Tweet
For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Chvrches
In a basement flat in the west end of Glasgow, the trio behind Chvrches, Lauren Mayberry, Ian Cook and Martin Doherty, recently created one of the most brilliant and compelling albums to have emerged at any time in the history of Scottish music. I realise that’s quite a statement, but it’s one I can back up with more than mere opinion.
Read more at: http://www.scottishreview.net/JordanOgg15a.html
I added a thread for them in the community with some YouTube videos at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show.../4982-Chvrches
And now for some news from the Scottish Press...
Scotland's jobs stagnation
Is it only the trouble in the oil and gas sector that is weighing on the Scottish economy? Or do recent job figures suggest something else is going on?
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-34788448
Scottish unemployment total rises by 11,000
The jobless total north of the border increased by 11,000 in the three months to September, to stand at 166,000.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-34786547
Oil forecaster warns of lower prices to the end of the decade
THE world's leading oil forecaster has warned of continuing oversupply and low prices up to 2020, in a fresh blow to the North Sea industry.
Read more at:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1..._of_the_decade
Scotland Bill: Scottish powers bill backed by Commons
MPs have backed the Scotland Bill on new devolved powers as it completed its final stages in the Commons.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-34760508
Haggis recipe should be tweaked to beat US import ban
Richard Lochhead, who will be in the US this week, said selling Scottish haggis to the Americans would be worth millions to the Scottish economy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34759665
Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34757254
Lang may yer lum reek: Best ever Scottish phrases
We're proud of our Scottish sayings, so we decided to put together a list of some of the best ones
Read more at:
http://www.sundaypost.com/lang-may-y...rases-1.908869
No business case for Police Scotland creation
Scotland’s single police force was created without a business case being prepared by the Scottish Government
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...#axzz3qGKYsYe5
Former supermodel takes on Scottish classic
Former supermodel Agyness Deyn admits she knew nothing of the classic Scottish novel Sunset Song before she got involved in acclaimed director Terence Davies's new film.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34786525
Electric Scotland may be down for a short time
We are moving our DNS back from Ezoic to our own DNS. This type of move usually means we may not be accessible for a short period or up to 24 hours. The reason is that Domain Name Servers need to be updated and pretty well all the major DNS servers are updated within 2 hours but many smaller ones may only update every 24 hours. So until the DNS servers updates their information for Electric Scotland they will still point to the old location. So this is just to advise you that this change will take place this evening (Thursday).
Essentially I've never been happy with the templates and caching that Ezoic were doing for our site so we're now reverting back to our old system.
We are also working on transferring our site hosting to Simon Fraser University but not sure how long this will take. They have now made available a Windows server so that's a major step forward. We now need to transfer all our data over and other programs and make sure they are all working as they should. This could well take us into the New Year but know that we're working on this.
Electric Canadian
A Boys narrative of the Adventures of a Settlers Family in Canada
Edited by John C. Geikie (1865)
I must confess to enjoying this book. I've read up to Chapter VI since I put it up and continuing to read the book as I get the chance. Of course this title is a touch misleading as the author is recollecting his time settling in Canada when he was a young lad and goes into great detail of his time on a farm including a very detailed description of those nasty insects you come across in Canada!
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...inthewoods.pdf
Address of the Canadian Campbell's to the Marquess of Lorne
I made this book available as it contains many names of Campbell's in Canada which I thought might be useful for folk interested in Genealogy.
You can get to this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../campbells.htm
Mounted Police Life in Canada
A Record of Thirty-one Years Service by Captain R. Burton Deane (1916) (pdf)
It's my impression, rightly or wrongly, that the old RCMP were a great force greatly respected by Canadians but I have some doubts about them today in our modern society.
The book starts in 1863 as the North West Mounted Police in Regina. I found it very interesting as at this time the force was more a mob and so through this book you can see how the officer gradually got procedures in place to the great benefit of the force.
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...ntedpolice.pdf
Electric Scotland
Our Summer in the Harz Forest
By A Scotch Family (1865
I found this book very interesting and as we have a section on our site about Scots in Germany I thought I'd make this available to you.
You can download this from our Germany page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ny/history.htm
Domestic Medicine and Hygiene
Being a short account of the most common diseases, their causes and treatment, written in plain language by William J. Russell, M.D. (1878) (pdf)
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...icmedicine.pdf
MacDuffee
I added a page for the MacDuffee name but have just added a newsletter from them under the Clan History page as I am awaiting further information. The Chief has been contacted and I am just waiting to hear back from him.
You can read the newsletter at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...macduffee.html
Balmoral Reel Book
A Collection of the most admired Reels, Strathspeys, Country Dances, Schottisches, Jigs, Quadrilles, Hornpipes, Polkas, etc., arranged for the Violin (pdf)
I figured this book might be of use to folk that like to read sheet music and you can download this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/musi...alReelBook.pdf
Hen-ery Honey-Bee
A new song in English by John Henderson
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel599.htm
My Canadian Journal
I added some additional material to my Canadian Journal to cover my application for Old Age Pensions, my eligibility to join the Ontario Drug Plan and some problems I had with my plumbing.
As some of you may remember I added to this journal on a regular basis until after I got Canadian citizenship after which I stopped it. However I did create an additional page where on the odd occasion I thought it might be useful to add some additional material.
You can get to this page at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_bits.htm
The complete Scottish and American poems of James Kennedy
by Kennedy, James, 1848-1922 (pdf)
John Henderson pointed out this book to me and thought it might be a good addition to the site and having acquired a copy I have to agree.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/jameskennedy.pdf
The Scottish Guardian
Volume the Second January to December 1865.
Another magazine publication that I'd never heard of so posted up this volume for you to read. I couldn't find any other issues but if you like this you might be able to find more.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/book...shguardian.pdf
History of Scottish Medicine
I found a 2 volume 2nd edition of this publication so added a link to it at the foot of the first edition page which you can get to at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...edicinendx.htm
The Scottish Parliament before The Union of the Crowns
I added this essay to the foot of our "Opening of the Scottish Parliament" page. It's rather interesting to see what we gave up to obtain a UK Government.
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.net/scotland/scotparl.htm
THE STORY
The Scotch
Taken from the book, "The Makers of the American Republic" by David Gregg. [Delivered in Baltimore, Md., before the Presbyterian Union of that City.]
To-night we are to speak of the Scotch and their descendants as makers of America. They were the first on soil openly to advocate American independence. We wish to do for them what the famous poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott, has done for the physical beauties of the landscape of Scotia, viz., make them known. Scott has not added one particle of beauty to a single sprig of heather he has not put a single additional touch of color upon a single blue bell he has not created one added glint of light on beloved lakes; he has not changed a particle of the country concerning winch he so beautifully wrote. He has simply looked at Mid-Lothian, Lomond, and the Trosachs with his own eyes, has seen for himself the beauty and grandeur of nature's handiwork in Scotia, and has told ill and poetry just what he has seen. What Scott has done for the physical country we must do for the noble actions of the Scotch, viz., take them ill tell them out.
Where shall I begin? With John Knox. And why begin with John Knox? Because the Scotch-Americans are the sons of his faith, just as, spiritually, Knox himself is the son of John Calvin. The political truth which the Scotch-Americans held and for which they fought in revolutionary times and in pre-revolutionary times was not a mushroom growth of a single night; it was the oak of centuries. It was the result of the unwavering fidelity which for two full centuries held sacred the political tenets of John Knox, the apostle of liberty, who said to the haughty queen, "If princes exceed their bounds they may be resisted by force." In that magnificent sentiment, uttered with a magnificent fearlessness, I hear the far-off drum-beat of the American Revolution. Froude, the greatest of modern English historians, declares of this bold utterance of John Knox, "It is the creed of republics in its first hard form." This utterance of John Knox became ingrained in the very being of all true Scotchmen, and they believed it and asserted it and lived it. In our own age a son of Scottish faith has said, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall never perish from the earth." This saying, received with universal applause, has been lifted into a classic by the American people of the nineteenth century. But what is this saying? Only the utterance of John Knox grown large.
I have referred to John Knox as a spiritual son of John Calvin. He went straight from Calvin's home in Geneva to Scotland when, at the call of his countrymen, he entered Scotland to inaugurate the glorious reformation which he carried to success. His theology was Calvinistic, and so has been the theology of his descendants. This gives me an opportunity to speak a passing word for Calvinism. I do not ask you to-clay to read Calvin's "Institutes" or to study Calvin's commentaries, but I do ask you to read Calvin as he has written himself into history and then take the measure of Calvin. In history John Calvin wrote Swiss Protestantism, and French Huguenotism, and English Puritanism, and Scotch sturdiness of faith, and New England Pilgrimisin. He put into human life a sense of reverence, and of liberty founded on reverence, and these will last in the world long after his " Institutes " and commentaries have become wormeaten and have crumbled into dust. Now the point I wish to emphasize is this: Calvin has blessed America through John Knox. Listen to the voice of the great historians here. Buckle says, "Wherever it has gone in France, Switzerland, Britain, America, the Calvinistic faith has shown itself the unfailing friend of constitutional liberty." D'Aubigné says, "Calvin was the founder of the greatest of republics: the oppressed who went to America were the sons of his faith." Motley says, "Holland, England, America, owe their liberties to the Calvinists." Bancroft says, "He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American independence. . . . The light of his genius shattered the mask of darkness which superstition had held for centuries before the brow of religion." These are the voices of the authorities in history, and we can see how facts accord with their testimony to Calvinism. Calvinism exalts as its cardinal doctrine the absolute sovereignty of God. Let a man believe with all his heart the absolute sovereignty of God, let him believe that his first and last allegiance is to God as sovereign, and he will know no such thing as fear of the face of man, king or potentate or peasant. He will feel that in every battle for truth and liberty "one man with God is a majority," and that victory is sure.
That was the fate of John Knox when he came from the presence of John Calvin and worked out the reformation of Scotland. He began his work with the cry, "O God, give me Scotland or I die!" and God gave him Scotland and he lives. What was the reformation which he wrought? It consisted in this : He exterminated from Scotland the Roman Catholic hierarchy, that representative of monarchy, that natural enemy of republicanism, and he exterminated it root and branch. In its place he gave Scotland Presbyterianism pure and simple. He was the founder of the famous Scotch kirk. Lecky, the historian, says, "The Scotch kirk was by its constitution essentially republican It was in this respect the very antipodes of the Anglican church and of the Gallican branch of the Catholic Church, both of which did all they could to consecrate despotism and strengthen its authority." Carlyle says, " A man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him." Knox gave Scotch- men their religion. He taught them to learn from the Bible their rights as Christians and as citizens. He taught them that in the New Testament there is no sacerdotal class save that which includes all of the people: "Ye are a royal priesthood!" He taught them from the Bible the principle of representation and the right of choice. That certainly is Americanism as we have it to-day. He put the Bible into the hands of the people and taught the right of private interpretation. He introduced schools for the people and gave them education. He established a system of schools. Thus he laid the foundation of future Scotland and built up the institutions which were destined to mold the character of the men about to cross the ocean and become the makers of America. This one thing is to be kept prominently in mind: John Knox worked largely for the church, and through the church, and by the church. All of his institutions centered in the kirk. In short, John Knox made and built up the church, and the church made and built up the people. Carlyle says, "Knox gave Scotland a resurrection from the dead. Scotch literature and thought and industry,—James Watt, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Burns, (he who wrote 'A man's a man for a' that') I find the Reformation acting in the heart's core of every one of these persons. Without the Reformation they would not have been." But Carlyle was a Scotchman. A man who was not a Scotch- man says, "In proportion to their small numbers they are the most distinguished little people since the days of the Athenians, and the most educated people of the modern races. All the industrial arts are at home in Glasgow, and all the fine arts in Edinburgh, and as for literature, it is everywhere."
The natural sequence of John Knox in Scotland is just what we see on the page of Scottish history (1) The Solemn League and Covenant, literally signed with the blood of the best sons of Scotland, the Covenanters. The Covenanters were most potent in their influence during the period of the colonization of New England and when the institutions of the colonies were taking shape. (2) The Sanquhar Declaration, signed by Richard Cameron and Donald Cargill, and the great revolution. (3) The notable movement which resulted, in our own day, in the Free Church of Scotland, which has given us the names of Chalmers and Candlish and Guthrie. All of these historic movements show the features of John Knox, in that they exalt and declare the equality of man, liberty in religion, the value of the open Bible, the need of a sanctified Sabbath, the power of a pure church, and the rights of free speech, free press, free schools.
The question before us now is, How did these men whom Knox made reach America? How did they come to cast in their lot with those who became the makers of America? At this point the history of the Scotch-Americans resembles somewhat the history of the New England Pilgrims. The two histories are parallel. The New England Pilgrims came to America by way of Holland; the Scotch-Americans came to America by way of the province of Ulster, Ireland. Only a small portion of the Scotch in the colonial times came to the colonies directly from Scotland.
Just here comes in the story of Ulster. In the early days of prelatic James I. the rebellion of two of the great nobles of the province in the north of Ireland furnished the king an excuse to confiscate their vast domains. To hold these domains and to Populate them with men who could hold their own successfully against the rest of Catholic Ireland, James determined to found a colony of picked subjects. He offered special inducements to the Scotch to make Ulster their home. The inducements were such and the charter promised so favorable that large numbers responded. Of these James took his pick. This colony received its charter April 16, 1605. The Scotch in their new home of Ulster were joined by many of God's noblemen, who were one with them in religious thinking and in a holy life, who came from the English Puritans and from the French Huguenots. This mixture modified and improved in some regard the Puritan Scotch stock. To-day this people are known by the name of Scotch-Irish. The name is a misnomer. It would lead us to believe that the Scotch of the colony of Ulster intermarried with the Irish, and that this people, therefore, is a people of mixed blood. But this is not the case. The name Scotch-Irish, which has its origin in purely geographical reasons, is ethnologically incorrect. The Ulster people to this day are Scotch through and through and out and out. There is no intermarriage; there is no union of the Scotch and the Irish races. The name Scotch-Irish is not used in the Emerald Isle, and in the interest of historical correctness I argue that it should not be used anywhere. In the Emerald Isle, by Irish and Scotch alike, these people are called Ulstermen, and that is their name.
I do not need to tell you what a country these colonists of 1605 made out of Ulster and the surrounding territory. They took with them all that John Knox gave them, and the result was prosperity on all lines. But the colonists were not allowed to pursue the even tenor of their way. They were oppressed, just as the American colonists were, by prelatic, Episcopalian England. First, England, by the passage of oppressive measures, took from Ulster its woolen trade. This was like a stroke of paralysis. It caused the first great exodus of the Scotch colonists to America. A second and a larger exodus was caused by the scandalous advancement of the rents of the farms and by a taxation on the improvements caused by the industry of the people. The first outrage made an attack on commerce and manufacture; the second outrage was an attack on the agriculture of the colony. For fifty long years, from 1720 to 1770, the people, abused and then ejected from their farms and homesteads, which they and their fathers had made what they were, poured in streams of twelve thousand a year into America. So great was the inpour that when we come to the times of the American Revolution the Scotch formed almost, if not altogether, one third of the entire population of the American colonies.
And where did they go in America? They formed no colonies of their own. Where did they go?
Some of them went to New England and settled in Boston and in Worcester, and some threaded their way up into Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont. Twenty thousand settled along the Atlantic coast from the Charles River up to the Kennebec. Froude holds that in Boston. it was they who gave the name to Bunker Hill. There are Scotch Covenanter churches to-day in Maine and Vermont and Massachusetts, and there are Presbyterian churches in New Hampshire. In 1754 the Presbyterian congregation of Londonderry, N. H., numbered over seven hundred communicants. Although comparatively but a few of the vast Scotch exodus settled in New England, yet those who did have made their record and have told on American life. They took with them into New England the things John Knox gave them: the kirk, and the school, and the civil creed of equal rights, and the sanctified Sabbath, and the inherent dignity of man.
It was from the New England Scotch that George Washington got Henry Knox, a member of his cabinet, and the first Secretary of War in the American Republic. When the Revolution broke out it was the Scotch who fought the battle of Bennington. General Stark and his "Green Mountain boys" were Scotch. The Scotch of Maine gave to the country Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In latter days the New England Scotch gave to journalism Horace Greeley, the father of modern journalism, and to science Professor Asa Gray, one of Harvard's leading professors.
But the greater part of the enormous Scotch exodus poured into the Middle and the Southern colonies. They literally took possession of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, with its Independence Hall, was their city, just as Boston, with its Faneuii Flail, was the city of the Puritans. They hold Philadelphia to this day. It was to Pennsylvania the Rev. Francis Makemie came, the first Presbyterian minister in America of whose history we have any knowledge. He was the man who was imprisoned in New York for preaching in his independent way, and he was the man who formed the first American presbytery. We find the Scotch also in New Jersey. A large company of them came to New Jersey, we are told, under the prompting of William Penn. As New Jersey was one of the leading battle-fields of the Revolution, the Scotch, who had become very strong there, were among Washington's chief supporters. New Jersey gave to the army the Rev. James Caldwell, the chaplain of the First Brigade, whose history is given in full in the "Life and Letters of Elias Boudinot," He was more than chaplain; he was at one time also the assistant commissary-general. Washington esteemed his service as invaluable. He was well-nigh ubiquitous. The British burned down his manse and murdered his wife before the eyes of his children, and they tried also to burn the children in the flames of the manse. His children were saved only by a hairbreadth escape. Lafayette took one of his motherless boys and adopted him and gave him the love and opportunity of his princely home. George Washington subscribed twenty-five guineas out of his own private funds for the support of the other children. Mr. Caldwell fell by the hand of an assassin. On one occasion it is told of him that, seeing one of the companies slacking their fire for want of wadding, he rushed into the Presbyterian church near by, and gathering an armful of Watts's hymn-books he distributed them along the line, with the order, "Now put Watts into them, boys." With a cheer the soldiers rammed the charges home and gave the British Watts with a will. It was the New Jersey Scotch who founded the famous Presbyterian university, Princeton College, the college that can outkick anything on the continent, and that up to date.
Having located at first on the western and southern borders of the old colonies, the Scotch naturally pressed their way west and south. While they founded no colonies, they did in the course of time found new States. They poured their thousands down into the Carolinas, North and South. They made the States of Kentucky and Tennessee and Alabama. They poured also into Virginia until they out-influenced there the haughty Cavalier. They took possession of the Mississippi valley and brought it into the Republic. Ohio, too, felt their influence. They became so strong in our own Empire State of New York that even our first governor, Governor Clinton, the man who has given his name to the principal avenue of Brooklyn, was a scion of that race.
I imagine some son of the Scot saying, just here, "How I wish my ancestors had massed themselves together as did the Puritans, and had formed a colony of their own! Then they could have struck with a trip-hammer on the anvil of time the elements making this nation. They could have made a name for themselves in American history like that of Massachusetts." This wish is a mistake. No matter about the name in history. The name is coming, for the facts of early days, which are being resurrected and glorified by modern historical research, will build up the Scotch name and set it in a noonday splendor before the universe. The Scotch elements were too strong and too good to be massed; they were of the kind fitted to be scattered as a leavening influence through the land and among the diverse peoples of the land. Thus scattered as they were, they worked more mightily for American liberty than they could have worked if they had been solidified into a single colony. Here allow me to illustrate and give concrete cases. Being Presbyterian in faith, they formed a general synod, which met once a year. Through this synod they worked powerfully for American liberty. They were the Sons of John Knox, and, like Knox they used the church in the cause of freedom. In the General Synod there were delegates from all the colonies, and they formed a union of thought and purpose and plan. Thus the Scotch demonstrated to America that what was possible in religious affairs was possible in civil affairs, viz., a union of all parts of the land, and a union by representation—a federal union.
The Scotch General Synod was a model of the coming Colonial Congress. It made it possible. It suggested it. For fifty years this synod was the most powerful and compact religious organization in the country. The men in the synod, like the Scotch from Ulster, were men of the very highest type. The ministers were men educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh and Dublin and Harvard universities. They discussed all questions that pertained to the interest of the country, and sent their delegates home to all the colonies to spread their advanced principles concerning their rights and duties.
See the results of this. Four years before the battle of Lexington the Presbyterians of North Carolina resisted the oppression of the British crown as unjust. The governor of the colony treated them as outlaws, and sent an army against them and shot them down, and took captive and hung thirty of them. This was the first blood of the Revolution. It is known in history as the War of the Regulators. Bancroft says of it, "The blood of the first rebels against British oppression was first shed among the settlers on the branches of the Cape Fear River." This was May 16, 1771.
See the results of this. One year before the Philadelphia Declaration of Independence the Presbyterians of Mecklenburg, N. C., met together and Publicly issued their declaration of independence from the rule of Britain. Here is one sentence from that declaration: "We hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown; we hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people." The men who issued this Mecklenburg declaration were the men on the walls of whose homes hung the National Covenant of Scotland, which many of their ancestors had signed. Thus you see that the famous and historic covenant of Greyfriars Churchyard formed the rugged and solemn background of American liberties. It can be said, without fear of challenge, that Scotch blood flows through every principle in the Declaration of Independence, which forms the foundation of American freedom."
Bancroft says, in writing of the Mecklenburg declaration, which antedated the Philadelphia Declaration one whole year, "The first public voice for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor from the Dutch of New York nor from the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch Presbyterians."
Wallace Bruce, a man with a double Scotch name and a double Scotch nature, our honored consul to Scotland, puts Bancroft's eulogy into verse, and in these fitting words honors the event of Mecklenburg:
Manhattan and Plymouth and Jamestown
Can boast of their heritage true,
But Mecklenburg's fame is immortal
When we number the stars in the blue;
The Scotch-Irish Puritan Fathers
First drafted the words of the free,
And the speech of Virginia's Henry
Is the crown of our liberty's plea."In 1775 the General Presbyterian Synod, meeting in Philadelphia side by side with the Colonial Congress, issued a pastoral letter calling on the people to defend their rights against British usurpation. This letter was a mighty power with the people and with Congress. You see here the power of the Presbyterian Church and how aggressive it was. It was ready in advance for July 4, 1776, and so were all its people scattered through all the colonies. When that day came it was Thomas Jefferson, a scion of the Scotch race, according to the record of the Scotch-Irish Congress, who was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Professor McCloskie, of Princeton, says the Declaration of Independence, as we have it now, is in the handwriting of the son of Scotland; it was first printed by another Scotchman, and a third Scotchman, Captain Nixon, was the first to read it publicly to the people.
It is in place just at this point to speak of two men whose names will always he connected with the American Declaration of Independence and with the great Revolution. The first is the name of the man who first sounded the tocsin of war in that great sentence of his, "Give me liberty or give me death," and made the tocsin reverberate from mountain to mountain and from lake to lake until the thirteen colonies heard the echo and resolved to be freemen or die. I refer to Patrick Henry, of Virginia, whose mother was a Presbyterian. Of him Webster, speaking to Jefferson, says, "He was far before us all in maintaining the spirit of the Revolution."
The second is the name of that Presbyterian minister whose voice it was that brought the Congress finally and irrevocably to sign the great instrument, the Declaration. I refer to the venerable Dr. Witherspoon, President of Princeton College, who was at the time a member of the Continental Congress. We are told that the Congress was hesitating. The country was looking on. Three million hearts were violently throbbing in intense anxiety, waiting for the old bell on Independence Hall to ring. It was an hour that marked the grandest epoch in human history." What a scene was there! On the table in the presence of that able body of statesmen lay the charter of human freedom in clear-cut utterances, flinging defiance in the face of oppression. It was an hour in which strong men trembled. There was a painful silence. In the midst of that silence Dr. Witherspoon, a lineal descendant of John Knox, rose and uttered these thrilling words: "To hesitate at this moment is to consent to our own slavery. That notable instrument upon your table, which insures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accent and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy the name of freeman. Whatever I have of property, of reputation, is staked on the issue of this contest, and although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they descend hither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country." That was the voice of John Knox in Independence Hall. And that voice prevailed. The Declaration was signed, the liberty bell of Independence Hall rang out, and the foundation of the American government was securely laid. Fourteen of the sons of Scotland signed this Declaration.
From the signing of the Declaration of Independence American history grandly enlarges, and the Sons of the Scotch race are seen in nearly every high place. Their generals led in the great battles of the Revolution: General Wayne at Stony Point, and General Campbell at Kings Mountain, and General Montgomery at Quebec. When the great American Constitution was framed their wisdom prevailed there. Madison is claimed by more than one member of the late Scotch-Irish Congress as a scion of this race. He is known as the father of the American Constitution. Lincoln also, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, is claimed, and his lineage is traced back to the Scotch who settled in Kentucky. Seven governors out of the thirteen original States were Scotch. Then come their Presidents of the United States, Jefferson, Jackson, Monroe, James Knox Polk, Madison, Taylor, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Harrison, and Cleveland.
My friends, as I give the history of this magnificent Scotch race in its relation to American life, I am heartily glad that I have the good fortune to have the Scotch for my theme to-night, and not the Pilgrims, and not the Puritans, and not the Hollanders; for when the Scotch have claimed the first battle for our liberty; and the first blood shed; and the first declaration of independence publicly issued; and the privilege of naming Bunker Hill; and Davy Crockett, the most picturesque of American characters, the wizard of the woods; and Patrick Henry, the resistless orator of the Revolution; and the peerless Poe, the illustrious poet; and Commodore Perry, the illustrious naval officer; and Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence; and Witherspoon, whose voice charmed America into accepting it; and Madison, the father of the American Constitution, which Gladstone pronounces the greatest instrument ever penned in a given time; and Abraham Lincoln, with his Emancipation Proclamation, America's greatest glory; and Ulysses S. Grant, the man who carried the Civil War to its grand and proper close; and Robert Fulton, the father of steamboat navigation, which has so wonderfully enlarged commerce; and the phenomenal Morse, who with his telegraph has linked all parts of the world in instantaneous touch, and helped on the brotherhood of man; and McCormick, the inventor of the American reaper, which has multiplied indefinitely the forces of American agriculture and Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812; and Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican War—when the Scotch have claimed all these great men and all these noble things, what is left for the oilier makers of America to claim and exult over?
I wish to speak a brief word relative to some of the striking and racial characteristics of the Scotch— characteristics which have made them what they are. I do not know that I can do better than simply name these traits and illustrate each by relating a pertinent anecdote. I notice first that the Scotch are:
1. Preeminantly truthful
They are truthful even to the point of bluntness. When I was a boy this story was told of Dr. Blank, a Scotch clergyman of Pittsburg, and it illustrates my point. The doctor had just a touch of vanity in his nature, and when a certain college gave him a D.D. his vanity was not in the least crushed. Indeed, it led him at once to plan a trip home, that his friends in the old country might feast their eyes on a doctor of divinity. Once in Scotland, he called upon his old pastor, who knew John's fondness for John. But he got no flattery from the old pastor. He was too truthful to flatter. He greeted the new-corner: "Well, well, John, I hear they have made you a doctor of divinity? The new D.D. replied, "Yes, they persisted in giving me the title, although I was the last man in the world to deserve it." The old man, detecting the vanity in the tones of the voice, replied in his blunt way, "Yes, yes; that's just what I thought myself, John, when I heard it."
2. The Scotch are men of principle, and largely given to protest.
A Scotchman is a natural nonconformist. He loves to protest against things and institutions and customs. He must protest or die, but die is the very last thing that a Scotchman does on earth. That he may find an opportunity to protest he is always in search of some principle to take hold of and advocate; he finds a principle in everything. He will split hairs and then imagine that the points which he has made are every one of them principles, and he will die for them before he will give them up. He can even, if need be, convert prejudices into principles and thus transfigure them. Let me illustrate how the Scotchman reads principle into everything and in everything acts on principle.
Probably you have heard of the old saying that "a Scotchman never shuts the door after him." That was true in olden times. He knows that a door will shut; he knows what the latch is for; he knows what good breeding is; he knows that other people shut the door after them. He is not acting from ignorance; he leaves the door open on principle. He has argued the whole question out to his own satisfaction, and logically he feels that he could not conscientiously shut the door. If you wish you may shut it; he will not criticize you that is a matter for your own conscience; but he cannot. Raillery cannot compel him, neither can force. He has argued the question out. He has canvassed the arguments in favor of shutting and the arguments in favor of leaving the door open, and he has balanced the two, and the balance is on the side of not shutting, and that makes it a principle with him. In favor of shutting the door there is:
1. A. cold wind may blow into the room. But this is not probable, for those within would shut the door and protect themselves.
2. By shutting the door you will keep people on the outside from hearing the conversation carried on within. But people should not talk about things or say things they would not want others to hear or repeat.
These are the only arguments he can think of for shutting the door. There are more arguments in favor of leaving it open:
1. If the door slam in shutting it would be exceeding unpleasant, and would suggest the idea that you were in a passion.
2. If it did not slam it might make a creaking noise.
3. Suppose that it makes no noise at all, the impression is conveyed that you are going away not to return, while you have no such intention. You must not give false impressions.
4. There are chances that when you come back you will make a noise in opening the door, which is an interruption to the conversation. That is bad manners.
5. By not shutting the door you give the parties remaining behind the option of shutting it or not, according as it may please their own fancy. This disposition to please is an amiable disposition and should be cultivated.
These are some of the reasons which determined the Scotchman of old not to shut the door, and he found a principle in every one of them. This looks like a burlesque, hut, after all, it is infinitely better to be a man of principle than to be a man of no principle. A man who will put principle into a little thing like "not shutting the door,'' when he comes to deal with the eternal verities, when he comes to stand face to face with gigantic wrong and with political tyranny and with unholy oppression, is there for all he is worth; the whole man is there; and when a whole Scotchman is there, out into the open air is flung a Mecklenburg declaration of independence, and up in the highest court of the nation you have a Patrick Henry uttering an oration so full of conviction that it ushers in the American Revolution.
3. The Scotchman has as a trait the element of persistance.
Upon his drumhead he never beats a retreat. It is liberty or death. This story illustrates how a Scotchman will hold on and follow what he considers to be his one line of duty. It is told of a clergyman in the days when Knox was battling against the Roman hierarchy. His congregation brought a charge against him before the presbytery that he never could preach a sermon without breaking a lance with the pope—i.e., his sermons were all the same thing: pope in the exordium, pope in the body of the sermon, and pope in the peroration or conclusion. Thus it was fifty-two Sabbaths of the year. His preaching grew monotonous and the people grew weary. The presbytery said, "We will try him: we will give him a text to preach from, and we shall hear his sermon, and we shall see if your charge be true—that it is popery and pope no matter what text he takes." They gave him for a text these three proper names: "Adam, Seth, Enos." When the presbytery met there was a great congregation there, and the minister felt that they needed sound doctrine and timely warning. He saw a great opportunity. Solemnly he took his place in the pulpit and announced his text, "Adam, Seth, Enos," and this was his first sentence: "My dear brethren, these men lived in a day when there was no pope nor popery, and consequently they had not to contend against the following evils," and he enumerated in full and without waste of time all the evils of Romanism.
You smile at that man, but I tell you that we need just such a son of John Knox at this very moment in America. The Roman hierarchy is in our midst insidiously at work trying to weaken and to defeat the object of one of our noblest Amercan institutions, the free public schools, manned, conducted, and supported by the state. It is these schools of ours, supported and conducted by the state, that unify the children of all classes and of all nationalities, and that take out of the cradle and out of childhood all sectarian prejudices and religious hatred and strife, and make all from the very start of life American through and through. This means a solid, intelligent American future. Rome has stepped upon the scene and has made a public demand that our public-school funds shall be divided; that is, that part of the taxes raised from the people shall be given to the Roman Church to be used for sectarian purposes. The Roman Church is pitted against the American state, and the issue is fairly on. We need a stalwart son of John Knox who knows the hierarchy through and through to tell Rome through Mr. Satolli that the American people mean to educate their own citizens, and that they are going to keep the schools of the Republic just as their fathers founded them. Sons of John Knox, tell that to Rome not only fifty-two Sabbaths every year, but tell that to Rome every day the whole year round.
I have been speaking to you of your duty of protest against the machinations of a corrupt church; let me now in closing say one word to you concerning your duty to the pure evangelical Christian church. My word grows out of this history of the freemen of Scotland as it touches American national life. John Knox, who gave Scotland its national power and character, was in loyal relation with the true church of Jesus Christ. Through the church of pure doctrine and equal representation, the church which honored the Sabbath and the open Bible and the rights of the individual man, he worked his great work; that is, through the church in which every one had the liberty of private judgment lie molded public sentiment, and by the fearless and free discussion of the truth in this church lie freed man's mind from superstition and welded his countrymen together to act as one man against the usurpations of oppression, civil and ecclesiastical. He has taught us that a pure, holy, untrammeled, independent church is a mighty safeguard of the liberties and rights of a people; that it means the suppression of all hurtful evil and vice and tyranny. It is the enlightener of the nation and its educator in holy principles and moralities which perpetuate national liberty and life. Ill light of his teachings let us learn our duty of loyalty just here. There is no way in which we can so bless our country as by giving it a pure, free-thoughted, Bible-loving church of Jesus Christ. Such a church is a power which will make citizens of brain and character and holy devotion to the rights of mankind. Such a church will be a power on any question when it asserts itself on the right side. It can send its protest through the land like a thunderbolt. It can lead. Church of John Knox rooted to-day in American soil, I greet you as such a power, and assure you that you have still a patriotic mission in this Republic which you have helped to build. You are equipped to-day for work as you have never before been equipped; enter that work with hope and consecration. Guard the liberties which you have purchased with your blood. Guard the institutions which incarnate the best thought and life of the American fathers.
You remember what Angelo said to one of his pupils, Donatello, who asked him to come and look at his figure of St. George on the outside of a church at Florence. "The great sculptor looked at it with admiration and surprise. Every limb was perfect, every outline complete, the face lighted with almost human intelligence, the brow uplifted, and the foot forward as if it would step into life. As Donatello waited for Angelo's decision the great sculptor looked at the statue, slowly lifted his hand, and said, 'Now march.'' 'That was the grandest possible encomiumn he could give to the figure of St. George in marble. That is God's word to the church of John Knox in America to-day: "I have given thee opportunity. I have given thee royal men; I have given thee freedom of thought; I have given thee knowledge; I have given thee numbers; I have given thee My day and My Book; I have given thee the inspiring promises. Now march. Battle for Me; honor Me; keep My day holy; keep My truth uncorrupted; and, above all, guard and serve My nation, which I have refined by the fires of conflict and revolution. Lead America to higher and better things. Make it the refuge of the oppressed. Make it the land of Beulah—a land married unto the Lord."
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Chvrches
In a basement flat in the west end of Glasgow, the trio behind Chvrches, Lauren Mayberry, Ian Cook and Martin Doherty, recently created one of the most brilliant and compelling albums to have emerged at any time in the history of Scottish music. I realise that’s quite a statement, but it’s one I can back up with more than mere opinion.
Read more at: http://www.scottishreview.net/JordanOgg15a.html
I added a thread for them in the community with some YouTube videos at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show.../4982-Chvrches
And now for some news from the Scottish Press...
Scotland's jobs stagnation
Is it only the trouble in the oil and gas sector that is weighing on the Scottish economy? Or do recent job figures suggest something else is going on?
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-34788448
Scottish unemployment total rises by 11,000
The jobless total north of the border increased by 11,000 in the three months to September, to stand at 166,000.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-34786547
Oil forecaster warns of lower prices to the end of the decade
THE world's leading oil forecaster has warned of continuing oversupply and low prices up to 2020, in a fresh blow to the North Sea industry.
Read more at:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1..._of_the_decade
Scotland Bill: Scottish powers bill backed by Commons
MPs have backed the Scotland Bill on new devolved powers as it completed its final stages in the Commons.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-34760508
Haggis recipe should be tweaked to beat US import ban
Richard Lochhead, who will be in the US this week, said selling Scottish haggis to the Americans would be worth millions to the Scottish economy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34759665
Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34757254
Lang may yer lum reek: Best ever Scottish phrases
We're proud of our Scottish sayings, so we decided to put together a list of some of the best ones
Read more at:
http://www.sundaypost.com/lang-may-y...rases-1.908869
No business case for Police Scotland creation
Scotland’s single police force was created without a business case being prepared by the Scottish Government
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...#axzz3qGKYsYe5
Former supermodel takes on Scottish classic
Former supermodel Agyness Deyn admits she knew nothing of the classic Scottish novel Sunset Song before she got involved in acclaimed director Terence Davies's new film.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34786525
Electric Scotland may be down for a short time
We are moving our DNS back from Ezoic to our own DNS. This type of move usually means we may not be accessible for a short period or up to 24 hours. The reason is that Domain Name Servers need to be updated and pretty well all the major DNS servers are updated within 2 hours but many smaller ones may only update every 24 hours. So until the DNS servers updates their information for Electric Scotland they will still point to the old location. So this is just to advise you that this change will take place this evening (Thursday).
Essentially I've never been happy with the templates and caching that Ezoic were doing for our site so we're now reverting back to our old system.
We are also working on transferring our site hosting to Simon Fraser University but not sure how long this will take. They have now made available a Windows server so that's a major step forward. We now need to transfer all our data over and other programs and make sure they are all working as they should. This could well take us into the New Year but know that we're working on this.
Electric Canadian
A Boys narrative of the Adventures of a Settlers Family in Canada
Edited by John C. Geikie (1865)
I must confess to enjoying this book. I've read up to Chapter VI since I put it up and continuing to read the book as I get the chance. Of course this title is a touch misleading as the author is recollecting his time settling in Canada when he was a young lad and goes into great detail of his time on a farm including a very detailed description of those nasty insects you come across in Canada!
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...inthewoods.pdf
Address of the Canadian Campbell's to the Marquess of Lorne
I made this book available as it contains many names of Campbell's in Canada which I thought might be useful for folk interested in Genealogy.
You can get to this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../campbells.htm
Mounted Police Life in Canada
A Record of Thirty-one Years Service by Captain R. Burton Deane (1916) (pdf)
It's my impression, rightly or wrongly, that the old RCMP were a great force greatly respected by Canadians but I have some doubts about them today in our modern society.
The book starts in 1863 as the North West Mounted Police in Regina. I found it very interesting as at this time the force was more a mob and so through this book you can see how the officer gradually got procedures in place to the great benefit of the force.
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...ntedpolice.pdf
Electric Scotland
Our Summer in the Harz Forest
By A Scotch Family (1865
I found this book very interesting and as we have a section on our site about Scots in Germany I thought I'd make this available to you.
You can download this from our Germany page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ny/history.htm
Domestic Medicine and Hygiene
Being a short account of the most common diseases, their causes and treatment, written in plain language by William J. Russell, M.D. (1878) (pdf)
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...icmedicine.pdf
MacDuffee
I added a page for the MacDuffee name but have just added a newsletter from them under the Clan History page as I am awaiting further information. The Chief has been contacted and I am just waiting to hear back from him.
You can read the newsletter at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...macduffee.html
Balmoral Reel Book
A Collection of the most admired Reels, Strathspeys, Country Dances, Schottisches, Jigs, Quadrilles, Hornpipes, Polkas, etc., arranged for the Violin (pdf)
I figured this book might be of use to folk that like to read sheet music and you can download this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/musi...alReelBook.pdf
Hen-ery Honey-Bee
A new song in English by John Henderson
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel599.htm
My Canadian Journal
I added some additional material to my Canadian Journal to cover my application for Old Age Pensions, my eligibility to join the Ontario Drug Plan and some problems I had with my plumbing.
As some of you may remember I added to this journal on a regular basis until after I got Canadian citizenship after which I stopped it. However I did create an additional page where on the odd occasion I thought it might be useful to add some additional material.
You can get to this page at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_bits.htm
The complete Scottish and American poems of James Kennedy
by Kennedy, James, 1848-1922 (pdf)
John Henderson pointed out this book to me and thought it might be a good addition to the site and having acquired a copy I have to agree.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/jameskennedy.pdf
The Scottish Guardian
Volume the Second January to December 1865.
Another magazine publication that I'd never heard of so posted up this volume for you to read. I couldn't find any other issues but if you like this you might be able to find more.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/book...shguardian.pdf
History of Scottish Medicine
I found a 2 volume 2nd edition of this publication so added a link to it at the foot of the first edition page which you can get to at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...edicinendx.htm
The Scottish Parliament before The Union of the Crowns
I added this essay to the foot of our "Opening of the Scottish Parliament" page. It's rather interesting to see what we gave up to obtain a UK Government.
You can get to this at: http://www.electricscotland.net/scotland/scotparl.htm
THE STORY
The Scotch
Taken from the book, "The Makers of the American Republic" by David Gregg. [Delivered in Baltimore, Md., before the Presbyterian Union of that City.]
To-night we are to speak of the Scotch and their descendants as makers of America. They were the first on soil openly to advocate American independence. We wish to do for them what the famous poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott, has done for the physical beauties of the landscape of Scotia, viz., make them known. Scott has not added one particle of beauty to a single sprig of heather he has not put a single additional touch of color upon a single blue bell he has not created one added glint of light on beloved lakes; he has not changed a particle of the country concerning winch he so beautifully wrote. He has simply looked at Mid-Lothian, Lomond, and the Trosachs with his own eyes, has seen for himself the beauty and grandeur of nature's handiwork in Scotia, and has told ill and poetry just what he has seen. What Scott has done for the physical country we must do for the noble actions of the Scotch, viz., take them ill tell them out.
Where shall I begin? With John Knox. And why begin with John Knox? Because the Scotch-Americans are the sons of his faith, just as, spiritually, Knox himself is the son of John Calvin. The political truth which the Scotch-Americans held and for which they fought in revolutionary times and in pre-revolutionary times was not a mushroom growth of a single night; it was the oak of centuries. It was the result of the unwavering fidelity which for two full centuries held sacred the political tenets of John Knox, the apostle of liberty, who said to the haughty queen, "If princes exceed their bounds they may be resisted by force." In that magnificent sentiment, uttered with a magnificent fearlessness, I hear the far-off drum-beat of the American Revolution. Froude, the greatest of modern English historians, declares of this bold utterance of John Knox, "It is the creed of republics in its first hard form." This utterance of John Knox became ingrained in the very being of all true Scotchmen, and they believed it and asserted it and lived it. In our own age a son of Scottish faith has said, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall never perish from the earth." This saying, received with universal applause, has been lifted into a classic by the American people of the nineteenth century. But what is this saying? Only the utterance of John Knox grown large.
I have referred to John Knox as a spiritual son of John Calvin. He went straight from Calvin's home in Geneva to Scotland when, at the call of his countrymen, he entered Scotland to inaugurate the glorious reformation which he carried to success. His theology was Calvinistic, and so has been the theology of his descendants. This gives me an opportunity to speak a passing word for Calvinism. I do not ask you to-clay to read Calvin's "Institutes" or to study Calvin's commentaries, but I do ask you to read Calvin as he has written himself into history and then take the measure of Calvin. In history John Calvin wrote Swiss Protestantism, and French Huguenotism, and English Puritanism, and Scotch sturdiness of faith, and New England Pilgrimisin. He put into human life a sense of reverence, and of liberty founded on reverence, and these will last in the world long after his " Institutes " and commentaries have become wormeaten and have crumbled into dust. Now the point I wish to emphasize is this: Calvin has blessed America through John Knox. Listen to the voice of the great historians here. Buckle says, "Wherever it has gone in France, Switzerland, Britain, America, the Calvinistic faith has shown itself the unfailing friend of constitutional liberty." D'Aubigné says, "Calvin was the founder of the greatest of republics: the oppressed who went to America were the sons of his faith." Motley says, "Holland, England, America, owe their liberties to the Calvinists." Bancroft says, "He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American independence. . . . The light of his genius shattered the mask of darkness which superstition had held for centuries before the brow of religion." These are the voices of the authorities in history, and we can see how facts accord with their testimony to Calvinism. Calvinism exalts as its cardinal doctrine the absolute sovereignty of God. Let a man believe with all his heart the absolute sovereignty of God, let him believe that his first and last allegiance is to God as sovereign, and he will know no such thing as fear of the face of man, king or potentate or peasant. He will feel that in every battle for truth and liberty "one man with God is a majority," and that victory is sure.
That was the fate of John Knox when he came from the presence of John Calvin and worked out the reformation of Scotland. He began his work with the cry, "O God, give me Scotland or I die!" and God gave him Scotland and he lives. What was the reformation which he wrought? It consisted in this : He exterminated from Scotland the Roman Catholic hierarchy, that representative of monarchy, that natural enemy of republicanism, and he exterminated it root and branch. In its place he gave Scotland Presbyterianism pure and simple. He was the founder of the famous Scotch kirk. Lecky, the historian, says, "The Scotch kirk was by its constitution essentially republican It was in this respect the very antipodes of the Anglican church and of the Gallican branch of the Catholic Church, both of which did all they could to consecrate despotism and strengthen its authority." Carlyle says, " A man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him." Knox gave Scotch- men their religion. He taught them to learn from the Bible their rights as Christians and as citizens. He taught them that in the New Testament there is no sacerdotal class save that which includes all of the people: "Ye are a royal priesthood!" He taught them from the Bible the principle of representation and the right of choice. That certainly is Americanism as we have it to-day. He put the Bible into the hands of the people and taught the right of private interpretation. He introduced schools for the people and gave them education. He established a system of schools. Thus he laid the foundation of future Scotland and built up the institutions which were destined to mold the character of the men about to cross the ocean and become the makers of America. This one thing is to be kept prominently in mind: John Knox worked largely for the church, and through the church, and by the church. All of his institutions centered in the kirk. In short, John Knox made and built up the church, and the church made and built up the people. Carlyle says, "Knox gave Scotland a resurrection from the dead. Scotch literature and thought and industry,—James Watt, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Burns, (he who wrote 'A man's a man for a' that') I find the Reformation acting in the heart's core of every one of these persons. Without the Reformation they would not have been." But Carlyle was a Scotchman. A man who was not a Scotch- man says, "In proportion to their small numbers they are the most distinguished little people since the days of the Athenians, and the most educated people of the modern races. All the industrial arts are at home in Glasgow, and all the fine arts in Edinburgh, and as for literature, it is everywhere."
The natural sequence of John Knox in Scotland is just what we see on the page of Scottish history (1) The Solemn League and Covenant, literally signed with the blood of the best sons of Scotland, the Covenanters. The Covenanters were most potent in their influence during the period of the colonization of New England and when the institutions of the colonies were taking shape. (2) The Sanquhar Declaration, signed by Richard Cameron and Donald Cargill, and the great revolution. (3) The notable movement which resulted, in our own day, in the Free Church of Scotland, which has given us the names of Chalmers and Candlish and Guthrie. All of these historic movements show the features of John Knox, in that they exalt and declare the equality of man, liberty in religion, the value of the open Bible, the need of a sanctified Sabbath, the power of a pure church, and the rights of free speech, free press, free schools.
The question before us now is, How did these men whom Knox made reach America? How did they come to cast in their lot with those who became the makers of America? At this point the history of the Scotch-Americans resembles somewhat the history of the New England Pilgrims. The two histories are parallel. The New England Pilgrims came to America by way of Holland; the Scotch-Americans came to America by way of the province of Ulster, Ireland. Only a small portion of the Scotch in the colonial times came to the colonies directly from Scotland.
Just here comes in the story of Ulster. In the early days of prelatic James I. the rebellion of two of the great nobles of the province in the north of Ireland furnished the king an excuse to confiscate their vast domains. To hold these domains and to Populate them with men who could hold their own successfully against the rest of Catholic Ireland, James determined to found a colony of picked subjects. He offered special inducements to the Scotch to make Ulster their home. The inducements were such and the charter promised so favorable that large numbers responded. Of these James took his pick. This colony received its charter April 16, 1605. The Scotch in their new home of Ulster were joined by many of God's noblemen, who were one with them in religious thinking and in a holy life, who came from the English Puritans and from the French Huguenots. This mixture modified and improved in some regard the Puritan Scotch stock. To-day this people are known by the name of Scotch-Irish. The name is a misnomer. It would lead us to believe that the Scotch of the colony of Ulster intermarried with the Irish, and that this people, therefore, is a people of mixed blood. But this is not the case. The name Scotch-Irish, which has its origin in purely geographical reasons, is ethnologically incorrect. The Ulster people to this day are Scotch through and through and out and out. There is no intermarriage; there is no union of the Scotch and the Irish races. The name Scotch-Irish is not used in the Emerald Isle, and in the interest of historical correctness I argue that it should not be used anywhere. In the Emerald Isle, by Irish and Scotch alike, these people are called Ulstermen, and that is their name.
I do not need to tell you what a country these colonists of 1605 made out of Ulster and the surrounding territory. They took with them all that John Knox gave them, and the result was prosperity on all lines. But the colonists were not allowed to pursue the even tenor of their way. They were oppressed, just as the American colonists were, by prelatic, Episcopalian England. First, England, by the passage of oppressive measures, took from Ulster its woolen trade. This was like a stroke of paralysis. It caused the first great exodus of the Scotch colonists to America. A second and a larger exodus was caused by the scandalous advancement of the rents of the farms and by a taxation on the improvements caused by the industry of the people. The first outrage made an attack on commerce and manufacture; the second outrage was an attack on the agriculture of the colony. For fifty long years, from 1720 to 1770, the people, abused and then ejected from their farms and homesteads, which they and their fathers had made what they were, poured in streams of twelve thousand a year into America. So great was the inpour that when we come to the times of the American Revolution the Scotch formed almost, if not altogether, one third of the entire population of the American colonies.
And where did they go in America? They formed no colonies of their own. Where did they go?
Some of them went to New England and settled in Boston and in Worcester, and some threaded their way up into Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont. Twenty thousand settled along the Atlantic coast from the Charles River up to the Kennebec. Froude holds that in Boston. it was they who gave the name to Bunker Hill. There are Scotch Covenanter churches to-day in Maine and Vermont and Massachusetts, and there are Presbyterian churches in New Hampshire. In 1754 the Presbyterian congregation of Londonderry, N. H., numbered over seven hundred communicants. Although comparatively but a few of the vast Scotch exodus settled in New England, yet those who did have made their record and have told on American life. They took with them into New England the things John Knox gave them: the kirk, and the school, and the civil creed of equal rights, and the sanctified Sabbath, and the inherent dignity of man.
It was from the New England Scotch that George Washington got Henry Knox, a member of his cabinet, and the first Secretary of War in the American Republic. When the Revolution broke out it was the Scotch who fought the battle of Bennington. General Stark and his "Green Mountain boys" were Scotch. The Scotch of Maine gave to the country Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In latter days the New England Scotch gave to journalism Horace Greeley, the father of modern journalism, and to science Professor Asa Gray, one of Harvard's leading professors.
But the greater part of the enormous Scotch exodus poured into the Middle and the Southern colonies. They literally took possession of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, with its Independence Hall, was their city, just as Boston, with its Faneuii Flail, was the city of the Puritans. They hold Philadelphia to this day. It was to Pennsylvania the Rev. Francis Makemie came, the first Presbyterian minister in America of whose history we have any knowledge. He was the man who was imprisoned in New York for preaching in his independent way, and he was the man who formed the first American presbytery. We find the Scotch also in New Jersey. A large company of them came to New Jersey, we are told, under the prompting of William Penn. As New Jersey was one of the leading battle-fields of the Revolution, the Scotch, who had become very strong there, were among Washington's chief supporters. New Jersey gave to the army the Rev. James Caldwell, the chaplain of the First Brigade, whose history is given in full in the "Life and Letters of Elias Boudinot," He was more than chaplain; he was at one time also the assistant commissary-general. Washington esteemed his service as invaluable. He was well-nigh ubiquitous. The British burned down his manse and murdered his wife before the eyes of his children, and they tried also to burn the children in the flames of the manse. His children were saved only by a hairbreadth escape. Lafayette took one of his motherless boys and adopted him and gave him the love and opportunity of his princely home. George Washington subscribed twenty-five guineas out of his own private funds for the support of the other children. Mr. Caldwell fell by the hand of an assassin. On one occasion it is told of him that, seeing one of the companies slacking their fire for want of wadding, he rushed into the Presbyterian church near by, and gathering an armful of Watts's hymn-books he distributed them along the line, with the order, "Now put Watts into them, boys." With a cheer the soldiers rammed the charges home and gave the British Watts with a will. It was the New Jersey Scotch who founded the famous Presbyterian university, Princeton College, the college that can outkick anything on the continent, and that up to date.
Having located at first on the western and southern borders of the old colonies, the Scotch naturally pressed their way west and south. While they founded no colonies, they did in the course of time found new States. They poured their thousands down into the Carolinas, North and South. They made the States of Kentucky and Tennessee and Alabama. They poured also into Virginia until they out-influenced there the haughty Cavalier. They took possession of the Mississippi valley and brought it into the Republic. Ohio, too, felt their influence. They became so strong in our own Empire State of New York that even our first governor, Governor Clinton, the man who has given his name to the principal avenue of Brooklyn, was a scion of that race.
I imagine some son of the Scot saying, just here, "How I wish my ancestors had massed themselves together as did the Puritans, and had formed a colony of their own! Then they could have struck with a trip-hammer on the anvil of time the elements making this nation. They could have made a name for themselves in American history like that of Massachusetts." This wish is a mistake. No matter about the name in history. The name is coming, for the facts of early days, which are being resurrected and glorified by modern historical research, will build up the Scotch name and set it in a noonday splendor before the universe. The Scotch elements were too strong and too good to be massed; they were of the kind fitted to be scattered as a leavening influence through the land and among the diverse peoples of the land. Thus scattered as they were, they worked more mightily for American liberty than they could have worked if they had been solidified into a single colony. Here allow me to illustrate and give concrete cases. Being Presbyterian in faith, they formed a general synod, which met once a year. Through this synod they worked powerfully for American liberty. They were the Sons of John Knox, and, like Knox they used the church in the cause of freedom. In the General Synod there were delegates from all the colonies, and they formed a union of thought and purpose and plan. Thus the Scotch demonstrated to America that what was possible in religious affairs was possible in civil affairs, viz., a union of all parts of the land, and a union by representation—a federal union.
The Scotch General Synod was a model of the coming Colonial Congress. It made it possible. It suggested it. For fifty years this synod was the most powerful and compact religious organization in the country. The men in the synod, like the Scotch from Ulster, were men of the very highest type. The ministers were men educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh and Dublin and Harvard universities. They discussed all questions that pertained to the interest of the country, and sent their delegates home to all the colonies to spread their advanced principles concerning their rights and duties.
See the results of this. Four years before the battle of Lexington the Presbyterians of North Carolina resisted the oppression of the British crown as unjust. The governor of the colony treated them as outlaws, and sent an army against them and shot them down, and took captive and hung thirty of them. This was the first blood of the Revolution. It is known in history as the War of the Regulators. Bancroft says of it, "The blood of the first rebels against British oppression was first shed among the settlers on the branches of the Cape Fear River." This was May 16, 1771.
See the results of this. One year before the Philadelphia Declaration of Independence the Presbyterians of Mecklenburg, N. C., met together and Publicly issued their declaration of independence from the rule of Britain. Here is one sentence from that declaration: "We hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown; we hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people." The men who issued this Mecklenburg declaration were the men on the walls of whose homes hung the National Covenant of Scotland, which many of their ancestors had signed. Thus you see that the famous and historic covenant of Greyfriars Churchyard formed the rugged and solemn background of American liberties. It can be said, without fear of challenge, that Scotch blood flows through every principle in the Declaration of Independence, which forms the foundation of American freedom."
Bancroft says, in writing of the Mecklenburg declaration, which antedated the Philadelphia Declaration one whole year, "The first public voice for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor from the Dutch of New York nor from the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch Presbyterians."
Wallace Bruce, a man with a double Scotch name and a double Scotch nature, our honored consul to Scotland, puts Bancroft's eulogy into verse, and in these fitting words honors the event of Mecklenburg:
Manhattan and Plymouth and Jamestown
Can boast of their heritage true,
But Mecklenburg's fame is immortal
When we number the stars in the blue;
The Scotch-Irish Puritan Fathers
First drafted the words of the free,
And the speech of Virginia's Henry
Is the crown of our liberty's plea."In 1775 the General Presbyterian Synod, meeting in Philadelphia side by side with the Colonial Congress, issued a pastoral letter calling on the people to defend their rights against British usurpation. This letter was a mighty power with the people and with Congress. You see here the power of the Presbyterian Church and how aggressive it was. It was ready in advance for July 4, 1776, and so were all its people scattered through all the colonies. When that day came it was Thomas Jefferson, a scion of the Scotch race, according to the record of the Scotch-Irish Congress, who was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Professor McCloskie, of Princeton, says the Declaration of Independence, as we have it now, is in the handwriting of the son of Scotland; it was first printed by another Scotchman, and a third Scotchman, Captain Nixon, was the first to read it publicly to the people.
It is in place just at this point to speak of two men whose names will always he connected with the American Declaration of Independence and with the great Revolution. The first is the name of the man who first sounded the tocsin of war in that great sentence of his, "Give me liberty or give me death," and made the tocsin reverberate from mountain to mountain and from lake to lake until the thirteen colonies heard the echo and resolved to be freemen or die. I refer to Patrick Henry, of Virginia, whose mother was a Presbyterian. Of him Webster, speaking to Jefferson, says, "He was far before us all in maintaining the spirit of the Revolution."
The second is the name of that Presbyterian minister whose voice it was that brought the Congress finally and irrevocably to sign the great instrument, the Declaration. I refer to the venerable Dr. Witherspoon, President of Princeton College, who was at the time a member of the Continental Congress. We are told that the Congress was hesitating. The country was looking on. Three million hearts were violently throbbing in intense anxiety, waiting for the old bell on Independence Hall to ring. It was an hour that marked the grandest epoch in human history." What a scene was there! On the table in the presence of that able body of statesmen lay the charter of human freedom in clear-cut utterances, flinging defiance in the face of oppression. It was an hour in which strong men trembled. There was a painful silence. In the midst of that silence Dr. Witherspoon, a lineal descendant of John Knox, rose and uttered these thrilling words: "To hesitate at this moment is to consent to our own slavery. That notable instrument upon your table, which insures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accent and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy the name of freeman. Whatever I have of property, of reputation, is staked on the issue of this contest, and although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they descend hither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country." That was the voice of John Knox in Independence Hall. And that voice prevailed. The Declaration was signed, the liberty bell of Independence Hall rang out, and the foundation of the American government was securely laid. Fourteen of the sons of Scotland signed this Declaration.
From the signing of the Declaration of Independence American history grandly enlarges, and the Sons of the Scotch race are seen in nearly every high place. Their generals led in the great battles of the Revolution: General Wayne at Stony Point, and General Campbell at Kings Mountain, and General Montgomery at Quebec. When the great American Constitution was framed their wisdom prevailed there. Madison is claimed by more than one member of the late Scotch-Irish Congress as a scion of this race. He is known as the father of the American Constitution. Lincoln also, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, is claimed, and his lineage is traced back to the Scotch who settled in Kentucky. Seven governors out of the thirteen original States were Scotch. Then come their Presidents of the United States, Jefferson, Jackson, Monroe, James Knox Polk, Madison, Taylor, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Harrison, and Cleveland.
My friends, as I give the history of this magnificent Scotch race in its relation to American life, I am heartily glad that I have the good fortune to have the Scotch for my theme to-night, and not the Pilgrims, and not the Puritans, and not the Hollanders; for when the Scotch have claimed the first battle for our liberty; and the first blood shed; and the first declaration of independence publicly issued; and the privilege of naming Bunker Hill; and Davy Crockett, the most picturesque of American characters, the wizard of the woods; and Patrick Henry, the resistless orator of the Revolution; and the peerless Poe, the illustrious poet; and Commodore Perry, the illustrious naval officer; and Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence; and Witherspoon, whose voice charmed America into accepting it; and Madison, the father of the American Constitution, which Gladstone pronounces the greatest instrument ever penned in a given time; and Abraham Lincoln, with his Emancipation Proclamation, America's greatest glory; and Ulysses S. Grant, the man who carried the Civil War to its grand and proper close; and Robert Fulton, the father of steamboat navigation, which has so wonderfully enlarged commerce; and the phenomenal Morse, who with his telegraph has linked all parts of the world in instantaneous touch, and helped on the brotherhood of man; and McCormick, the inventor of the American reaper, which has multiplied indefinitely the forces of American agriculture and Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812; and Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican War—when the Scotch have claimed all these great men and all these noble things, what is left for the oilier makers of America to claim and exult over?
I wish to speak a brief word relative to some of the striking and racial characteristics of the Scotch— characteristics which have made them what they are. I do not know that I can do better than simply name these traits and illustrate each by relating a pertinent anecdote. I notice first that the Scotch are:
1. Preeminantly truthful
They are truthful even to the point of bluntness. When I was a boy this story was told of Dr. Blank, a Scotch clergyman of Pittsburg, and it illustrates my point. The doctor had just a touch of vanity in his nature, and when a certain college gave him a D.D. his vanity was not in the least crushed. Indeed, it led him at once to plan a trip home, that his friends in the old country might feast their eyes on a doctor of divinity. Once in Scotland, he called upon his old pastor, who knew John's fondness for John. But he got no flattery from the old pastor. He was too truthful to flatter. He greeted the new-corner: "Well, well, John, I hear they have made you a doctor of divinity? The new D.D. replied, "Yes, they persisted in giving me the title, although I was the last man in the world to deserve it." The old man, detecting the vanity in the tones of the voice, replied in his blunt way, "Yes, yes; that's just what I thought myself, John, when I heard it."
2. The Scotch are men of principle, and largely given to protest.
A Scotchman is a natural nonconformist. He loves to protest against things and institutions and customs. He must protest or die, but die is the very last thing that a Scotchman does on earth. That he may find an opportunity to protest he is always in search of some principle to take hold of and advocate; he finds a principle in everything. He will split hairs and then imagine that the points which he has made are every one of them principles, and he will die for them before he will give them up. He can even, if need be, convert prejudices into principles and thus transfigure them. Let me illustrate how the Scotchman reads principle into everything and in everything acts on principle.
Probably you have heard of the old saying that "a Scotchman never shuts the door after him." That was true in olden times. He knows that a door will shut; he knows what the latch is for; he knows what good breeding is; he knows that other people shut the door after them. He is not acting from ignorance; he leaves the door open on principle. He has argued the whole question out to his own satisfaction, and logically he feels that he could not conscientiously shut the door. If you wish you may shut it; he will not criticize you that is a matter for your own conscience; but he cannot. Raillery cannot compel him, neither can force. He has argued the question out. He has canvassed the arguments in favor of shutting and the arguments in favor of leaving the door open, and he has balanced the two, and the balance is on the side of not shutting, and that makes it a principle with him. In favor of shutting the door there is:
1. A. cold wind may blow into the room. But this is not probable, for those within would shut the door and protect themselves.
2. By shutting the door you will keep people on the outside from hearing the conversation carried on within. But people should not talk about things or say things they would not want others to hear or repeat.
These are the only arguments he can think of for shutting the door. There are more arguments in favor of leaving it open:
1. If the door slam in shutting it would be exceeding unpleasant, and would suggest the idea that you were in a passion.
2. If it did not slam it might make a creaking noise.
3. Suppose that it makes no noise at all, the impression is conveyed that you are going away not to return, while you have no such intention. You must not give false impressions.
4. There are chances that when you come back you will make a noise in opening the door, which is an interruption to the conversation. That is bad manners.
5. By not shutting the door you give the parties remaining behind the option of shutting it or not, according as it may please their own fancy. This disposition to please is an amiable disposition and should be cultivated.
These are some of the reasons which determined the Scotchman of old not to shut the door, and he found a principle in every one of them. This looks like a burlesque, hut, after all, it is infinitely better to be a man of principle than to be a man of no principle. A man who will put principle into a little thing like "not shutting the door,'' when he comes to deal with the eternal verities, when he comes to stand face to face with gigantic wrong and with political tyranny and with unholy oppression, is there for all he is worth; the whole man is there; and when a whole Scotchman is there, out into the open air is flung a Mecklenburg declaration of independence, and up in the highest court of the nation you have a Patrick Henry uttering an oration so full of conviction that it ushers in the American Revolution.
3. The Scotchman has as a trait the element of persistance.
Upon his drumhead he never beats a retreat. It is liberty or death. This story illustrates how a Scotchman will hold on and follow what he considers to be his one line of duty. It is told of a clergyman in the days when Knox was battling against the Roman hierarchy. His congregation brought a charge against him before the presbytery that he never could preach a sermon without breaking a lance with the pope—i.e., his sermons were all the same thing: pope in the exordium, pope in the body of the sermon, and pope in the peroration or conclusion. Thus it was fifty-two Sabbaths of the year. His preaching grew monotonous and the people grew weary. The presbytery said, "We will try him: we will give him a text to preach from, and we shall hear his sermon, and we shall see if your charge be true—that it is popery and pope no matter what text he takes." They gave him for a text these three proper names: "Adam, Seth, Enos." When the presbytery met there was a great congregation there, and the minister felt that they needed sound doctrine and timely warning. He saw a great opportunity. Solemnly he took his place in the pulpit and announced his text, "Adam, Seth, Enos," and this was his first sentence: "My dear brethren, these men lived in a day when there was no pope nor popery, and consequently they had not to contend against the following evils," and he enumerated in full and without waste of time all the evils of Romanism.
You smile at that man, but I tell you that we need just such a son of John Knox at this very moment in America. The Roman hierarchy is in our midst insidiously at work trying to weaken and to defeat the object of one of our noblest Amercan institutions, the free public schools, manned, conducted, and supported by the state. It is these schools of ours, supported and conducted by the state, that unify the children of all classes and of all nationalities, and that take out of the cradle and out of childhood all sectarian prejudices and religious hatred and strife, and make all from the very start of life American through and through. This means a solid, intelligent American future. Rome has stepped upon the scene and has made a public demand that our public-school funds shall be divided; that is, that part of the taxes raised from the people shall be given to the Roman Church to be used for sectarian purposes. The Roman Church is pitted against the American state, and the issue is fairly on. We need a stalwart son of John Knox who knows the hierarchy through and through to tell Rome through Mr. Satolli that the American people mean to educate their own citizens, and that they are going to keep the schools of the Republic just as their fathers founded them. Sons of John Knox, tell that to Rome not only fifty-two Sabbaths every year, but tell that to Rome every day the whole year round.
I have been speaking to you of your duty of protest against the machinations of a corrupt church; let me now in closing say one word to you concerning your duty to the pure evangelical Christian church. My word grows out of this history of the freemen of Scotland as it touches American national life. John Knox, who gave Scotland its national power and character, was in loyal relation with the true church of Jesus Christ. Through the church of pure doctrine and equal representation, the church which honored the Sabbath and the open Bible and the rights of the individual man, he worked his great work; that is, through the church in which every one had the liberty of private judgment lie molded public sentiment, and by the fearless and free discussion of the truth in this church lie freed man's mind from superstition and welded his countrymen together to act as one man against the usurpations of oppression, civil and ecclesiastical. He has taught us that a pure, holy, untrammeled, independent church is a mighty safeguard of the liberties and rights of a people; that it means the suppression of all hurtful evil and vice and tyranny. It is the enlightener of the nation and its educator in holy principles and moralities which perpetuate national liberty and life. Ill light of his teachings let us learn our duty of loyalty just here. There is no way in which we can so bless our country as by giving it a pure, free-thoughted, Bible-loving church of Jesus Christ. Such a church is a power which will make citizens of brain and character and holy devotion to the rights of mankind. Such a church will be a power on any question when it asserts itself on the right side. It can send its protest through the land like a thunderbolt. It can lead. Church of John Knox rooted to-day in American soil, I greet you as such a power, and assure you that you have still a patriotic mission in this Republic which you have helped to build. You are equipped to-day for work as you have never before been equipped; enter that work with hope and consecration. Guard the liberties which you have purchased with your blood. Guard the institutions which incarnate the best thought and life of the American fathers.
You remember what Angelo said to one of his pupils, Donatello, who asked him to come and look at his figure of St. George on the outside of a church at Florence. "The great sculptor looked at it with admiration and surprise. Every limb was perfect, every outline complete, the face lighted with almost human intelligence, the brow uplifted, and the foot forward as if it would step into life. As Donatello waited for Angelo's decision the great sculptor looked at the statue, slowly lifted his hand, and said, 'Now march.'' 'That was the grandest possible encomiumn he could give to the figure of St. George in marble. That is God's word to the church of John Knox in America to-day: "I have given thee opportunity. I have given thee royal men; I have given thee freedom of thought; I have given thee knowledge; I have given thee numbers; I have given thee My day and My Book; I have given thee the inspiring promises. Now march. Battle for Me; honor Me; keep My day holy; keep My truth uncorrupted; and, above all, guard and serve My nation, which I have refined by the fires of conflict and revolution. Lead America to higher and better things. Make it the refuge of the oppressed. Make it the land of Beulah—a land married unto the Lord."
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
Comment