‘The Scotch-Irish are the most inflexible people in the world when they are right, and the most vexatiously pig-headed and mulish when wrong, on the face of the earth…but while such foolish contentiousness is extremely disgraceful to religion, and no doubt throws the devil into perfect convulsions of sardonic glee, it is consoling to see that the persons really active in the evil-doing are few, and that there are many moderate, forbearing, forgiving Christians, whose pious endurance of these annoyances honors the gospel as much as the conduct of others disgraces it.’
Robert Dabney
Southern Reformed Theologian
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The Reverend Dr. David Macrea, a Scots minister, on a visit to America, interviewed the great commander of the Confederate Forces, General Robert E. Lee, and asked him, “What race do you believe makes the best soldiers?” General Lee answered: “The Scotch who came to this country by way of Ireland.” Dr. Macrea asked him, ” Why do you say that, General?” “Because,” replied this great soldier, “they have all the dash of the Irish in taking a position and all the stubbornness of the Scotch in holding it.”
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“The Scots-Irish came to prize aggressiveness and cunning, and they insisted on choosing their own leaders based on those traits. They developed a distrust of government, which seemed to exist only to burn their homes, seize their property, and kill their kin. And they reserved to themselves the right to judge the laws they lived under and determine whether they would obey them or not.”