elevation, was the resolute, adroit, persistent, and finally victorious advocate for lay representation in the councils of the church. Yet when clothed with the episcopal office, they were both as prominent for their high exercise of episcopal prerogative as was Jackson himself in the presidential chair, or in the roll of military chieftain. Strenuous for liberty when under authority, stalwart for prerogative when gifted with authority. Of the men most marked in the history of Tennessee, as exerting the most influential and long-continued influence over the destinies of Methodism, we have John B. McFerrin and David R. McAnally. Dr. McFerrin, in his History of Methodism in Tennessee, speaking of Mr. Craighead, the earliest Presbyterian preacher, says, "Mr. Craighead was a man of learning, and long lived at his first residence in the state, and devoted most of his time to the education of the youth of the, country. In this field he was very useful, and, as an educator, left a noble reputation. As a preacher he was formal, and somewhat eccentric, but he has left behind him the savor of a good name."

It can be little doubted that had Craighead been writing of McFerrin, he would have written "A strong man, gifted with power to sway the masses, but as a preacher, of marked eccentricity." Most of men who make the age feel them, and who leave behind them a distinct impress, are written down by the many as eccentric.

JOHN NEWLAND MAFFET,

From the North of Ireland, the wonderful orator who swept like a comet over the Union, followed by vast crowds, was for a time a. resident of Nashville, and pastor of the leading Methodist church. Philip Neely, perhaps the most eloquent of Tennessee's many eloquent men, was Scotch-Irish. F. E. Pitts, who rivaled Whitfield in his power to move masses, was of Scotch-Irish blood. Jesse Cunningham, a preacher of East Tennessee, whose son, Rev. W. 6. E. Cunningham, has won high position in Methodism, claims our notice, as well as Peter Cartwright and James Axley. Dr. McFerrin, in his Methodism in Tennessee, thus characterizes a band of Scotch-Irish preachers. "The pathos of Massie and Lee, the logic of McHenry and Burke, the polemical power of Page and Garrett, the zeal and piety of Walker and Lakin, the unction and poetry of Wilkerson and Gwin, the thundering and lightning of McGee and Granade, and the fine talents and noble bearing of McKendree and Blackman, drew the multitudes to Methodist meetings, and brought thousands of the best people of the land into the church. And these men of God went into the hovels of the poor and sought the halt and blind, the maimed and the distressed, preached to them Jesus and the resurrection, and won multitudes to the cross of Christ."

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OR THE IRISH-SCOTCH CHURCH.

This church is the child of the Irish-Scotch of Kentucky and Tennessee. As the race itself is the synthesis of two races, the birth of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is the analysis of the two races which reappear, the Scotch blood as Presbyterian, the Irish as. Cumberland. The one true to its logic, the other striding along across all logical paths as enthusiasm may lead. Each is a source of honor to the other, and a second synthesis would be a blessing to our land, the chief religious curse of which is the multiplication of sects. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has abounded in energy, which has produced large results.

A very characteristic statement of the standpoint of its origin is given in "McDonald's History," page 100.

"We have far more confidence in a system of theology growing out of a revival than in a system made by scholastics writing in the midst of their books and aiming at logical consistency."

Let us see the revival as it appears in history. [Phelan.]

The re-awaking Christian energy which ushered in the nineteenth century, and which introduced a new method of spiritual propagandism and enlightenment into American Christianity, was due to a man whose name has almost been forgotten by the great body of the people. This was James M'Gready, who was born in Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish parents. When young, he was removed to North Carolina, and was under the pastorate of John Caldwell. He was, as a boy, of a naturally grave and serious disposition, and was early destined for the ministry. He thought himself devout and a true Christian. But he accidentally overheard a remark made by one whom he respected, that he had not a spark of religion in his heart. He was aggrieved and surprised. He thought over what he had heard. Light began to dawn upon him. Returning to North Carolina, he commenced preaching in earnest. In 1790, he married, and took charge of a church in Orange county. He was accused of "running people distracted, diverting their attention from the necessary avocations of life, and creating unnecessary alarm in the minds of those who were decent and orderly in their lives." A letter written in blood ordered him to leave the country. His church was attacked. His pulpit was set on fire. In 1796, he removed to Kentucky. Here he took charge of three congregations in Logan county — Gasper river, Red river, and Muddy river. He infused new life into them. The people were aroused. His reputation spread. His influence grew. People came miles and miles to hear him. The walls of sectarianism were thrown down. He joined with Methodists in the work of reviving the love of Christ. William M'Gee, a Presbyterian, was located first at Shiloh, near Gallatin, Tennessee, then on Drake's creek, in Sumner county. His brother, John M'Gee, was a Methodist. In June, 1800, the two brothers assisted M'Gready at the Red river meeting-house, where the great revival fully developed itself. The crowd was enormous, and many were compelled to sleep in the open air under the trees. It was noticed that some had brought tents and food. This suggested the idea of a camp-meeting. The next month,

THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING

the world had ever seen was held at Gasper river church, in Logan county, Kentucky. The spirit spread wider and wider, farther and farther. A peculiar physical manifestation accompanied these revivals, popularly known as the "jerks." They were involuntary and irresistible. When under their influence, the sufferers would dance, or sing, or shout. Sometimes they would sway from side to side, or throw the head backward and forward, or leap, or spring. Generally, those under the influence would, at the end, fall upon the ground and remain rigid for hours, and sometimes whole multitudes would become dumb and fall prostrate. As the swoon passed away, the sufferer would weep piteously, moan, and sob. After a while, the gloom would lift, a smile of heavenly peace would radiate the countenance, and words of joy and rapture would break forth, and conversion always followed. Even the most skeptical, even the scoffers who visited these meetings for the purpose of showing their hardihood, would be taken in this way. As the inspiration spread, the

DEMAND FOR NEW PREACHERS

was greater than the church could supply. In this demand the Cumberland Church had its origin. David Rice, the leading member of the Transylvania Presbytery, visited the Cumberland country. Convinced that the revivals were doing great good, and appreciating the lack of preachers, he suggested that laymen possessing the proper qualifications for carrying on the work should be selected to apply for membership in the Presbytery. Alexander Anderson, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King applied, and were licensed to exhort.

Of Scotch-Irish we have marked these as prominent in the early days of this church: Robert Donnel, Thos. Calhoun, T. O. Anderson, J. M. McMurray. This church has come to number 150,000.

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL — THE SCOTCH-IRISH CHURCH.

So large a place has been gained by the followers of the Scotch-Irish Alexander Campbell in Tennessee, and he was himself so often here, that no sketch of the religions of the race would be complete without reference to him. A man who was bold enough to attempt to reform, and in most of what he taught reverse the theology of the ages, who fought his way single-handed and alone, who resorted to no appeals to the passions, who was the death of enthusiasm, and sought his conquests alone by the force of logic, arrests the pen of history while he claims rightful place. He stands uniquely apart from the religious reformers of the world as history has given them to us. His success, which has been as marked as his courage was dauntless, demands for him a foremost place among the celebrated men of the race. John C. Calhoun, perhaps, of all the race, is his peer in analytical powers, in persistence in unfaltering adherence to the results of logic without giving place to either passion or expediency. He belongs to the same Scotch-Irish family before referred to, was brought up in the Presbyterian Church, trained in the theology of the schools. He came on the scene of action just as the reverse tide began to set in after the great excitement and religious furor of the early part of this century. His movement has been improperly called a reformation; it was, in doctrine, methods, and purposes, a rebellion.

The creeds of Presbyterian ism, the revivals of Methodists, Baptists, and Cumberland Presbyterians, were attacked with a persistency that knew no abatement. He had some grounds for his points of attack. Protestantism had gone much too far along the line of credal infallibility, while many of the churches of Kentucky and Tennessee had narrowed down evangelical methods to one, "the mourners' bench or anxious seat," the evidences of conversion had practically become the measure of the emotions. It has taken Alexander Campbell and his followers a half century to draw the old churches out of the pent-up Utica, into which reverence for misplaced creeds on the one hand, and exaggeration of emotion on the other, had drifted them. The evidences of the good accomplished by him along these lines in the life and action of the churches is becoming every day more apparent. When Christendom comes to

VALUE CREEDS AS MILE-STONES

to mark progress, instead of anchors to forbid further movement, the followers of Alexander Campbell may be able to meet us half way, and allow that creeds have a rightful place. Whether they do or not, the age owes to Alexander Campbell a debt larger, perhaps, than to any other one man of the pulpit of the century, Henry Ward Beecher excepted.

Beecher denounced the binding nature of creeds as fearlessly as did Alexander Campbell, but never was narrow enough in his intensity to be blinded to the fact that it was the abuse, not the use of creeds that had so damned up Christian growth.

The Scotch-Irish stick-to-right exaltation of minor points into fundamental principles, the contentious character of the race, has no better example than in Alexander Campbell and his followers. His refusal of all creeds, his abandonment of all established forms of government, was carrying to its extreme logical results the central principles of Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism. Taking the Bible as interpreted by every individual as the only source of right belief and action, his Scotch-Irish blood at once goes forward along its hereditary tendencies to construe a book full of tropes, figures, and parables redolent of lofty imagery, by the literalism of the unimaginative Scotch metaphysics, resulting in the narrowest of possible structures on the broadest of foundations. Yet so just were many of his criticisms on the credal and emotional religions of his day, so welcome was his doctrine of equal rights in the kingdom of Christ to all members, so attractive has been the field for activity presented to laymen, that, measured by the number of his followers, he stands unrivaled in the history of the religious movements of the world.

A prophecy is on my lips, but I repress it. A single suggestion I make. Had it not been for the exaltation of a symbol into the place of a vital power by a faulty literalism, had it not been for the narrow refusal to utilize such helps of government as Christian enlightenment has approved, not as essentials, but as convenient scaffolding, their success would have been as the torrent compared with the wave-like growth of their history.

The following from Mr. Campbell shows his standpoint in contrast to that given by McDonald as characteristic of Cumberland Presbyterian church:

"What I am in religion, I am from examination, reflection, conviction, not from ipse dixit, tradition, or human authority; and, having halted and faltered and stumbled, I have explored every inch of the way hitherto. Though my father and I accord in sentiment, neither of us are dictators or imatators. Neither of us lead; neither of us follow."  [Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, pp. 466, 467. [Letter to his uncle in Ireland.]]

This, with the whole history of this church, so vividly recalls Par-ton's picture of Scotch-Irish character in his life of Jackson, that we call attention to it in closing.

"One trait in the character of these people demands the particular attention of the reader. It is their nature to contend for what they think is right with peculiar earnestness. Some of them, too, have a knack of extracting from every affair in which they may engage, and from every relation in life which they form, the very largest amount of contention which it can be made to yield. Hot water would seem to be the natural element of some of them, for they are always in it. It appears to be more difficult for a North of Irelander than for other men to allow an honest difference of opinion in an opponent; so that he is apt to regard the terms

OPPONENT AND ENEMY

As synonymous. Hence, in the political and sectarian contests of the present day, he occasionally exhibits a narrowness, if not ferocity of spirit, such as his forefathers manifested id the old wars of the clans and the borders, or in the later strifes between Catholic and Protestant." It is strange that so kind and generous a people should be so fierce in contention. "Their factions," says Sir Walter Scott, speaking of the Irish generally, "have been so long envenomed, and they have such a narrow ground to do their battle in, that they are like people fighting with daggers in a hogshead." And these very people, apart from their strifes, are singularly tender in their feelings, liberal in gifts and hospitality, and most easy to be entreated. On great questions, too, which lift the mind above sectarian trivialities, they will, as a people, be invariably found on the anti-diabolic side: equally strenuous for liberty and for law, against "mobs and monarchs, lords and levelers," as one of their own stump orators expressed it. The name which Bul-wer bestows upon one of his characters, Stick-to-rights, describes every genuine son of Ulster. Among the men of North of Ireland stock, whose names are familiar to the people of the United States, the following may serve to illustrate some of the foregoing remarks: John Stark, Robert Fulton, John C. Calhoun, Sam Houston, David Crockett, Hugh L. White, James K. Polk, Patrick Bronte, Horace Greely, Robert Bonner, A. T. Stewart, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Benton, James G. Blaine, Judge Jervis Black.

Judging by the ocean-like roll of his heart, I am inclined to add to these the name of Abraham Lincoln, and am much disposed to believe that the sturdy honesty of Grover Cleveland springs from the same source.

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