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THE COVENANTER, THE CAVALIER, 
 AND THE PURITAN. 
 
 OLIVER PERRY TEMPLE, 
 
 For twelve years one of the Equity Judges of Tennessee. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY. 
 
 1897. 
 
Copyright, 1897, by Oliver Perry Temple. 
 
SCOTCH-IRISH SOCIETY OF AMERICA, 
 
 which is doing so much 
 
 to rescue from oblivion the history of the 
 
 Covenanter People, 
 
 ^§10 littk Boofe is rsspecffuffj i>ii>k<xUb, 
 
 by an humble co-laborer in the same worthy cause, 
 
 The Author. 
 
 (iii) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The publication of this little book in its present 
 form is due to an accidental circumstance. The 
 matter it contains was prepared as a part of a larger 
 and perhaps more important historical work, on 
 which I am now engaged, and which I hope will 
 soon be in print. Happening to show some of the 
 chapters to a friend, in whose judgment I had great 
 confidence, he said to me : " Why not publish 
 these chapters as a separate book? The matter 
 they contain is only remotely related to that of the 
 main book, and the two should not appear to- 
 gether." It happened that my own mind was run- 
 ning in the same direction, and had nearl}' arrived 
 at the same conclusion. The publication of this 
 book, in its present form, is, therefore, mainly due 
 to that interview. It is, as it were, a leaf torn from 
 another book. 
 
 The chief reason for writing so fully, or at all, 
 about the Covenanters is given in the opening sen- 
 tences of Chapter IV of this book. The error and 
 injustice there referred to are remarkable, indeed 
 amazing; but it is not too late to correct them by 
 
 (V) 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 letting in the light of history. A brief comparison 
 of the record of the Covenanters with that of the 
 Cavaliers and the Puritans shows in how remark- 
 able a manner the former people have been neg- 
 lected and ignored in the history and the public 
 thought of the country. If I shall be able to 
 quicken the interest in this great race, already ex- 
 isting, awakened by the noble efforts of "The 
 Scotch-Irish Society of America," I shall feel that 
 I have, indeed, done a good work. 
 
 In conclusion, I wish to return my special ac- 
 knowledgments to R. R. Sutherland, D.D., formerly 
 of this city, but now of Danville, Kentucky, to 
 Judge H. H. Ingersoll and Joshua W. Caldwell for 
 valuable suggestions and assistance given to me in 
 
 the revision of this work. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Knoxville, Tenn., February, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Covenanters in Scotland and Ireland. page 
 Religion of the Scottish People— The Reformation in 
 Scotland — The Nobles join it — John Knox— The Rev- 
 olution — Calvinistic Church established — Marj-, Queen 
 of Scots — Romish Church overthroiyn — The Nobles 
 appropriate the revenues — Discontent of Presbyterian 
 Clergymen— Democratic spirit of the Kirk — Ministers 
 poor — Elected by congregations — Church of England — 
 Henry VIII — Persecutious in England — Persecutions 
 in Scotland under James I and Charles I— Attempt to 
 force Book of Liturgy on Presbyterians of Scotland- 
 Renewal of the "National League and Covenant" — 
 Invasion of Scotland by England — Expulsion of Pres- 
 byterian Clergymen from their pulpits — Become ex- 
 ■ iles — Horrible persecutions — Triumph of the Cove- 
 nanters — Covenanter Colony in Ireland — Persecutions 
 encountered there^Covenanters seek homes in the 
 Colonies — Influence of the Revolution in Scotland on 
 England — Education in Scotland — Founding of her 
 Universities — Education in the Colonies under the 
 Covenanters 9 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 The Covenanters in the Revolution. 
 The term Covenanter — What it signifies — Influence of 
 Covenanters in bringing on the American Revolution — 
 Authorities quoted to this effect — Action of the Pres- 
 byterian Synod of Philadelphia in 1775— Action of 
 Continental Congress, July 8, 1775, declaring it had no 
 
 (vii) 
 
Vin CONTENTS. 
 
 design of establishing independent States — Pastoral 
 letter of the Synod — ^Covenanters all united in favor 
 of Independence — Patrick Henry sustained by Cove- 
 nanters in Virginia — Action of the people on the 
 Holston in Fincastle County— Kev. Charles Cuuimings, 
 Colonel Wm. Campbell, Colonel Arthur Campbell, and 
 others on the remote frontier declare for Independ- 
 ence — Augusta County — Covenanters of Worcester 
 County, Mass. — Quakers of Pennsylvania oppose In- 
 dependence — Public meeting in Philadelphia — Over- 
 throw of the Proprietary Government — Covenanters 
 in Pennsylvania — The situation of Continental Con- 
 gress — Decisive speech of John Witherspoon — Cove- 
 nanters foremost in fighting battles of Revolution in 
 Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina — Episco- 
 palians in the Revolution — Covenanter Declaration of 
 Independence at Mecklenburg — Battle of King's 
 Mountain — Influence of Covenanters in framing Con- 
 stitution — Part they took in defending frontiers in the 
 Revolution — Its far-reaching importance — AVestern 
 boundary line 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Covenanters in the South. 
 Difference between grievances of Puritans and Cove- 
 nanters — Dependence of New England — Enforcement 
 of Navigation Act — Resistance thereto — Tumults — 
 Closing the port of Boston— Charter revised— Sym- 
 pathy and aid of other Colonies for Boston — Love 
 of Massachusetts for England — Love of Cavaliers for 
 England — Slow to break away from — Covenanters 
 hated England for her wrongs to them — Were every- 
 where active in opposition to England — English in- 
 fluence in Southern Colonies — Episcopalians — A ma- 
 jority of population in the South — That of Virginia, 
 New England, of all the Colonies— Covenanters in 
 New England — Number in all the Colonies — The 
 most numerous race — Number of Cavaliers — Cove- 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 nanters in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and North 
 and South CaroHna— Spread into all the new States 
 of the South — Percentage of foreign blood in the 
 States — Tories numerous in the Eevolution — Cove- 
 nanters most numerous fighting race — They settle in 
 the South — " Puritans of the South" — Contrast be- 
 tween Puritans and Covenanters — Massachusetts and 
 Virginia in the Revolutionary Army — Puritan war- 
 fare in the South — Splendid record of Massachusetts 
 in the Revolution 81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Covenantee and the Cavaliek. 
 Covenanters left out of consideration by writers and 
 speakers — The most numerous of the (^lasses — Cove- 
 nanter ideas prevailed in Virginia— John Knox's de- 
 claration — Cavaliers the ruling class in Virginia— Po- 
 litical and religious opinions — Bloody penal Code — Re- 
 ligious disabilities— Early inhabitants — Many densely 
 ignorant — Sir William Berkeley, Governor, on educa- 
 tion — Education neglected — Life among the upper 
 classes— Feasting, frolicking, drinking and gambling- 
 Dissipation of the Clergy — Cruelty to dissenters — 
 Gloomy condition of the Colony — The Covenanters 
 appear in the Colony — They erect Churches, start 
 schools and spread westward — Patrick Henry — His 
 origin — Offers Resolutions in the House of Bm'gesses 
 denouncing Stamp Act — His speech on — The Country 
 electrified — Thomas Jefferson — Becomes a reformer — 
 The Presbytery of Hanover sends a petition to" the 
 Legislature asking for freedom of speech — Then a 
 second, a third, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth — They at 
 last triumph — Bitterness of Mr. Jefferson toward the 
 Presbyterians — AVas a free thinker 117 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Covenanter and the Cavalier — Continued. 
 Love of Church and loyalty to King in Virginia — Love 
 of liberty — Nathaniel Bacon — Mr. Burke on love of 
 liberty in the South — Landed estates in Virginia — 
 Tobacco used as money — Indentured servants — Splen- 
 did hospitality — Covenanter element introduced — 
 Covenanters superior to Cavaliers — Patrick Calhoun on 
 the Covenanters — Education among the Covenanters 
 in the Colonies, in Ireland — In North Carolina, in 
 South Carolina and in Georgia — Covenanters in New 
 Hampshire — Roosevelt on early inhabitants of Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky— Covenanters on the Holston — 
 Covenanters not paupers — Why education declined 
 with Southern Covenanters— Covenanter influence in 
 forming the institutions of the South— Little known of 
 the Covenanters — The reason of this — Henry Watterson 
 on the Covenanters— They made the Southern States — 
 Their monuments— Great names among them — Their 
 influence in making the West — Covenanter ideas and 
 characteristics in Southern Society — Preach the same 
 faith their fathers did— Southern women — High moral 
 and rehgious standard in the South 143 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Covenanters and the Puritans. 
 The Puritans— Grand History since 1761— Important in- 
 fluence in England — Revolution started by Cove- 
 nanters in Scotland — Puritans leave England — Cove- 
 nanters a better race than the Puritans — Comparison 
 of two races — The Church in Massachusetts — A cruel 
 theocracy — Enumeration of cruelties, with authorities 
 cited — Annals stained with narrowness and crimes — 
 Whipping, banishment, and hanging— Children con- 
 demned to banishment — Intolerance — Reason given 
 for cruelties and intolerance — Reasons examined — Not 
 the best educated people in the Colonies— Massachu- 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 setts as the leader of liberal ideas — Caste — Difference 
 between Puritans and Covenanters as to liberal ideas — 
 Massachusetts as to the equality of men before the 
 law 180 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Covenantees and the Puritans — Continued. 
 Noble traits of the Puritans — Their liberality and public 
 spirit — Puritans and Covenanters contrasted — The 
 Puritans a Commercial people — Kept in a compact 
 body — The Covenanters separated and scattered — 
 Forced into interior — Covenanters build up a high 
 civilization in the .South — Their influence extends to 
 North-western States — Were an agricultural people — 
 No stimulus to authorship — Politics the highway to 
 honor — Free thought and speculation in New En- 
 gland — Caste and social distinctions in Massachu- 
 setts—Puritans and Covenanters in the Revolution — 
 The blood of the latter in the South — Their liberal 
 ideas and influence in molding the thought and in- 
 stitutions of the South 212 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Presbyteeians and other Denominations. 
 The terms Covenanter, Presbyterian, and Scotch-Irish — 
 Covenanter blood in all Churches — Presbyterians in 
 the South — Have lost ground — Pioneer Methodists 
 and Baptists— Methodists in 1770, in 1818 and 1890— 
 "Wondei'ful growth — Itinerant system — Remarkable 
 growth of Baptist Church — Its record in behalf of 
 political and religious liberty — Roger Williams — Num- 
 bers of the leading denominations given — Educational 
 standard in leading churches — Usefulness of Christian 
 Ministry — Civilizing influence of religion — Honor to 
 the memory of Luther, Calvin, Knox, Roger Will- 
 iams — Influence of Calvinism on the destiny of the 
 world — Authorities quoted — Mission of Presbyterian- 
 ism — Presbyterians in the South 230 
 
THE COVENANTER, THE CAVALIER, AND 
 THE PURITAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COVENANTEES IN SCOTLAND AND, IRELAND. 
 
 Eeligion of the Scottish People— The Reformation in Scot- 
 land — The Nobles join it — John Knox — The Revolution — 
 Calviiiistic Church established^Mary, Queen of Scots — 
 Romish Church overthrown— The Nobles appropriate the 
 revenues — Discontent of Presbyterian Clergymen — Demo- 
 cratic spirit of the Kirk^-Ministers poor — Elected by con- 
 gregations — Church of England — Henry VIII — Persecu- 
 tions in England — Persecutions in Scotland under James I 
 and Charles I — Attempt to force Book of Liturgy on Pres- 
 byterians of Scotland — Renewal of the " National League 
 and Covenant" — Invasion of Scotland by England— Ex- 
 pulsion of Presbyterian Clergymen from their pulpits — 
 Become exiles — Horrible persecutions — Triumph of the 
 Covenanters— Covenanter Colony in Ireland — Persecutions 
 encountered there— Covenanters seek homes in the 
 Colonies— Influence of the Revolution in Scotland on En- 
 gland—Education in Scotland— Founding of her Univer- 
 sities—Education in the Colonies under the Covenanters. 
 
 In this chapter I shall briefly give an account of 
 the origin and rise of the Covenanters in Scotland, 
 and of the persecutions they endured there ; I shall 
 notice the transplanting of a part of them in Ire- 
 
 (ix) 
 
10 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 t 
 
 land, their sojourn and persecutions in their new 
 home, and finally give an account of their depart- 
 ure for the American Colonies. All this will be a 
 mere summary of the history of these important 
 events. 
 
 To understand who and what the Covenanters 
 were, it is necessary to turn to the history of the 
 Scattish people. The history of Scotland during 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is largely a 
 history of its religion. From time immemorial the 
 people of that country had professed the Catholic 
 faith. With the great awakening in Europe, 
 caused by the Reformation, there came a change 
 in Scotland also. Suddenly the people turned 
 from Catholicism to Calvinism, with a unanimity 
 seldom witnessed in the transition from one reli- 
 gion to another. 
 
 [. The Reformation, in Scotland, was at first the 
 work of the ISTobles. James V, with the advice 
 of the Romish Prelates, determined to strip the 
 ISTobles of all power in the State. One step after 
 another followed in quick succession toward the 
 accomplishment of this purpose. They were de- 
 prived of many of their ancient privileges, and a 
 number of them were driven into exile. These 
 proud spirited men, accustomed to the exercise 
 of almost regal authority, were not made of the 
 
COVEN-ANTBBS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 11 
 
 stuff" tamely to submft to tbis degradation. Their 
 retainers, with the love of rank a.nd hereditary 
 titles then prevalent in Scotland, sided with them. 
 The Nobles, in revenge for the ill-treatment they 
 were receiving from the King and Church, joined 
 the Reformation. 
 
 In 1542, James V died, leaving a widow, Mary 
 of Guise, and a daughter, the ill-fated Mary Stuart, 
 afterward Queen of Scots. The widow became 
 Regent of Scotland, while the infant Mary was 
 sent to France to be educated under the influence 
 of her Catholic relatives. The French King, 
 backed by the pdwerful Guises, plotted with the 
 Regent of Scotland to purge that country of Prot- 
 estantism, to dethrone Elizabeth of England, and 
 to annex the British Isles to France. To aid the 
 Regent who had threatened to drive all the re- 
 formed ministers out of the Kingdom, "although 
 they preached as truly as St. Paul," * a French 
 army invaded Scotland. Protestantism had made 
 by this time great headway among the middle and 
 poorer classes. The Gospel had been preached to 
 them by their own earnest ministers. JTowhere in 
 Europe had the Catholic priesthood been more de- 
 praved.* The people and a majority of the Nobles 
 
 * Campbell's Puritan iu Holland, England, and America, 
 Vol. II, 5. 
 
12 COVEXAXTEE. CAVALIEK AXD Pt'EITAX. 
 
 were united in the (leterininatiou to resist the over- 
 throw of their new faith. 
 
 John Knox had been absent for some years with 
 Calvin, in Geneva. Foreseeing the storm, the 
 Xobility invited him to come home. Immediately 
 upon his return, he was proehiimed a rebel and an 
 outLnw. The Xobility prepared to defend him and 
 the Protestant religi^)n with arms. It was a time 
 of extreme peril. But no earthly dangers could 
 silence the voice of Knox orconqnerhis undaunted 
 spirit. As troubles thickened, he was kindled into 
 higher enthusiasm. He inspired liis followers with 
 his own great courage. Says Camjibell : "He 
 was born a warrior, and could blow nothing but a 
 bugle's blast. He blew his blast, and the whole 
 Papal edifice, already honeycombed and under- 
 mined, came tumbling down in ruins." Morton 
 saiil of him : •• He never feared the face of mortal 
 man." Froude"s estinuite is : "Knox wasthemost 
 extraordinary man of that extraordinary age."" 
 
 In ]May, 1559, Knox arrived in Scotland. Xine 
 days later, the people, maddened into fury, rose 
 and stripped the monasteries of their images and 
 pictures. With the aid of English troops, the 
 French Army was driven out of Scotland. In 
 July, 15(i0, the Scotch Parliament reconstructed 
 the Church under the inspiration of Knox. Every 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 13 
 
 vestige of Papacy except the name of Bishop was 
 abolished. The Calvinistic faith was made the 
 national religion of Scotland. The Mass was abol- 
 ished, and heavy penalties imposed on all who par- 
 ticipated in its celebration. Thns wasestublished 
 the celebrated Kirk of Scotland. 
 
 It could scarcely be expected that in that age of 
 narrowness and persecution Knox could rise above 
 the spirit of his time, and introduce universal tol- 
 eration in the exercise of religion ; nor dkl he. He 
 fell short of the glory won a few years later by 
 William the Silent, another disciple of Calvin, who 
 was the first of the Reformed Princes to extend 
 religious toleration iu his dominions to all sects 
 and creeds, although at that very time his people 
 were suffering one of the most remorseless perse- 
 cutions recorded in history.* 
 - In August, 1561, Mary Stuart, now tlie widow 
 
 ' Alva left the Netherlands boasting that he had executed 
 18,600 heretics and traitors, exclusive of those who had fallen ' 
 in battle, siege, and massacre. According to Grotius, 100,000 
 heretics were put to death in the Netherlands under the edicts 
 of Charles V. Motley says the number has never been esti- 
 mated at less than 50,000. The number who fell in the St. 
 Bartholomew massacre, in France, those in Paris and else- 
 where, is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000. Those who per- 
 ished by the Inquisition in Spain, from 14.'j5 to 1808, are put at 
 about 32,000.— Campbell, Vol. I, 166, 
 
14 COVENANTER, CAVALIEE AND PURITAN. 
 
 of Francis II, came back to Scotland, to reign over 
 her native land. She was j'oung, beautiful, and 
 possessed striking attractions both of person and 
 mind. Her charms were so extraordinary that she 
 was regarded by some of the grave Scotch Presby- 
 terians with alarm, as an enchantress, "by whom 
 all men seemed to be bewitched." On her arrival, 
 she professed friendship for the Kirk, and only 
 wished, as she said, toleration for herself. But her 
 seductive manners and winning words had no in- 
 fluence on John Knox. A memorable interview 
 took place between them, in which she spoke of 
 the rebellious disposition of her subjects, and asked 
 whether he thought it right for her subjects to re- 
 sist their sovereign. He replied, that if a father 
 went mad and tried to kill his children, they might 
 properly tie his hands and take his weapons from 
 hira. "Let Prince and subject both obey God." 
 This was eighty years before the Puritans and In- 
 dependents of England gave a practical illustra- 
 tion of the meaning of the words of Knox in the 
 execution of the grandson of this radiant young 
 Qaeen, to uhose unwelcome ears this was spoken. 
 At the very time, however, Mary was professing 
 friendship for the Kirk, and a willingness to toler- 
 ate the Presbyterians, she was plotting with France 
 and Spain for their extermination, and for the res- 
 
COVENANTEES IN SCOTLAND AND lUELAiSD. 15 
 
 toration of the Papacy. Under the influence of 
 their great leader, Knox, the Scotch people had 
 become a compact, almost a solid mass of earnest, 
 determined reformers, devoted to their new faith 
 and ready to snfi'er and to die for it. 
 
 Mary, who seemed to be born only for sunshine 
 and happiness, was soon overwhelmed with shad- 
 ows and misfortune, and after six years she abdi- 
 cated her throne in favor of her infant son, James 
 VI, afterward James I 'of England. From the 
 throne she passed into an English prison and un- 
 der the power of her heartless cousin, Queen Eliz- 
 abeth, by whom she was at length beheaded. Many 
 as were the faults and crimes of " Mary, Queen of 
 Scots," the sympathy of the world has been with 
 her, rather than with the false and lieartless Eliza- 
 beth. 
 
 For nearly thirty years, the struggle between 
 royal authority and the Church of Kome, on the 
 one side, and the Nobles with the common people, 
 on the other, was carried on, often resulting in 
 conflicts of arms.* Finally, in 1560, the Nobles 
 and the people triumphed, and the Romish Church 
 disappeared from Scotland forever as a dominant 
 
 "Campbell's Puritan in Holland, England, and America, Vol. 
 II, 3, 4; Buckle's History of Civilization, Vol. II, 165, 167, 181, 
 184, 185. 
 
16 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 ecclesiastical power. The Kirk took its place, and 
 Protestantism became supreme. The next great 
 struggle was to be with the Church of England, 
 supported by all the power of the House of the 
 Stuarts. 
 
 The JSTobles who had done so much to effect this 
 great Revolution naturally considered themselves 
 entitled to the lands, the property, and the revenue 
 of the Church which they had overthrown. Ac- 
 cordingly, they reserved for themselves five-sixths 
 of the revenues, and allowed one-sixth only to the 
 Presbyterian Clergy. This gave serious offense to 
 the latter class. They were poor; their support 
 was scant and meager. Most of them were of the 
 common people; a fact which of itself enabled 
 them to exercise great power and influence. When 
 these ministers preached, heart spoke to heart. 
 Among poor and ignorant people, words and les- 
 sons uttered by their fellows fell with touching 
 force. Says a recent writer : "Sermons to them 
 from ministers well clothed and sumptuously fed 
 would have produced about as much effect as a 
 lecture from the rich man to Lazarus en the beau- 
 ties of humility and poverty. . . . Christianity 
 came very close to the heart of the peasant or 
 artisan when its doctrines were preached by men 
 
COVENANTEES IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 17 
 
 no richer than himself, ^dependent for their sub- 
 sistence on his voluntary contributions."* 
 
 The great body of the people also were poor. 
 This fact helps to explain the democratic spirit of 
 Calvinism in Scotland. The people became a 
 power in the State. The Church government, 
 as finally modified, was democratic in all its 
 features. It was a government of majorities, in 
 which all had a voice. Says Lecky : " The Kirk 
 was by its constitution essentially republican." f 
 The office and title of Bishop were soon abolished. 
 The Ministers had but little more authority than 
 the humblest layman. 
 
 And let it be kept in mind that this was the 
 condition of things more than three centuries ago. 
 Three hundred years of marvelous progress, such 
 as the world never witnessed before, have added 
 nothing to the work of these humble, and in many 
 cases ignorant, Scotch Covenanters under the 
 guidance of John Knox. The church polity 
 worked out by them is to this day the substantial 
 basis of all government in all Presbyterian or- 
 ganizations throughout the world. It was the 
 work of the people for themselves under the 
 advice of wise leaders. 
 
 The ministers of the Kirk insisted that every 
 
 » Campbell, Vol. II, 10. t lb., 45. 
 
18 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 man should read the Bible for himself. "The 
 Scottish Commons," says Froude, " are the sons 
 of their religion; they are so because that religion 
 taught them the equality of man." The " Book 
 of Discipline" declared that, all the preachers 
 being. fellow-laborers, all were equal in power and 
 that none but God had spiritual authority over 
 them. 
 
 These preachers were called to their work by 
 the election of the Congregation, and not by ap- 
 [lointment or nomination of the King or a Bishop. 
 
 Although the Romish Church had been over- 
 thrown in Scotland, the followers of the reformed 
 faith had before them a long and ateri-ible strug- 
 gle with the Church of England. They were yet 
 to endure bitter trials before the day of permanent 
 rest and repose was attained. 
 
 After Henry VIII quarreled with the Pope, oil 
 account of his numerous divorces, he became the 
 ecclesiastical and spiritual head of the Church of 
 England. He discarded some of the doctrines of 
 the Romish Church and introduced some reforms. 
 In one respect, however, the Church of England 
 remained just as its august predecessor had always 
 been. It looked upon all dissent from the doc- 
 trines and practices of the Church as heresy, and 
 it was punishable with death at the will of its 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 19 
 
 head. There was little more toleration under the 
 new hierarchy than there had been under the old. 
 Persecutions of dissenters and heretics and per- 
 sons professing any of the reformed faiths were 
 still practiced under Elizabeth and Mary, under 
 James I and Charles I, and later on under 
 Charles II and James II, as they had been in the 
 days of the Popish supremacy. Under "Bloody 
 Mary " two hundred and seventy-seven persons 
 suffered death on account of their religion. Eliza- 
 beth, after she ceased to desire to be reconciled to 
 the Romish Church, in fourteen years, put to death 
 for alleged spiritual felonies, sixty-one Catholic 
 Cierg3'men, forty-seven laymen and two gentle- 
 women, most of the victims being drawn and 
 quartered.* So, too, the persecutions weut on 
 under her successors. 
 
 It is not surprising that the Stuarts and the 
 Bishops sought to strangle the Covenanters, and 
 to overthrow the Kirk. Episcopacy was the main 
 stay of royal prerogatives. It led naturally and 
 logically to the doctrine of the divine right of 
 Kings, and has always been the strongest bulwark 
 of the English aristocracy. The Clergy of that 
 Church, in England, had uniformly been tories.f 
 Most naturally they sustained their patrons in 
 ■» Campbel), Vol. II, 211. t Id., 11. 
 
20 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 every struggle to lessen the power or limit the 
 prerogatives of the Crown. Macaulay, in speak- 
 ing of the English Church, says: "All her tradi- 
 tions, all her tastes were monarchical. Loyalty 
 became a point of professional honor among her 
 clergy, the peculiar -badge which distinguished 
 them at once from Calvinists and papists." * 
 
 The King was the head of the Church. Arch- 
 bishop, Bishop, and all lower prelates, were subject 
 to him. From hiui directly or indirectly they 
 held their Sees, offices and benefices, and derived 
 their revenues. He determined what was heresy 
 and what was not. With the power of removal, 
 it can be easily seen how dependent the Clergy 
 were on the Crown, and what a stay the Crown 
 had in them. Thus the whole Church was 
 brought into absolute subordination to the King. 
 
 The English Church, although there may be 
 a ditterence in opinion as to its merits, was cer- 
 tainly an improvement on. the one it superseded. 
 It undoubtedly was the best attainable for En- 
 gland at that time. Such a simple democratic 
 Church as the Kirk of Scotland was not then pos- 
 sible among the aristocratic English people, with 
 their strong love for hoary forms and ceremonies. 
 Besides too great a departure from the old Church 
 ® History of England, Vol. I. 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 21 
 
 would have weakened and endangered the very 
 existence of the Kingdom, by dividing both the 
 Clergy and the nobility, on whose support the 
 government rested for security. 
 
 ' The reigns of James I and Charles I were marked 
 by constant acts of pei'fidy and persecution against 
 the Scottish people. Each of these monarchs 
 claimed to be the head of the Scottish Church, with 
 the power to appoint Bishops and regulate all ec- 
 clesiastical afl'airs. Their object was to overthrow 
 Presbyterianism in Scotland, and to establish in 
 its place the Anglican Chui'ch. Under the direc- 
 tion of Charles I a book of _eanons and liturgy 
 was prejjared for use there. Every minister was 
 required to adhere to the prescribed forms, under 
 pain of expulsion. In this great emergency the 
 people rose in defense of their religion. Ministers 
 and noblemen sent petitions to the King, entreat- 
 ing him to suspend the use of the liturgy. Crowds 
 of people flocked to Edinburgh to learn the King's 
 answer. Instigated by the Prelate Laud, he an- 
 swered by commanding instant obedience to the 
 requirements of the service book, and by de- 
 nouncing all dissent as treason. 
 
 The Presbyterians realized that a great Crisis 
 had now arrived ; they must resist, or give up their 
 religion, and bow to the yoke of a tyrant. They 
 
V 
 
 22 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 were prompt to decide. They determined to re- 
 new the old "National League and Covenant" 
 of 1551. At daybreak on the appointed day, 
 Grey Friars Church and Church-yard, in Edin- 
 burgh, were filled with Scotland's nobility and 
 peasantry. After an earnest prayer by Hender- 
 son, Johnstone, in a clear voice, read the covenant. 
 "We promise and swear,"" ran this solemn instru- 
 ment at its close, " by the great name of the Loi-d 
 our God, to continue in the profession and obe- 
 dience of the said religion ; and that we shall de- 
 fend the same, and resist all their contrary errors 
 and corruptions, according to our vocation, and to 
 the utmost of that power which God has put in 
 our hands, ail the days of our life." 
 
 The venerable Earl of Sutherland was the first 
 to come forward and put his hand to this solemn 
 pledge ; the others followed. When all in the Church 
 had signed it, it was taken'to the church-yard and 
 spread on a grave-stone, where the vast crowd 
 hastened to sign it. The next day three hundred 
 ministers affixed their names to the Covenant. 
 Copies were made, and nobles and gentlemen, and 
 ministers and peasants rode with rapid speed over 
 Scotland to procure signatures. Thus the Presby- 
 terians of Scotland achieved the immortal name of . 
 Covenanters. 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND lEELAND. 23 
 
 The "Bishop's War" followed. Twice the 
 King's armies were led into Scotland, and twice 
 they were defeated and driven back in confusion. 
 Chai'les II renewed the effort to establish Epis- 
 copacy. Under the influence of Sharp, a cruel 
 tyrant, who had been made Archbishop, an edict 
 was made, commanding all Presbyterian ministers 
 to submit to the Bishops, or be expelled from their 
 charges. Soldiers were poured into Scotland to 
 enforce obedience. The Covenant was burned by 
 the common hangman. On a dreary winter Sab- 
 bath nearly four hundred ministers, amid the 
 tears of their congregations, preached their sad, 
 farewell sermons. The next day they were fu- 
 gitives in the snow-clad mountains. They were 
 hunted out in their secret concealments like wild 
 beasts, and their faithful followers shot down in 
 cold blood, or tortured and mutilated. 
 
 In 1666, despair drove the people to arms on the 
 Pentland Hills. The battle lasted till evening, 
 when the famished peasants fled. New persecu- 
 tions followed. The penalty of death was pro- 
 nounced on all who should preach in the open air, 
 or attend such meetings. 
 
 James II, on coming to the throne, "hunted 
 down the scattered remnants of the Covenantei'S," 
 says Macaulay, "with a barbarity of which no 
 
24 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 Prince of modern times, Philip the Second alone 
 excepted, had ever shown himself capable."* 
 
 But preaching still went on. In the wild re- 
 cesses of the mountains, the Covenanters still se- 
 cretly assembled, still prayed, still worshiped. The 
 merciless Claverliouse, with his fierce dragoons, 
 was ever on their track. With blood-hounds and 
 baying dogs, they were hunted out of their hidden 
 retreats. A body of Highlanders, more savage 
 and alert than the blood-hounds, was brought down 
 to aid in ferreting out the fugitives. f 
 
 * On an old weather-beaten stone in Grey Friars Church- 
 yard, in Edinburgh, it is stated that, " from May 17," 1661^ 
 when the most noble Marquis of Argyle was beheaded, to tlie 
 17th "of February, 1683, when Mr. James Warwick suffered, 
 were one way and another murdered and destroyed for the 
 same cause about eighteen thousand." This was only about 
 one-fourth of the time the struggle lasted. 
 
 t During three months they enjoyed every license. Eight 
 thousand armed Highlanders, invited by the British Govern- 
 ment, and receiving indemnity beforehand for every excess, 
 were left to work their will upon the towns and villages of 
 AVestern Scotland. They spared neither age nor sex. They 
 " deprived the people of their property ; they even stripped 
 them of their clothes, and sent them out naked to die in the 
 fields. "Upon many they inflicted the most horrible tortures. 
 Children torn from their mothers were foully abused ; while 
 both mothers and daughters were subjected to a fate, com- 
 pared to which death would have been a joyful alternative.— 
 Buckle, Vol. II, 226. 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 25 
 
 But all through their trials they remained true 
 to their solemn Covenant. Perhaps no people in 
 Europe so universally accepted the doctrines of 
 the Reformation as the Lowlanders of Scotland. 
 They were Presbyterians of the strictest faith. 
 They felt the vengeance of Laud and the raging 
 fury of Claverhouse. Sometimes, driven to des- 
 peration, they flew to arms, with no weapons hut 
 farm implements, and with no leaders but religious 
 enthusiasts, only to elicounter fresh persecutions. 
 Loudon Hill attested their bravery and their tri- 
 umph, and Bothwell Bridge witnessed their defeat 
 and slaughter. 
 
 In 1688, the yellow banner of William II^ the 
 mild Protestant Prince of Orange, floated over 
 Scotland, and gave peace and security to its weary, 
 faithful people. The national Covenant had been 
 kept, and a legacy of civil and religious liberty 
 had beeu secured, not alone for Scotland, but for 
 all raaukiml. On all struggling people, like the 
 dew of Ilermon, has descended, and still descend, 
 the blessings' of the Covenant. The contest con- 
 tinued, with short respites, more than a hundred 
 years. The final great conflict, the fiercest and 
 the crudest, lasted uninterruptedly for twenty- 
 eight years. 
 2 
 
26 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 From this school of trial came forth that long 
 list of scholars, poets, philosophers, divines, and 
 historians who have made Scotland so illustrious. 
 The national spirit was exalted by suftering. The 
 national intellect was quickened and kindled into 
 a blaze of intensity. Great intellectual lights shot 
 up every-where. During this long struggle, many 
 of her people passed over into Ireland, and settled 
 there. Some had been banished; some sent to the 
 "Plantations" and sold int& slavery; and others, 
 to avoid persecution, had voluntarily emigrated to 
 the Colonies. It was in the tribulations and con- 
 flicts to which I have referred that the hardy and 
 robust Scotch-Irish colonists were formed and 
 molded into their heroic proportions. 
 
 I now turn to Ireland. During the reign of 
 James I, a part of ^the Irish nobles had rebelled 
 against his. authority, and, after reducing them to 
 submission, he declared their lands forfeited to the 
 Crown. On these lands he planted a Scotch and 
 an English Colony. The region to which these 
 colonists went was wild and desolate, having been 
 wasted by wars and forays. They found it a 
 desert, and made it a garden of fertility and pro- 
 ductiveness. By industry and frugality they be- 
 came prosperous, and soon gathered around their 
 little homes the comforts and many of the luxuries 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCaXLAND AND IRELAND. 27 
 
 of the age. They were a brave, austere, self-poised 
 race. No danger could daunt them ; no earthly 
 power subdue their stubborn wills or swerve them 
 from the path of duty. Their Presbyteriauism 
 founded on conviction had been confirmed by per- 
 secution. It was a part of their very being. 
 
 The Episcopal form of worship was the estab- 
 lished religion in Ireland. The country was under 
 the domination of the English Church. The na- 
 tives were Catholics. When the Covenanters, 
 however, first came to Ireland, their religious 
 scruples were respected. But, soon, the Bishops 
 began to suspend Presbyterian ministers from their 
 functions. "All' who refused to obey the Bishops, 
 and to introduce and use the liturg}', were deprived 
 of their cures." ITurabers of ministers were 
 arrested and imprisoned for non-conformity. In 
 Ulster alone sixty-one ministers were deposed, 
 their pulpits declared vacant, and curates sent in 
 some cases to take possession of them. The Bishops 
 insisted that no minister should officiate unless he 
 had been ordained by them. In some parts of 
 Ulster, the people were not permitted to bury their 
 dead unless an Episcopal clergyman officiated and 
 read the burial service of that Church. Efforts were 
 made to prohibit the Presbyterian ministers from 
 celebrating the rite of marriage among their own 
 
28 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 people. Private members were subjected to perse- 
 cution in the ecclesiastical courts. A law for the 
 "suppression of popery" was turned against the 
 Presbyterian dissenters. Froude says : " The 
 Bishops fell on the grievance which had so long 
 afflicted them of the Presbyterian marriages." 
 Dissenting ministers " were unsanctified upstarts, 
 whose pretended marriage ceremonial was but a 
 license for sin." Ifwas announced that the chil- 
 dren of Protestants not married in a Church should 
 be treated as bastards, and many persons of un- 
 doubted reputation were prosecuted in the Bishop's 
 Courts as fornicators." 
 
 With a strange fatuity, the British Parliament 
 imposed grievous restrictions on the trade of the 
 Irish Colonists, which threatened their industrial 
 enterprises with ruin. To add to the many wrongs 
 under which they suffered, as their leases expired 
 the landlords commenced demanding higher rents. 
 Often these amounted to little less than legalized 
 robbery. 
 
 It mattered net that these men had saved Lon- 
 donderry to the Crown, after enduring sufferings 
 such as scarcely have a parallel in history. It mat- 
 tei'ed not that at the great battle of the Boyne 
 they had risked their lives, and many of them had 
 poured out their blood for that government which 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 29 
 
 now planted its iron heel upon their necks. No 
 tie of gratitude availed against the rapacity of 
 English landlords; no sense of shame or remorse 
 against Church bigotry. 
 
 Wronged by the Church, and stung with indig- 
 nation at the perfidy and the ingratitude of the 
 British Government, at last the patience of the 
 Covenanters was exhausted. They determined to 
 seek homes in the wilderness beyond the Atlantic 
 ''in a country where the long arm of prelacy was 
 too short to reach them." When we recall how 
 prompt to resist oppression the ancestors of these 
 men had been in Scotland, how ready they were, 
 afterward, in the colonies, to fly to arms against 
 little more than merely menaced wrongs, we are 
 amazed at the patience with which they endured 
 their multiplied grievances in Ireland for one hun- 
 dred years. God had not yet turned their hearts 
 to war, but held them in check, reserving their 
 courage for a larger theater and one of brighter 
 hope and wider usefulness. 
 
 The influence exerted on the thought and mind 
 of the world by the Scotch Covenanters has never 
 been fully appreciated. Theirs was the first great 
 revolution in Europe resulting in the complete in- 
 dependence of religious thought and conduct. 
 Protestantism, though heroically struggling for 
 
30 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the same object, had not yet triumphed in the 
 ITethcrlaiids. In England, the spirit of religious 
 liberty was still in its cradle, and had not assumed 
 a definite form. There were many bold and ad- 
 vanced thinkers, but no unity of action, no organ- 
 ized movement in that direction. The evidences 
 of a coming revolution were plainly visible in the 
 wide discontent which prevailed against the uni- 
 versal corruption and immorality in the Church 
 and among the ecclesiastics; but, except in indi- 
 vidual cases, it did not manifest itself openly. 
 
 Let it be kept in mind that this was eighty years 
 before the great revolution in England, in which, 
 during its progress, the Puritans (who became 
 Presbyterians) and the Independents, or Separatists, 
 first became a mighty force in the State. They 
 existed before, but only in an unorganized form. 
 The consummation of this revolution, in Scotland, 
 through the agencj' of the Covenanters, took 
 place, let it again be recalled, sixty years before 
 the landing of the Mayflower on our shores, and 
 sixty-eight years before the Puritans settled at 
 Salem. 
 
 In an age and at a time when the human mind 
 and conscience were just awaking from the deadly 
 lethargy, caused by bigotry and priestly supersti- 
 tion, into a dim perception of the great religious 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AfD IRELAND. 31 
 
 and political truths established in Scotland, that 
 event must have had a powerful quickening influ- 
 ence every-where. 
 
 Many authorities and facts might be given in 
 proof of this statement, but I cite only a few. 
 
 "The Scotch Puritans" — Covenanters — "exer- 
 cised a marked influence both on their brethren in 
 England and upon those in America, second only 
 to that exerted by the Puritans of the N'ether- 
 lands."* 
 
 "Many causes co-operated to bring about this 
 great result" — that is, the overthrow of the claim 
 of the divine right of Kings — "but it should never 
 be forgotten that the first blows of the conflict 
 were struck by Scottish arms, and that the princi- 
 ples contended for in England had been proclaimed 
 by the bold preachers of Scotland for more than 
 half a century."! 
 
 " This action" — the attempt of Charles I to force 
 a liturgy on Scotland — " resulted in the war which, 
 subsequently taken up by the English, ended in 
 the Commonwealth, and the establishment of Pres- 
 byterianism in England." J 
 
 "The English, left to themselves, probably would 
 never have thought of such a departure" — that is, 
 
 * Campbell's Puritan, Vol. II, 2. t Id. 15. 
 
 t Id. 32, note. 
 
32 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the abolition of Bishops and of the Episcopacy— 
 "but they had on one side Scotland with its Pres- 
 byterian Kirk; on the> other side, although far 
 away, was Greneva with the same system, and 
 nearer home was Holland."* 
 
 " Nothing but the rebellion in Scotland" — in 
 1640 — "incited by his" — Charles' — "ecclesiastical 
 innovations frustrated his schemes upon Amer- 
 ica" — that is, to crush out all the independent 
 sects ill the American Colonies, and to abolish all 
 the Colonial Charters — " at a time when all En- 
 gland lay cowering under his tyranny. This is 
 the first debt of America to Scotland." f "James 
 drove out of Scotland many of the leading minis- 
 ters. They took refuge in England, to disseminate 
 there the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, 
 standing above the State, and in time their teach- 
 ings developed into action." 
 
 Says Macaulaj^: "To this step" — to force the 
 liturgy on Scotland — "our country owes her free- 
 dom. The first performance of the foreign cere- 
 monies produced a riot. The riot rapidly became 
 a revolution. . . . The whole nation was in 
 arms. The example of Scotland spread to En- 
 
 "■■• Campbell's Puritan, Vol. II, 168. 
 
 t Id. 473, note, citing Doyle's Puritan, Vol. I, 197. 
 
COVENANTEES IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 33 
 
 land, and in the revolution which followed Charles 
 lost his head."* 
 
 We have thus seen that the Scottish Covenant- 
 ers, under the lead of John Knox, not only se- 
 cured for themselves political and religious liberty, 
 but that their example and teachings exerted a 
 mighty influence in England as well as in America. 
 
 The Scottish people were at the time of the 
 Reformation for the most part rude and ignornnt, 
 but not more so than their kinsmen in England. 
 Knox was the friend of education, and believed 
 that it was the highest safeguard of the Protestant 
 religion. Through liis influence schools were 
 generally established throughout the kingdom.f 
 When he passed away in 1572, Andrew Melville 
 took up his work and pushed it forward. As 
 principal, he reformed the Univei'sity of Glasgow, 
 then well-nigh broken up, and placed it on so high 
 a basis of learning that it attracted students from 
 other parts of Europe to enjoy its advantages. A 
 few years later, he in the same way rejuvenated 
 the University of St. Andrews. Through these 
 great seats of learning, the way was paved for the 
 
 * Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I, 73. 
 t Campbell, Vol I, 19, note. 
 3 
 
34 COVENANTER, CATALIER ANL PURITAN. 
 
 splendid learning which has since distinguished the 
 scholars of Scotland. 
 
 During the reign of William and Mary, a stat- 
 ute was passed by the Scotch Parliament for the 
 establishment of common schools in every parish, 
 to be supported in part by the parish, and in part 
 by rate bills.* " Before one generation had passed 
 away," says Macaulay, " it began to be evident 
 that the Common people of Scotland were superior 
 in intelligence to the Common people of any other 
 Country in Europe." Again he says: "lu men- 
 tal cultivation, Scotland had an undisputable su- 
 periority. Though that kingdom was then (1603) 
 the poorest in Christendom, it already vied in 
 every branch of learning with the most favored 
 countries. t 
 
 Hamerton says: " In proportion to their small 
 numbers, they (the Scotch) are the most distin-. 
 guished little people since the days of the ancient 
 Athenians, and the most educated of the modern 
 races. All the industrial arts are at home iu Glas- 
 gow, all the fine arts in Edinburgh, and as for 
 literature it is every-where." J 
 
 Says Lecky : " Schools diffused the benefits of 
 
 * Macaulay's History, Vol. IV, 704. 
 
 t Macaulay's History, Vol. I, 51; Campbell, Vol. I, 19, note. 
 
 t French and English, 4.'j7. 
 
COVENANTEES IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 35 
 
 knowledge thoughout the kingdom, and made the 
 average level of Scotch intelligence superior to any 
 part of the empire." * 
 
 The foundation of the- splendid university edu- 
 
 * Lecky, Vol. TI, 45. 
 
 A confirmation of what is said in the foregoing chapter in 
 reference to the educational advantages of the Scottish people 
 is found in a recent article by Rev. T>. M. Ross, M.A., on Dr. 
 John Watson— " Ian- McClaren." He tells how the latter, 
 when starting in the ministry, deliberately gave up a position 
 in one of the largest and most influential congregations in 
 Edinburgh, and accepted a call to a hamlet " lying on the slope 
 of the Southern spurs of the Grampian Mountains, on the edge 
 of a waste of heathery hill and moorland given over to sheep 
 and grouse and wild fowl." The parish contained less than 
 six hundred souls, and the Free Church congregation, to which 
 " Ian McClaren " went, less than one hundred and fifty per- 
 sons, young and old. But these plain people were an intelU- 
 gent, an educated people, as their fathers had been from the 
 days of John Knox. Mr. Ross says : 
 
 "The members of his congregation were humble folk — the 
 school-master, the shop-keeper, the joiner, the smith, and other 
 tradesmen of the village, a few crofters, several not too com- 
 fortable farmers, with their shepherds and plowmen. But 
 thanks to the parish schools — including the Free Church 
 School — which Scotland owes to the noble educational en- 
 thusiasm of her greatest ecclesiastical statesman, John Knox, 
 the humblest of them, and their ancestors for generations be- 
 fore them had. received an education w'hicb had raised them 
 far above the level of " Hodge" of the English Counties. Be- 
 sides, the democratic Constitution of the Presbyterian Church 
 
36 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 cation of Scotland was laid as far back as 1410, 
 when the University of St. Andrews was estab- 
 lished, and in 1450, when that of Glasgow had its 
 bcffinuing-. That of Ab&rJeeu was established in 
 1495. Grammar schools were established also in 
 all hurgh corporations. The Jaw of the Scotch 
 Parliament in 1496 required all barons and free- 
 holders of substance to send their eldest sons to 
 grammar schools until they were competent Latin 
 scholars, and then for three years to " schnles of 
 art and jure." * And, after the rebellion of 1640, 
 parochial schools were established throughout 
 Scotland under the direct supervision of the 
 Kirk after the model of those of Geneva. The 
 Covenanter Clergy throughout the Kingdom aided 
 in this great work, as they afterward did, in estab- 
 lishing schools in the Colonies. f 
 
 When the Covenanters, on the invitation of 
 James I, settled in Ireland (a good many, however, 
 had gone over previous to this time), they took 
 with them the education and the religion as well 
 as the thoughts and manners of Scotland. They 
 established schools for the education of their chil- 
 
 had afforded in itself an educational discipline for the mem- 
 bers of its Congregations." — McClure's Magazine, October, 1896. 
 
 * ].ecky, Vol. II, 47. 
 
 t The Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. I, 92. 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 37 
 
 dren, as well as churches. The sons of the well- 
 to-do and the wealthy were sent to Dublin, to 
 Glasgow, or to Edinburgh, to be trained in these 
 Universities. Common schools were provided for 
 those who were not able to attend the Universities. 
 So, it came to pass, that in point of education and 
 intelligence, the Scotch Colonists, in Ireland, were 
 superior to the English. No Presbyterian could 
 obtain a license to preach until he had studied 
 theology for four years, besides his regular course 
 in college.* 
 
 The Covenanters were a frugal and an indus- 
 trious people. The province of Ulster where they 
 settled soon became the most prosperous portion 
 of Ireland. The contrast between it and the 
 English and the native Irish settlements was 
 marked, showing the superior intelligence and 
 industry of the Scotch. 
 
 When the Covenanters were gradually driven 
 out of Ireland by persecution, between the years 
 1700 and 1775 and came to the Colonies, their first 
 care in their new homes, after securing religious 
 privileges, was to provide for the education of their 
 children. In every neighborhood, where it was 
 possible, in which they settled they established 
 schools. Their ministers were all educated up to 
 * Scotch and Irish Seed in American Soil, 260. 
 
38 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the highest standard of the best Universities of 
 Europe. Most of them, perhaps nearly every one 
 of them, became teachers in Colleges, Academies 
 or Common Schools. The salaries paid for preach- 
 ing were generally grossly inadequate to defray 
 the expenses of their families. To supplement 
 this scanty income by what could be gained by 
 teaching a school, often in the minister's own 
 house, was generally an absolute necessity. The 
 Church also urged upon the ministers the necessity 
 of encouraging education, as the bulwark of re- 
 ligion as well as of the State. Besides, there were 
 in those days, as in later days, professional teachers 
 who went from neighborhood to neighborhood in 
 pursuit of their calling. Few persons living in the . 
 first half of the nineteenth century have not met, 
 especially in the country, one or more of these 
 Scotch, or Scotch-Irish itinerant teachers, always 
 strict, always faithful, always well educated, going 
 from neighborhood to neighborhood in his life 
 vocation. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Craighead in his admirable little book, 
 " Scotch and Irish Seeds in American Soil," enu- 
 merates twenty-eight Colleges and Schools started 
 by these Covenanter Ministers during the eighteenth 
 century, in N'ew Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
 Maryland, Virginia, ISTorth Carolina and Tennessee, 
 
COVENANTERS IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 39 
 
 and he might also have added those of Kentucky. 
 A number of thein, though started as private 
 schools, grew in the course of time into great 
 Colleges of the widest usefulness. Such was the 
 origin of Princeton ; of Washington College, and 
 of Hampden-Sydney, Virginia; of Washington 
 College, and of G-reenville College, Tennessee ; 
 and of Delaware College, and Jefferson College, 
 Pennsylvania. But those mentioned by name do 
 not constitute one-tenth, perhaps, of the schools 
 started by the Covenanter Presbyterian ministers 
 in the Colonies south of iNew England. In Scot- 
 land, in Ireland, and all the Colonies where they 
 settled, education was the second great duty and 
 care of life. The Synod of Carolina, at an early 
 day, instructed the Presbyteries, under its charge, 
 to provide for a Grammar School in each of its 
 bounds. And most faithfully did these earnest 
 ministers obey the, injunctions laid upon them. 
 For nearly a century before the Eevolution they 
 conducted most of the classical schools south of 
 Ifew York. They gave the free school system to 
 Xew Jersey, and promoted the cause of education 
 every-where.* 
 
 » Campbell, Vol. 11, 486. 
 
 Note. Some parts of the foregoing chapter were taken, v\ith 
 changes, from my address before the Scotch-Irish Congress at 
 Louisville, in 1891. 
 
40 COVENANTEK, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 THE COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 The term Covenanter — "What it signifies — Influence of Cove- 
 nanters in bringing on the American Revolution — Author- 
 ities qiioted to this effect — Action of the Presbyterian 
 Synod of Philadelphia in 1775 — Action of Continental 
 Congress, July 8, 1775, declaring it had no design of estab- 
 lishing independent States — Pastoral letter of the Synod — 
 Covenanters all united in favor of Independence — Patrick 
 Henry sustained by Covenanters in Virginia — Action of 
 the people on the Holston in Fincastle County — Eev. 
 -Charles Cummings, Colonel Wm. Campbell, Colonel Ar- 
 thur Campbell, and others on the remote frontier declare 
 for Independence — Augusta County — Covenanters of 
 Worcester County, Mass. — Quakers of Pennsylvania op- 
 pose Independence — Public meeting in Philadelphia — 
 Overthrow of the Proprietary Government— Covenanters 
 in Pennsylvania — The situation of Continental Congress — 
 Decisive speech of John Witherspoon— Covenanters fore- 
 most in fighting battles of Revolution in Pennsylvania, 
 Virginia, and South Carolina— Episcopalians in the Revo- 
 lution — Covenanter Declaration of Independence at Mech- 
 lenburg — Battle of King's Mountain — Influence of Cov- 
 enanters in framing Constitution — Part they took in de- 
 fending frontiers in the Revolution— Its far-reaching im- 
 portance — Western boundary line. 
 
 Having described the origin of the Covenanters 
 and their religious, educational, and political char- 
 acteristicp, in the following chapter I shall attempt 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 41 
 
 to point out the part taken by this people in the 
 American devolution. 
 
 Hereafter I shall use as far as I can the term 
 "Covenanters" instead of the words "Scotch- 
 Irish." This I do because that term is more defi- 
 nite and more, comprehensive. Besides, it has a 
 clear historic origin of thrilling dramatic interest 
 
 The terra Scotch-Irish is restricted in its appli- 
 cation, and not altogether clear in its signification. 
 By the terni Covenanters is meant all Scotch Pres- 
 byterians, and their descendants, without reference 
 to the place of their birth, or the place of their 
 sojourning, who settled in the Colonies or in the 
 States, previous to the time when intermarriages 
 with other sects became common. By reason ot 
 these intermarriages, the term ceased, in course of 
 time, to mean both a race and a sect, and came to 
 signify only a race. This definition will not only 
 include the Scotch-Irish and their descendants, but 
 Scotch Presbyterians also and their descendants 
 who were never in Ireland, but came directly from 
 Scotland or from other quarters to the Colonies. 
 The term thus understood and used will make it 
 unnecessary hereafter to refer to the Scotch-Irish 
 or to the Scotch Presbyterians separately. 
 
 The failure to find a term comprehensive enough 
 to cover at once these two branches of the Pres- 
 
42 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 byterian family doubtless accounts in part for the 
 failure to do them justice in comparing their work 
 with that done by the Puritans and the Cavaliers. 
 Scotch-Irish and Scotch Presbyterians have had 
 each and alone to bear comparison with races and 
 forces not thus divided in the public mind. Under 
 the general and comprehensive term Covenanters, 
 my object is to show what this wonderful Scotch 
 people has done for the cause of freedom, rehgion, 
 and civilization in the world, and especially what 
 it has done in our own country. 
 
 Want of space forbids that I should do more 
 than glance at the marked influence the Cove- 
 nanters exerted in bringing on the Revolution, 
 and afterward in sustaining it, and' carrying it for- 
 ward to a successful termination. The oft-re- 
 peated words of Mr. Bancroft may be appropri- 
 ately quoted at this point: "The first voice pub- 
 licly raised in America to dissolve all connection 
 with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of 
 ]Srew England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor 
 the Planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians." 
 
 At the time the great events of the Revolution 
 were being unfolded, the Covenanters were re- 
 garded by Tory and Episcopalian writers as the 
 chief authors of these revolutionary movements. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 43 
 
 This charge was brought against them at that day 
 by the friends of royalty, and contemporaneous 
 history goes far toward sustaining the truth of it. 
 
 The Hon. liichard Wright, at one time Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, 
 an Episcopalian and a thoroughly informed histo- 
 rian and statesman, declared that: "The Ameri- 
 can War of Independence was a Presbyterian and 
 Scotch-Irish War."* 
 
 Mr. Galloway, a prominent advocate of the old 
 government, ascribed the Revolution mainly to 
 the agitation of the Presbyterian Clergy and Laity, 
 which had begun as early as 1764. Another mon- 
 archist of the same period wrote thus: "You will 
 have discovered that I am no friend of the Pres- 
 byterians, and that I fix all the blame of these ex- 
 traordinary proceedings on them." 
 
 " Believe me, sir, the Presbyterians have been 
 the chief and principal instruments in all these 
 flaming measures; and they always have and ever 
 will act against government from that restless and 
 turbulent anti-monarchial spirit which has always 
 distinguished them every-wherewhen they had, or 
 by any means could assume, power, however ille- 
 gaily." t 
 
 * The Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. Ill, 135. 
 t Presbyterians and the Revolution, 48. 
 
44 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Dr. Elliott, editor of the M'estern organ of the 
 Methodist Church, concedes that "The Presby- 
 terians of every class were prominent, and even 
 foremost, in achieving the liberties of the United 
 States." 
 
 Of course no one will assume, as some of tlje 
 writers of that daj' did, that all the credit of 
 bringing on the Revolution is due to the Cove- 
 nanters, or Presbyterians. All that can be justly 
 claimed "for them is that they were the first great 
 body of men to agitate that question, and were 
 the most thoroughly united in its favor. 
 
 Mr. Wilburn F. Reed, of Philadelphia, an Epis- 
 copalian, bore explicit testimon}' to the fact that the 
 " Connection between their eftbrts " (those of the 
 Presbyterians) " for the security of their religious 
 liberty, and opposition to the oppressive measures 
 of Parliament, was distinctly seen" at the time, 
 and was often "made a ground of reproach" 
 against them. 
 
 Again, he writes : "A Presbyterian loyalist 
 was a thing unheard of. The debt of gratitude 
 which independent America owes to the dissenting 
 clergy and laity can never be paid."* 
 
 " The rigid Presbyterians," writes Mr. Bancroft, 
 * Scotch-Irish Seeds in American Soil, 324. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE KBVOLUTION. 45 
 
 1 
 
 " proved in America tlie supporters of religious 
 freedom." * 
 
 " Indeed, so prominent and conspicuous was the 
 part taken by Presbj'terians, as individuals and as 
 a Church, in the Revolutionary struggle that at its 
 close rumors were rife that projects were on foot 
 to make Preshyterianisra the religion of the new 
 Kepublic." f 
 
 The intention of establishing Episcopacy in the 
 Colonies had been at an early day frequently 
 avowed. "Americans in EngUind were openly 
 told that Bishops should be settled in America in 
 spite of all Presbyterian opposition." X It was in 
 part the apprehension of this calamity that united 
 the Covenanters, as well as the Congregationalists 
 of ]Srew England, in their determined opposition 
 to the acts of the British Government, prior to the 
 Declaration of Independence. || 
 
 It was proposed to introduce Bishops into 
 America, to be appointed by the Government as 
 in England. Little has been said by historians on 
 this point, and yet it, more than nearly any thing 
 else, united the religious sects in opposition to the 
 English Government. John Adams said that " it 
 
 * Presbyterians and the Revolution, 56. t Id. 49. 
 
 + Proceedings of Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. VIII, 244. 
 II Scotch-Irish Seeds iu American Soil, 320, 324. 
 
46 COVKNANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 was in dLseussing this subject that the Colonists were 
 first led to question the supremacy of Parliament." * 
 
 On June 4, 1774, the Covenanters of Hanover 
 County, Pennsylvania, denounced, in a public 
 meeting, the action of Great Britain as " iniquitous 
 and oppressive," and declared that in the event of 
 that Government "attempting to force unjust 
 laws on us (them) by the strength of ai-ms, our 
 cause we leave to Heaven and our rifles." And on 
 June 10, 1774, the Covenanters, at Middleton, in a 
 public meeting, indorsed the resolutions previously 
 adopted by the people of Hanover.f 
 
 On the 6th of May; 1775, the Covenanters of 
 Western Pennsylvania, at Hanastown, in West- 
 moreland County, and those of Fort Pitt and 
 Chester Counties, pledged their lives and their 
 fortunes in favor of the cause of the Colonies in 
 resisting the oppression of the English ministry. 
 
 In E"ew York there was an organization for 
 promoting the cause of the Colonies, known as the 
 " Sons of Liberty." This was called the " Presby- 
 terian Junta" by their enemies.]: 
 
 ■" Campbell, Vol. II, 490, quoting John Adams. England iu 
 the Eighteenth Century, 135. Lecky, Vol. Ill, 455. 
 
 t Proceedings o£ Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. VIII, 244. 
 
 t Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. Ill, 234. Campbell, Vol. 
 II, 408. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 47 
 
 Bancroft says that the first suggestion of a Con- 
 tinental Congress, to consider the remedies neces- 
 sary for the grievances of the Colonies, came from 
 these Covenanter " Sons of Liberty." 
 
 Mr. Adolphus,in his book on the reign of George 
 III, ascribes the unity of sentiment and of action 
 in the Church, and the momentum given to the 
 cause of Independence, largely to the establish- 
 ment of an annual synod in Philadelphia, where 
 says he, " all general aftairs, political as well as re- 
 ligious, were debated and decided." "From this 
 synod orders and decrees were issued throughout 
 America, and to them a ready and implicit obedi- 
 ence was paid." " By this union a party was pre- 
 pared to display their power by resistance, and the 
 Stamp Law presented itself as a favorable subject 
 of hostility." * 
 
 " In Virginia," says Bancroft, " the Presbytery 
 of Hanover took the lead for liberty, and demanded 
 the abolition of the establishment of the Anglican 
 Church and the civil equality of every denomina- 
 tion." t 
 
 " Our mother should remember that we are not 
 slaves," said the Presbyterians of Philadelphia..]; 
 
 But, perhaps, the most powerful influence given 
 
 * Scotch and Irish Seeds, etc., 322. 
 
 t Presbyterians and the Revolution, 57. t Id. 53. 
 
48 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 to the canse of the Revolution was the action of 
 the Presbyterian Synod which met in Philadelphia 
 in May, 1775. That was the largest ecclesiastical 
 body then in existence in the Colonies. Its dele- 
 gates represented Chnrches and Presbyteries from 
 every Colony, and spoke for the largest religious 
 body of Christians in the country. Its ministers 
 were in learning and ability, as well as in influence 
 and standing, equal to any similar body of men in 
 the world. Back of them was as powerful, intel- 
 ligent, and as determined a body of Christian free- 
 men as existed on earth. The love of both poli- 
 tical and religious liberty had been burned into 
 their very beings by centuries of wrongs and per- 
 secutions. The Continental Congress was in 
 session in Philadelphia at the same time that this 
 great ecclesiastical body met there. Many of our 
 ablest statesmen and most ardent patriots had not 
 yet resolved on the last great step of separation 
 from the mother country.* Neither Washington, 
 nor Adams, nor Jefferson was prepared for it at 
 this time. 
 
 As late as July, 1775, Congress sent a petition to 
 
 the King, which was signed by every member of 
 
 that body, in which they said : " We have not 
 
 raised armies with the ambitious design of sepa- 
 
 *" Presbyterians and the Revolution, 136, 137. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 49 
 
 rating from Great Britain and establishing inde- 
 pendent States." * 
 
 In this hour of doubt and peril, the famous 
 Synod of Philadelphia issued a pastoral letter to 
 the several churches scattered from New Hamp- 
 shire to Georgia, in which resistance to the en- 
 croachments of the Crown was in substance ad- 
 vised. 
 
 This letter urged the members of the Churches 
 throughout the Colonies "to adhere fii-nily " to 
 the resolutions of Congress, and said : " Let it be 
 seen that they are able to bring out the whole 
 strength of this vast country to carry them into 
 execution." This was one of the iirst bodies of 
 men to take so open a stand in behalf of the rights 
 of the Colonies.f This letter was sent to the 
 Legislature of every Colony, and was read from 
 every Presbyterian pulpit in the land. 
 
 The influence of such a letter upon the minds 
 of a people already ripe for rebellion, coming on 
 the heels of the news of the battles of Lexington 
 and Concord, was all powerful, and served to unite 
 these Sons of the Covenanters as one man in favor 
 of open resistance. 
 
 * Proceedings of Congress, June and July, 1775. 
 t Scotch and Irish Seeds in American Soil, 324. 
 4 
 
50 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 This Philadelphia Synod and this pastoral letter 
 were regarded by Mr. Adolphus in his " Eeign of 
 Georo-e III" as the chief cause which led the 
 Colonists to determine on resistance. 
 
 Little wonder there were no tories among these 
 people in the great struggle which followed. All 
 their history, traditions, sutf'eriligs, and persecutions 
 protested against such a thing. Two centuries of 
 wrong, perfidy, broken faith, and oppression pro- 
 tested ; the memory of the iron hand of Prelacy 
 and Episcopacy protested; the vision of a coming 
 hierarchy seen in dim outline, such as they had fled 
 from and escaped in Ireland, protested — all these 
 earnestly cried aloud against the possibility of a 
 Covenanter in blood being false to his country in 
 that dark hour of its trial. 
 
 The preachers of this faith, from the days of 
 John Knox and Andrew Melville, had always been 
 in the habit (for their political and rehgious liber- 
 ties had been wrapped up in the sarhe fate) of in- 
 structing their congregations, on occasions of great 
 peril and trial, as to their duty not only to God, 
 but to their country likewise. We can easily be- 
 lieve those earnest men, on the reading of that 
 pastoral letter to the several Churches throughout 
 the Colonies, improved the opportunity by preach- 
 ing sermons on the great question then agitating 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 51 
 
 the whole land. Stirred by the momentous occa- 
 sion, and by the memory of past bitter wrongs, we 
 can readily imagine that they pouted forth from 
 all their pulpits torrents of fervid and patriotic 
 eloquence, which fired and united the whole Church 
 as one man in favor of independence. 
 
 Thus the, whole Covenanter-Presbyterian popu- 
 lation of the Colonies was ready and united in 
 purpose when the supreme ti'ial by arms came. 
 As' the great events preceding the conflicts were 
 developing and unfolding, the Covenanters were 
 every-M'here active in shaping and crj'stallizing 
 public opinion around the idea of resistance. 
 Freely and gladly they sowed the seeds of the 
 lievolution. It seems strange and providential 
 how these people were scattered over the Colonies. 
 They were not needed for this work in New En- 
 gland, for the Puritans were thei'e. But in ISTew 
 Jersey and Delaware they were needed as mission- 
 aries of freedom ; they were needed also in Penn- 
 sylvania among the Quakers, and in the Southern 
 Colonies among a people traditionally attached to 
 England and to royalty. And where they were 
 needed in the fullness of time, there they were 
 found. Any one who may have lived in the South 
 in 1861 can, appreciate the vast influence which may 
 be exerted on a people, in times of civil commo- 
 
52 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 tion, by bold and determined leaders, who, seizing 
 the occasion when men are stirred by mighty 
 questions, lead them forward to open revolution. 
 But here was a powerful race of religious people, 
 encouraged by their ministers, all smarting under 
 recent flagrant wrongs, and all animated by a com- 
 mon purpose to be free. They all moved forward 
 with one mind toward the accomplishment of their 
 desired end. 
 
 It was these people who sustained Patrick Heiiry 
 in his important work in Virginia, as the leader of 
 the Revolutionary movement in that State. Mr. 
 Jefferson, speaking of him to Mr. "Webster,. said: 
 " He was far before us all in maintaining the spirit 
 of the Revolution. His influence was most ex- 
 tensive with the members from the upper counties, 
 and his boldness and their votes overawed and 
 controlled the more cool, or the more timid, aristo- 
 cratic gentlem.en of the lower part of the State." 
 That is to say, Mr. Henry was sustained by the 
 Covenanter members from the Valley and Pied- 
 mont region, which had been settled by that peo- 
 ple, while the aristocratic Cavalier members from 
 the eastern part of Virginia held back. They 
 were overawed into a support of the measures pro- 
 posed by the daring of the great Covenanter 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 53 
 
 leader and his brave followers.* "During the pe- 
 riod between this date (ITCS) and the Revolution, 
 Mr. Henry," says Alexander H. Everett, in his life 
 of that gifted man, "was constantly in advance of 
 the most ardent patriots. He suggested and car- 
 ried into effect, by his immediate personal influ- 
 ence, measures that were opposed as premature 
 and violent by all the other eminent supporters of 
 the cause of liberty." 
 
 One of the influences back of Patrick Henry, 
 which sustained him in his untiring tight for lib- 
 erty, and which overawed the Jiristocratic members 
 of the Eastern Shore, was the action of the Cove- 
 nanter people of Eineastle County. On January 
 20, 177-5, four months before the action of the 
 people of Mecklenburg County, the people of that 
 remote county, through their chairman and minis- 
 ter, the Rev. Charles Cummings, presented an ad- 
 dress to the Continental Congress, in whicli they 
 said in its conclusion: "We declare that we are 
 deliberately and resolutely determined never to 
 surrender them" — their privileges as freemen — "to 
 any power on earth but at the expeaise of our 
 lives." 
 
 This patriotic declaration came from the ex- 
 
 * Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. I, 118, quoted by Wm. Wirt 
 Henry, a grandson of Patrick Henry. 
 
54 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 treme south-western part of Virginia, where the 
 waters flow westward toward the Mississippi, from 
 Abingdon (then called Wolf Hill), in what is now 
 Washington County, far west ofthe Blue Ridge, west 
 of the Alleghanies, and over four hundred^ miles 
 west of Williamsburg, the capital of the Colony. 
 
 In this remote region was the home of Colonels 
 William and Arthur Campbell, and then, or after- 
 ward, ofthe Prestons. And to that settlement, on 
 the Holston, Colonel William Campbell, in 1775, 
 brought home from Hanover County his young 
 and beautiful wife, Elizabeth Henry, the sister of 
 Patrick Henry, who in a woman's sphere was as 
 remarkable as her renowned brother. She became 
 the ancestor of a race of great men.* And here 
 the brave Covenanter minister, Charles Curamings, 
 the pioneer preacher in the wilderness, and Col- 
 onels William Campbell, Preston, Christian, Ar- 
 thur Campbell, William Edmonson, and other 
 leading men, put forth theii* solemn declaration 
 that they were resolved to "live as freemen" or to 
 die in defense of " liberty and loyalty." f 
 
 This place, too, was near the Watauga settle- 
 ment, at that time, in North Carolina, which was 
 
 "■■ W. 0. Preston was her grandson. 
 
 t King's Mountain and its Heroes, 381. Sketch of Mrs. 
 Elizabeth Russell, formerly wife of William Campbell, 10. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THU REVOLUTION. 55 
 
 afterward the rallying and the starting point of the 
 celebrated expedition to King's Mountain under 
 Campbell, Sevier, and Shelby. 
 
 Again, on May 10, 1776, a memorial was pre- 
 sented to the Virginia Convention from the citi- 
 zens of Augusta County, another one of the " up 
 country" counties peopled by the Covenanters, 
 representing the necessity of making the Confed- 
 eracy of the United Colonies the most perfect, in- 
 dependent, and lasting, and of framing an equal, 
 free, and liberal government that may bear the test 
 of all future ages.* 
 
 The first town in the Colonies to declare for 
 the principles afterward incorporated in the Dec- 
 laration of Independence was Mendon, in Wor- 
 cester County, Massachusetts, in 1773. f It is a 
 singular fact that early in the eighteenth century 
 a Covenanter Colony of fifty families had settled 
 in that County. While we do not know with cer- 
 tainty who were the movers in that meeting, it 
 may be presumed as beyond question, judging from 
 their history every-where in the Colonies, that the 
 Covenanter people bore a principal part in this 
 declaration. I 
 
 - The Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. I, 232, 233. 
 
 t Bryant's History of the United States, Vol. Ill, 472. 
 
 t Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. I, 110. 
 
56 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 One other fact as to the influence of the Cove- 
 nanters in bringing on the Eevolution, I shall 
 mention. Pennsylvania was at that time the 
 second largest of the Colonies in point of popula- 
 tion, and Philadelphia the second largest city. 
 The Quakers controlled both the City and the 
 Colony. The proprietary government was still in 
 their hands. Both by policy and religious convic- 
 tion, they were opposed to the approaching revolu- 
 tion involving as it did a resort to arms. On the 
 news of the action of Congress of the 15th of May, 
 plainly looking to separation and independence, 
 the Assembly, acting under the proprietary gov- 
 ernment, in effect instructed its delegates in Con- 
 gress to oppose all action favorable to separation. 
 This was the work of the Quakers. On the 20th 
 of May, a large public meeting of the people of 
 Philadelphia was held in the State House yard, 
 which declared that the existing government (of 
 that colony) was no longer "competent to the ex- 
 igencies of our " (their) " aftairs," and that steps he 
 taken at once to organize a Provisional Convention 
 to form a new Government. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 18th of June a " confer- 
 ence " of delegates from every county in the 
 province assembled and " unanimously declared 
 in that public manner, in behalf of themselves, 
 
COVENANTEES IN THE REVOLUTION. 57 
 
 and with the approbation, consent and authority 
 of their constituents, their willingness to concur 
 in a vote of the Congress declaring the United 
 Colonies free and independent States." * Thus 
 the authority of the Quakers was virtually over- 
 thrown, and their power taken away by this 
 peaceable revolution. 
 
 The most numerous people in Pennsylvania, at 
 that time, possibly excepting the Quakers, were the 
 Covenanters. They were by far the most intel- 
 ligent, the' boldest, and the most aggressive. The 
 question as to the itidependence of the Colonies 
 every- where stirred this people. We can there- 
 fore easily assume that it was this people, which 
 by its bold action and resolves, at this critical 
 moment, when the Quakers were discouraging the 
 friends of liberty, helped to strengthen the arms 
 and nerve the hearts of the members of the Con- 
 tinental Congress. And never were help and en- 
 couragement more needed than at that time. It 
 is a well-known fact that when the critical hour 
 came for signing the Declaration of Independence 
 many members held back and hesitated. At this 
 momentous hour, the Rev. Dr. John Wither- 
 spoon, a distinguished Covenanter, President of 
 
 * Bryant's History of the United States, Vol. Ill, 480; Fiske, 
 Vol. I, 185, 186. 
 
 5 
 
5'8 COVENANTUE, CAVLIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Princeton College, and a lineal descendant of John 
 Knox, arose in his seat and said : " To hesitate at 
 this moment is to consent to our slaver3\ That 
 iioble instrument upon your table . . . should 
 be subscribed this very moment by every pen in 
 this house. He that will not respond to its accents, 
 and strain every nerve to carry into effect its pro- 
 visions, is unworthy the name of freeman, . . . 
 and although these gray hairs must soon des.pend 
 into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather |hat 
 they should descend hither by the hand of the 
 executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred 
 cause of my Country."* Under the influence of 
 these inspiring words and lofty sentiments the in- 
 strument was at once signed, and each signature, 
 though written in some cases with a trembling 
 hand, made the signer immortal. Fourteen of 
 these signers were of Covenanter blood, whose 
 ancestors had signed the " Solemn League and 
 Covenant" of Grey Friars Church, one hundred 
 and thirty-eight years before. 
 
 In sustaining the cause of independence, and in 
 fighting the battles of the Revolution, no people 
 were more earnest, more courageous, nor con- 
 tributed more largely to final success than the 
 
 ■•■■ Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. II, 104 ; Presbyterians and 
 the EevQlution, 163 ; Campbell, Vol. II, 487. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 59 
 
 Covenanters. "It is a fact beyond question," 
 says Plowden, " that most of the early successes 
 in America were immediately owing to the vigor- 
 ous exertions and prowess of the Irish immigrants" 
 (the Covenanters) " wiio bore arms in that cause."* 
 Ramsay, the historian of South Carolina, who re- 
 sided there during the Revolution, and who was a 
 member of the Continental Congress, says: " That 
 the Irish in America " (they were universally called 
 Irish, and not Scotch-Irish, or Covenanters, until 
 recently) " were almost to a man on the side 
 of independence." ..." They were Presby- 
 terians, and therefore mostly Whigs." "One of 
 the clergymen of this race said to his congregation 
 that he was sorry to see before him so many able- 
 bodied men when the conntrj' needed their services 
 at Vallej' Forge." In these Presbyteries, as in 
 those of New England, it was deemed an offense 
 worthy of discipline for any minister to exhibit 
 British sympathies." f 
 
 " In the Colonial wars their section" — the Cove- 
 nanter section of the state — " furnished most of 
 the soldiers o*f Virginia." J In Pennsylvania, says 
 the same author, the Covenanters "stood up as a 
 unit for Independence," and they contributed a 
 majority of the troops that the Keystone State 
 
 « Cited by Campbell, Vol. II, 491. t Id. 491. Id. 488. 
 
60 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 furnished to the Continental army. The same 
 story held true, to a great extent, throughoutr the 
 whole country south of Pennsylvania.* 
 
 Many of the Episcopal Clergy sided with En- 
 gland in the War of the Eevolution, while every 
 Covenanter preacher was an ardent whig and 
 patriot. f 
 
 " Those of this class by whom it " (Episcopacy) 
 " was favored left the lighting largely to the dis- 
 senting Immigrants from the North of Ireland, 
 who were only too happy to pay off a portion of 
 the debt which a century of broken faith had 
 heaped up against their English oppressors."! It 
 is but just to say, however, that since the Eevolu- 
 tion, no sect has been truer to the Countr}^ or more 
 devoted to the principles of civil liberty in the 
 United States than the Episcopalians. It is not 
 true that all the Episcopal Clergymen sided with 
 England in the Revolutionary struggle. Many of 
 them were good patriots. 
 
 In the " University of Virginia Magazine" for 
 April, 1894, there is a dispiissionate article by Mal- 
 
 » Campbell, Vol. II, 490. 
 
 t All or nearly, all of Washington's army chaplains were dis- 
 senters, and throughout the war he attended dissenting ser- 
 vices. Id. 491, note. 
 
 t Id. 490, notes. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 61 
 
 colm Taylor on the influence of the Puritans in 
 the Eevolutioii, which touches on this subject. 
 He says: . . . "Judge Jones used the terms 
 Presbyteriiins and Episcopalians as almost synony- 
 mous with rebel and loyalist. This, however, was 
 by no means true. There were many Episco- 
 palians in both the North and South, though far 
 more numerous in the South, who openly favored 
 independence, and included in their number not a 
 few Episcopixl ministers.* If we turn from the 
 people to the leaders of the Revolution, no such 
 distinction can be traced. Washington, Jeft'erson, 
 George Mason, and many others were not in sym- 
 pathy with Puritanism, and, although the first 
 signals for the conflict were given by the Puritan 
 leaders of New England, none were more active, 
 nor had greater influence in promoting it, than tiie 
 Episcopalians who had derived their ideas of lib- 
 erty, not from fear of tyranny, but from the higher 
 sentimentsof that philosophy which was awakening 
 a new feeling throughout Europe, and which found 
 a violent, but premature expression in the French 
 Revolution." 
 
 It should excite no surprise to find that many, 
 perhaps a majorit}', of the Episcopalians in New 
 
 " History of the American Episcopal Church, by Bishop W. 
 S. Perry. 
 
62 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 York and in the Southern Colonies were loyalists. 
 The Church of England, perhaps even more than 
 the splendors of royalty, held them by the tender- 
 est ties of love and reverence. It was the Church 
 of their fathers, and for it many of them had 
 suffered. The members of the English Church and 
 faith felt no grievance from that source. They 
 saw arrayed against the government and the 
 Church their old enemies, the Covenanters and the 
 Puritans. Most naturally they would oppose these, 
 as they always had done. Thus the two antag- 
 onistic elements drifted apart. 
 
 It is easy to conceive how many true and patriotic 
 men in 1775 and 1776 might be honestly opposed 
 to separation from England. Like Mr. Jefferson, 
 they may very sincerely have preferred the English 
 government, properly limited, to any other in the 
 world. The establishment of a new government 
 was an experiment. The wisest forecast could not 
 tell how it would turn out. Good men may well 
 have hesitated at the greatest and the boldest step 
 ever taken by a people. 
 
 Men may, and do often conscientiously, differ in 
 opinion upon vital questions. In 1861, such men 
 as General Sam Houston, Mr. James L. Pettigrew, 
 the noted lawyer of South Carolina, John Minor 
 Botts, and Governor William B. Campbell, Justice 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 63 
 
 John Catron, Eeturn J. Mefgs, Hon. John Trimble, 
 and many others, all distinguished for their exalted 
 virtues, differed from a vast majority of the people 
 of their section as to separation from the national 
 union. Who shall say that these men were not 
 honest in their course ? 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood that the course 
 of the Episcopalians in the Revolution is not re- 
 ferred to by way of adverse criticism, but only for 
 the purpose of showing how important the services 
 of the Covenanters were in that great conflict in 
 maintaining the cause of Independence. "What- 
 ever that course may have been, the Church should 
 not be held to a strict accountability for it, since it 
 is undeniably true that it is to-day as faithful to the 
 principles on which our institutions were founded 
 as any Church organization in existence. 
 
 It is well, and for one I am glad, that the Epis- 
 copal Church exists in this country. It is one of 
 the great balance-wheels in our complex machinery 
 of populai- government and popular thought. On 
 all important moral questions, its intelligent con- 
 stituents are abreast of the best thought of the 
 world. It is, and always has been, like the Pres- 
 byterian Church, highly conservative in its princi- 
 ples and in its course. 
 
 This conservatism, at all times beneficial in a 
 
64 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 country governed by ideas and not by force, may 
 in the future, possibly in the near future, prove one 
 of the great bulwarks against the tide of lawless- 
 ness, anarchy and red-handed socialism which 
 threaten the peace of the country, the security of 
 private property, and the very integrity of the 
 Constitution itself. 
 
 We cheerfully pay the homage of sincere respect 
 to this august Church, venerable for its compara- 
 tively great age, its conspicuous history, and its 
 many noble deeds; venerable on account of its^ 
 long line of learned and eminent adherents, and 
 still more venerable on account of the piety and 
 consecration of the many distinguished men who 
 have shed luster on its annals. While there may 
 be much in its earlier history to condemn, there is 
 in its later years much to admire and to praise ;- 
 much that has blessed mankind and made the 
 world better. 
 
 One of the boldest declarations made anywhere 
 in the Colonies was that of the Covenanters of 
 Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in May, 
 1775, a little over thirteen months before the de- 
 cisive action of the Continental Congress at Phila- 
 delphia, in 1776. 'So one of the Colonies was 
 more stirred by the great events of 1775 than 
 North Carolina. Her people were not at that time 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 65 
 
 greatly oppressed, yet they were perhaps the ripest 
 for revolution of any people in America. There 
 had settled that large population of Covenanters 
 who knew from tradition or experience the mon- 
 strous wrongs of tyrants. Mecklenburg County 
 was occupied entirely by these determined people. 
 When, therefore, they learned, in May, 1775, that 
 Parliament had declared the Colonies in a state of 
 revolt, they, knew that the great crisis had come. 
 They did not wait for the action of the Continental 
 Congress, nor for that of their own Provincial 
 Legislature. They met in Charlotte to take coun- 
 sel together. "While in session, the news came 
 that patriot blood had been shed at Lexington and 
 Concord. The meeting was addressed by Hezekiah 
 J. Balch, a Covenanter Presbyterian minister, and 
 by Dr. Ephraim Brevard and William Kennon. 
 Eesolutions were oft'ered by Dr. Brevard and 
 adopted, the second and third of which are here 
 inserted : 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklen- 
 burg County, do hereby dissolve the political bonds 
 which have connected us with the mother country, 
 and absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the 
 British Crown, adjuring all political connection with 
 a nation that has wantonly trampled on our rights 
 
6Q COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 and liberties, and inhumanly shed the innocent 
 blood of. Americans at Lexington and Concord." 
 
 "3. Resolved, That we do hereby declare our- 
 selves a free and independent people ; that we are, 
 and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self- 
 governed people under the power of God and the 
 General Congress, to the maintenance of which 
 independence we solemnly pledge to each other 
 our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and 
 our most sacred hdnor." All honor to the memory 
 of the brave Covenanters of IS'orth Carolina.* 
 
 The most daring battle of the Revolution, and 
 
 "In an address before the Scotch-Irish Congress at Louis- 
 ville in 1891, referring to the Mecklenburg Declaration of In- 
 dependence, I spoke of the " disputed declaration of May 20," 
 and of the " unquestionably authentic resolutions of May 31." 
 Recently I have read the address of George W. Graham, M.D., 
 before the Scotch-Irish Congress, at Lexington, "Virginia, in 
 June, 1895, printed in volume seven, reviewing the whole 
 history of the controversy in reference to the celebrated 
 " Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence." In this very 
 able and critical address much new light is thrown on the 
 subject. If the writer does not establish beyond question the 
 authenticity of the resolutions claimed for May 20, 1775, he 
 certainly leaves less room for doubt on this point than has 
 hitherto existed. I have accordingly adopted that view of the 
 question in the text of this work. Before reading this address 
 I had always regarded the claim in behalf of the authenticity 
 of the resolutions of May 20th as very questionable. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 67 
 
 the most important victory in its consequences, 
 were the battle and the victory of King's Mount- 
 ain ; excepting only the victories of General George 
 Rogers Clarke iu the north-west. Histor}- has 
 been tardy and niggardly in its treatment of this 
 important historical fact. In some of our early 
 histories less space was given to it than to the 
 celebrated adventure of Israel Putnam with a 
 wolf. It is only quite recently and since the 
 appearance of Draper's exhaustive book, entitled 
 " King's Mountain and its Heroes," and since the 
 discussion of this battle in the Scotch-Irish Con- 
 gresses, that any other than local interest has been 
 awakened, in one of the most important incidents 
 of the Revolutionary War. Draper does not de- 
 velop the prominent part played in this brilliant 
 aifair by the Covenanter stock. To rescue from 
 oblivion the glory of this people, in this thrilling 
 event, has been reserved for their kindred and 
 descendants after more than a century had passed 
 away. For the fact is undeniable that it was this 
 people, in the main, which fought this battle and 
 won this victory. The great body of the army was 
 composed of Covenanters from South-western 
 Virginia, Eastern Tennessee and from the western 
 Counties of North Carolina, with a few men from 
 South Carolina and Georgia. It is true that the 
 
68 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 two note'] leaders who originated the expedition, 
 John Sevier and Isaac Shelby were not Cove- 
 nanters, but that matters not, as their officers and 
 the army veere mostly of that people. Certainly 
 Campbell and McDowell vi^ere Covenanters, and 
 probably also Cleveland, Hambright, Clarke, Will- 
 iams, Lacy and Winston. 
 
 When the dreadful conflict of arms came on, the 
 settlers on the Watauga-, the Nolichucky and the 
 Holston were remote from danger and secure in 
 their peaceable homes, except from Indian attacks. 
 But they were not indifferent to the fate of their 
 kindred beyond the mountains. After General 
 Gates' defeat at Camden, General McDowell who 
 now commanded in Western North Carolina, re- 
 tired across the mountains to the back country. 
 The army • was broken up. Colonel Ferguson, 
 with his elated army, marched into ISTorth Carolina, 
 after the defeat of Gates, and took position at 
 Gilbert Town. From this pl£(,ce he sent a threaten- 
 ing message to Sevier and Shelby. On receipt of this 
 message Shelby rode at once to consult with Sevier. 
 They agreed to call out a part of their respective 
 commands, and march, surprise and destroy Fergu- 
 son before he was aware of their movement. Colonel 
 Shelby was to secure the co-operatioa of Colonel 
 Campbell, who commanded in Washington County, 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 69 
 
 Virginia, just beyond the State line. Colonel 
 Sevier was to raise the money for the expedition. 
 He tried to borrow it on his own account, but 
 there was none in the settlement. He went to John 
 Adair, entry-taker for the district, who is believed 
 to have been a Covenanter, and representing to 
 him the importance of getting the use of the 
 public money in his hands, pledged him that the 
 act should be legalized. Adair replied: "If the 
 enemy, by its use, be driven from the countr}', I 
 can trust that country to justify and vindicate my 
 conduct. Take it!" — a reply worthy of a Roman 
 in the best days of the Republic. 
 
 The whole military force of the settlements at 
 that time was less than a thousand men. Sevier 
 and Shelby each selected from their commands two 
 hundred and forty men, consisting of the young 
 and vigorous, leaving those who were less so to de- 
 fend the settlements. IsTot another man could be 
 safely spared. On the 25th of September, 1780, 
 the forces assembled at Sycamore Shoals, on the 
 Watauga. Campbell came from Virginia with 
 four hundred men, and McDowell was there with 
 a few of his refugee soldiers. Sevier and Shelby 
 were there with their contingents. "With the ex- 
 ception," says Ramsey, a historian of Tennessee, 
 "of the few colonists on the distant Cumberland, 
 
70 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the entire military force of what is now Tennes- 
 see was assembled at Sycamore Shoals. Scarcely 
 a single gunman remained that day at home." The 
 aged were there to cheer and encourage; the moth- 
 ers, the wives, the sisters, to say farewell. " Ifever," 
 says Ramsey, "did mountain recess contain within 
 it a loftier or more enlarged patriotism; never a 
 cooler or more determined courage." On the 
 morning of the 26th, the men were drawn up in a 
 body by the direction of the officers, for the pur- 
 pose of invoking the divine protection. The Rev. 
 Samuel Doak, one of the Covenanter pioneer 
 preachers, was there, from his church and school 
 at Salem, twenty-five miles distant. He offered a 
 fervent prayer for the safety and success of the ex- 
 pedition, and in a few patriotic remarks he closed 
 with the words: "The sword of the Lord and of 
 Gideon;" and these sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
 rians, leaning on their rifles, shouted in patriotic 
 acclaim: "The sword of the Lord and of our 
 Gideons."* 
 
 The battle of King's Mountain is totally unlike 
 any other in our history. It was the voluntary up- 
 rising of a patriotic people, rushing to arms to aid 
 their distant kindred, when their own homes were 
 hourly menaced with danger from fierce savages. 
 * Kicg's Mountain and its Heroes. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 71 
 
 There was no one in chief command except by co^n- 
 seut, and no one entitled to the chief command, 
 Colonel Campbell commanding by the agreement 
 of the chief officers. They served without pay or 
 the hope of pay. Their march lay through an un- 
 inhabited mountain wilderness, with no roads and 
 with scarcely a trail. These mountains are the 
 loftiest east of the great Rockies. The distance to 
 the enemy, by the circuitous routes the little army 
 had to take, was perhaps two hundred miles or 
 more. On the way, the expedition was joined by 
 small forces under the command respectively of 
 Colonels Cleveland, Winston, Hanibright, and 
 Major Chronicle, of JSTorth Carolina, and by those 
 under Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, thus 
 swelling the total number to eighteen hundred men. 
 Senator Vance's grandfather, as he relates, volun- 
 tarily joined the patriots on the way. 
 
 Two days before the battle, the little army 
 halted. The officers selected the best men and 
 horses, and with these, amounting to nine hundred 
 and ten men, they determined to make a forced 
 march to overtake Ferguson, leaving the others 
 on the jaded horses and on foot to follow. For 
 twenty-six hours these brave men were in the sad- 
 dle, without sleep, and with little to eat, and some 
 of them without any thing, marching through a 
 
72 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PUEITAN. 
 
 drenching rain. On the 7th of October, 1780, they 
 found Ferguson posted on King's Mountain vpith 
 eleven hundred men, part of them British regu- 
 lars. Galloping forward to within a short distance 
 of the enemy, the patriots alighted, tied their 
 horses, and hurriedly arranged themselves in order 
 of battle. They were to attack simultaneously on 
 the four sides of the mountain, and thus surround 
 Ferguson. They were arranged in four columns, 
 two on either side of the mountain, led respectively 
 by Colonels Campbell and Sevier on the right and 
 Shelby and Cleveland on the left. "When the col- 
 umns arrived at their several positions, with a loud 
 yell, they dashed up the craggy mountain, and en- 
 circled it with a sheet of living lire. The crest was 
 swept by their rifles as if by a tempest. The late 
 eloquent Bailie Peyton, of Tennessee, said of this 
 battle: "When that conflict began, the mountain 
 appeared volcanic; there flashed along its summit 
 and around its base, and up its sides, one long, sul- 
 phurous blaze." Three times were the forces of 
 Campbell and Shelby in turn driven down the 
 mountain by bayonet charges, and three times were 
 they ralHed and led back to the fight. Ferguson, 
 seeing that all was lost, with a few of his officers, 
 attempted to cut his way out, but was shot down 
 by Sevier's men, pierced by half a dozen bullets. 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 73 
 
 The battle lasted one hour and five minutes. 
 During that terrible hour, two hundred and twenty 
 of the enemy had closed their eyes in death, one 
 hundred and eighty were wounded, and either six 
 or seven hundred (the authorities differ on this 
 point) were taken prisoners. Every man present 
 was either killed, wounded, or captured. I think, 
 therefore, I am justified in saying that this was the 
 most daring as well as the most thrilling achieve- 
 ment of the Revolutionary war, foug]it almost ex- 
 clusively by the Covenanter race. IsTor was the 
 victory less signal in its consequences. At that 
 time, Coruwallis was on a triumphant march 
 through ITorth Carolina to Virginia. Charleston 
 and Savannah had fallen. Lincoln had lost his 
 entire army. Gates had been defeated at Camden. 
 All Georgia and South Carolina had yielded to 
 British arms. There was no organized force in the 
 Southern States capable of withstanding for an 
 hour the victorious army of Coruwallis. There 
 was universal gloom throughout the Colonies. 
 The best patriots were in despair. The news, 
 therefore, of this victory came like a great light in 
 the midst of profound darkness. It was the sound 
 of triumph, the rift in the dark cloud, the break- 
 ing of morning. Mr. Jefferson said : " It was the 
 6 
 
74 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 joyful annunciation of that turn in the tide of suc- 
 cess that terminated the Revolutionary War with 
 the seal of our Independence." The very night 
 Cornwallis heard of it, he commenced a hasty re- 
 treat back into South Carolina. From that day 
 the patriot cause grew brighter and brighter until 
 the perfect day dawned at Yorktown. 
 
 There were other races engaged in this battle ; 
 but as the Covenanters constituted a majority of 
 the early settlers, I speak of them in general terms 
 simply to indicate the leading stock. One of the 
 great leaders in these military operations, John 
 Sevier, was a Huguenot, and Shelby, another leader, 
 was of Welsh origin. But James Robertson, one 
 of the foremost men iu the early Watauga settle- 
 ment, and afterward the founder and defender of 
 the Cumberland Colony, was a Covenanter by 
 descent. 
 
 In the formation- of the Constitution of the 
 United States, which Mr. Gladstone declares " the 
 most wonderful work ever struck off at a given 
 time by the brain and purpose of man," * the four 
 most conspicuous men, perhaps, in that great work 
 were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John 
 Rutledge, of South Carolina, and James Wilson, of 
 Pennsylvania. Three of these were of Covenanter 
 *■ Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. Ill, 115. 
 
COVENAJfTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 75 
 
 blood, and Mr. Madison, the fourth, learned his 
 political lessons from John Witherspoon. After a 
 full discussion in the Convention of the principles 
 to be embodied in the Constitution, Mr. Rutledge 
 was appointed Chairman of a Committee of five to 
 make the first draft of this wonderful instrument, 
 which he did. Rutledge and Wilson were both 
 men of marked ability. Madison's fame is too well 
 established to need additional praise. As to Ham- 
 ilton, intellectual!}', he was the master-spirit of his 
 time in this country. The celebrated Prince De 
 Talleyrand, who knew all the noted men of his day, 
 both in this country and in Europe, said that the 
 "greatest men he had known were Napolean, Fox, 
 and Hamilton, and that Hamilton was unquestion- 
 bly the greatest of these.* 
 
 The part taken by the Covenanters of the 
 frontiers in fighting the battles of the Revolution 
 in ISTorth and South Carolina only constituted a 
 part of their patriotic work. Every-where along 
 the Western frontier from Georgia to Canada, and 
 notably so in Tennessee and Kentucky, a constant 
 Indian warfare blazed along the borders from the 
 day the pioneers set foot on the virgin soil till long 
 after the close of the war. 
 
 The far-reaching importance of this Indian 
 * Memoirs of Prince De Talleyrand. 
 
76 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 fighting has not been, and is not now, half appre- 
 ciated. But few men ever think that when Sevier 
 and Robertson and Boone and Kenton were repel- 
 ling Indian attacks, or invading the Indian Coun- 
 try, they were doing any thing more than protect- 
 ing the white settlements; whereas they were, in 
 fact, unconsciously to themselves, fighting the very 
 battles of the Revolution. The same great power 
 which put in motion the armies of Clinton and 
 Cornwallis for the subjugation of the Colonies 
 along the Atlantic, and encircled them with a line 
 of fire, also set in motion the fierce savage n^ations 
 from Canada to Florida, bent on the destruction 
 of all the infant settlements west of the Allegha- 
 nies and the Blue Ridge. Official records show 
 that it was as much the policy of the British min- 
 istry to destroy these settlements, and exterminate 
 the settlers or drive them east of the Alleghanies, 
 as it was to destroy the army of Washington. 
 Both were parts of the same cruel war, the same 
 scheme of subjugation. British agents, shrewd 
 and heartless, with a plentiful supply of gold and 
 presents, arms and ammunition, were kept at work 
 among all the tribes east of the Mississippi, stirring 
 them up to their work of blood. Henry Hamilton, 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Canada, with headquarters 
 at Detroit, was at the head of this diabolical move- 
 
CO'WENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 77 
 
 meut. There was a regular organized plan of op- 
 eration. Nor did the infamy stop here. Besides 
 alluring the savages with presents, their cupidity 
 and ferocity were still further stimulated by pur- 
 chasing from them the scalps they had taken. 
 The instructions given by the home government 
 were to destroy the settlers or drive them east of 
 the Alleghauies. 
 
 In pursuance of this comprehensive plan, the 
 Indians north of the Ohio made unceasing war on 
 the settlers around Pittsburg and on those in Ken- 
 tucky. Those south of the Ohio harrassed and 
 threatened the settlements on the Cumberlaijd, 
 and attempted over and over again to destroy the 
 Ilolston,the Watauga, and the Nolichucky people. 
 So, also, the frontiers of the Southern Colonies 
 were harrassed by these fierce allies of England. 
 Again and again these demons, incited by British 
 agents, silently and murderously crept through the 
 dark forests, to fall on the settlements with fire 
 and tomahawk and scalping-knife, sparing neither 
 age nor sex. And as often, the leaders of the set- 
 ments — Evan Shelby, Christian, Robertson, Boone, 
 Kenton, Logan, and Todd, and notably Sevier and 
 Clarke — led expeditions into the homes of the sav- 
 ages and inflicted on them merited chastisement. 
 So, at the close of the Revolution, not a settlement 
 
78 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 west of the mountains had been destroyed, not an 
 inch of territory had been lost. Under the leader- 
 ship of Sevier, the Watauga, the Holston, and the 
 JSTolichueky settlers had slowly crept down these 
 streams, extending the settlements further and fur- 
 ther west. Eobertson had firmly planted his col-, 
 ony on the Cumberland and in the heart of Middle 
 Tennessee. Boone, Logan, and others had success- 
 fully defended Kentucky, though more than once 
 narrowly escaping destruction. And General 
 George Rogers Clarke, by a series of exploits al- 
 most unparalleled for daring, had conquered and 
 firmly held Illinois and Indiana. 
 
 And now came peace. Where should the west- 
 ern boundary line be fixed? Spain had been our 
 ally in the late war. She owned vast possessions 
 west of the Mississippi. Forecasting the growth 
 and expansion of this young republic, and foresee- 
 ing dangers to her western possessions, she natur- 
 ally sought to restrict our territory by making the 
 Alleghanies the boundary. France had also been 
 our faithful sd]y. She insisted that the line should 
 be so fixed as to include the country around the 
 head-waters of the Tennessee, covering Eastern 
 Tennessee, and that between the Ohio and the 
 Cumberland, thus restoring to England a large 
 part of Tennessee and the territory now forming 
 
COVENANTERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 79 
 
 the States of Alabama and Mississippi, and all the 
 great region afterward known as the North-west 
 Territory. Strange to say, the Continental Con- 
 gress, in a chivalric spirit of gratitude and courtesy 
 toward its late allies, had instructed our commis- 
 sioners, in iixing the boundary, to respect the 
 wishes of France in that respect. Franklin 
 wished to obey these instructions, but Jay was im- 
 movable in demanding the Mississippi as the west- 
 ern boundary. Adams sided with him, and En- 
 gland yielding, the eastern bank of that river for 
 the most of its length became our western boundary. 
 It thus appears that while the Continental armjes 
 barelj' held the Atlantic States against the British 
 fleet and armies, a few hundred hunters and pioneers 
 of Tennessee, Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania and 
 South-western Virginia, mostly Covenanters, un- 
 aided by Congress, and acting at their on expense 
 and on their own volition, won and held by their 
 valor what has proved to be the very heart of our 
 great empire, against the combined power of all 
 the savage nations between Canada and Florida, 
 backed by British agents, stimulated by British 
 gold, and aided sometimes by British troops. Put- 
 ting out of view entirely the services rendered to 
 the cause of Independence by Sevier and his asso- 
 ciates at King's Mountain, and in other battles in 
 
80 COVEJirANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the South, it is manifest that the Indian battles on 
 the frontier were as important to the lasting power 
 and greatness of our country as were the battles 
 of Washington and Greene. The frontier leaders 
 occupied, won and held the territory now covered 
 by the great States of Tennessee, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and parts 
 of Pennsylvania and Virginia. These men planted 
 their feet on this great territory and firmly held it. 
 In war, as in peace, the doctrine of uti possidetis 
 goes far in fixing titles.* 
 
 ® Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, in his very able and instructive 
 work, " The Winning of the West," has brought out the facts 
 above referred to more fully than any previous author. I 
 cheerfully acknowledge my indebtedness to him. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 81 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ■ THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 Difference between grievances of Puritans and Covenanters — 
 Dependence of New England — Enforcement of Navigation 
 Act — Resistance thereto — Tumults— Closing the ports of 
 Boston — Charter revised — Sj'Oipathy and aid of other 
 Colonies for Boston — Love of Massachusetts for England — 
 Love of Cavaliers for England — Slow to break away from — 
 Covenanters hated England for her wrongs to them — 
 Were every-where active in opposition to England — 
 English influence in Southern Colonies — Episcopalians — 
 A majority of population in the South — That of Virginia, 
 New England, of all the Colonies — Covenanters in New 
 England — Number in all the Colonies — The most nu- 
 merous race — Number of Cavaliers — Covenanters in Penn- 
 sylvania, Virginia, Georgia and North and South Carolina — 
 Spread into all the new States of the South — Percentage of 
 foreign blood in the States— Tories numerous in the Revo- 
 lution — Covenanters most numerous fighting race — They 
 settle in the South — " Puritans of the South " — Contrast 
 between Puritans and Covenanters— Massachusetts and 
 Virginia in the Revolutionary Army — Puritan warfare in 
 the South— Splendid record of Massachusetts in the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 To fully understand the mind and the spirit of 
 
 the people of the Colonies at and previous to the 
 
 Revolution, their antecedent histories must not be 
 
 overlooked. In this way only can their inner 
 
 7 
 
82 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 motives be judged and their actions understood. 
 Take the three leading peoples, the Puritans, the 
 Cavaliers and the Covenanters, for illustration. 
 
 "When the causes arose which led up to a clash 
 of arms, the Puritans had been in New Englaqd 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years. Whatever 
 may have been their feeling toward the people in 
 England, on their arrival in this country, thpy had 
 been here long enough to outlive any bitterness 
 they may at fiist have felt. Certainly they did 
 not have to forget and forgive centuries of wrongs, 
 nor did they cherish enmities which had been 
 heaped up from generation to generation. In 
 their new home for a long time they suffered no 
 great oppressions inflicted by the mother country. 
 The troubles which finally drove them and the 
 people of the other Colonies into rebellion were in 
 part merely wrongs in principle, rather than actual 
 wrongs. These grievances, however, whether real, 
 or merely menaced, were quite snflicient to justify 
 before the tribunal of history the measures of re- 
 sistance adopted by them, and it must be admitted 
 that no people were ever more prompt in assuming 
 their natural right to independence among the 
 nations. 
 
 The dependence of New England on the mother 
 country during all its colonial days down to a 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 83 
 
 period I'ecently before the Revolution was more 
 nominal than i-eal. In the exercise of power and 
 authority — in a word in all matters pertaining to 
 their own internal affairs* and self-government — 
 they were nearly as independent and as free from 
 constraint in 1760 as in 1780. This statement 
 holds good as to the other Colonies also. The 
 people of New England were not until a late 
 period goaded on toward rebellion, and constantly 
 exasperated by unceasing and intolerable oppres- 
 sions. They had not, therefore, been hoarding up 
 their wrath for a day of vengeance. 
 
 But a time was to come when the mailed hand 
 of England was to be laid with all its weight on 
 Massachusetts. The iirst great controversy grew 
 out of an attempt to more strictly enforce the 
 ISTavigation Act, which had been passed by Parlia- 
 ment to restrict the trade of the Colonies., This 
 act was partial, unjust, and oppressive. Its provi- 
 sions were .often evaded by smuggling. When 
 this became known, application was made to the 
 Court for " Writs of Assistance," to enable the col- 
 lectors of ports to search for and seize smuggled 
 goods. James Otis, Jr., though Advocate-General, 
 refused to represent the Crown, resigned, and 
 appeared for the people, in opposition to the writs. 
 This was in February, 1761. The indignant elo- 
 
84 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 qiience of Otis, in behalf of popular rights, burst 
 forth in aflame of fire. The Crown triumphed, 
 but popular liberty that day had its birth in Massa- 
 chusetts. John Adams, who was present, says: 
 "American independence was then and there 
 born." Then followed the Stamp Act, and after 
 its repeal, the tax on tea. At each new invasion 
 of their privileges, the people became bolder and 
 more defiant in their defense. With a daring, 
 not to say an audacity almost unparalleled, they 
 boarded the vessel containing the tea on which the 
 duty was to be paid, enriptied it into the bay, and 
 then quietly returned to their homes as if nothing 
 had happened. Riots were frequent in the streets 
 of Boston. In one of these, three citizens were 
 killed by British soldiers. Excitement and patri- 
 otic feeling rose to a white heat. To punish these 
 turbulent friends of liberty, the port of Boston was 
 closed against all outgoing and incoming vessels. 
 Trade and commerce were to be cut oft" from the 
 insolent city. Its charter was revised so as to 
 take away its ancient rights and bring its govern- 
 ment under the control of the Crown. But Boston 
 stood firm. The people yielded not one iota of the, 
 principles for which they contended, though they 
 saw their commerce destroyed and poverty in- 
 vading their homes. In the day of peril and 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 85 
 
 gloom, no people could have manifested a loftier 
 spirit, a firmer purpose, or a more exalted patriot- 
 ism. Their conduct was heroic. 
 
 While the people of Boston were enduring these 
 trials with a sublime courage, the people of the 
 Colonies were not inditi'erent spectators of their 
 sufferings. The cause of ^lassachusetts was made 
 the cause of all. On learning that the port of 
 Boston was closed, Virginia, Maryland, and ISTew 
 York sent supplies for the relief of the city, with 
 brave words of encouragement. Other Colonies did 
 the same thing. Christopher Gadsden, of South 
 Carolina, in sending a generous contribution, said : 
 " Do n't pay for an ounce of the d d tea ! " 
 
 After more than a century of peaceful existence 
 and comparative independence, the people of Mas- 
 sachusetts suddenly saw themselves treated as 
 aliens, iis a conquered race, and their most 
 cherished rights rudely assailed. And yet to the 
 last, like dutiful children, they were reluctant to 
 sever the tender ties of consanguinity. Their ideas 
 were all English. They felt pride in Eriglish his- 
 tory and in English glory. Their ancestors had 
 helped to make for England its proud position. 
 Its history was a part of their hei'itage. England 
 was their native land, their mother country. 
 Many of their kindred were still there. The En- 
 
86 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 glish were theii' fellow countrymen. The ties of 
 blood bound the two together in a common sym- 
 pathy. As children, they were slow to break 
 away from their parent. When finally driven into 
 a hostile conflict, there was as much of sorrow as 
 of anger on their part. 
 
 It was subsequent to May, 1775, before John 
 Adams uttered his first public word in favor of 
 separation and independence.* 
 
 In the case of the Cavaliers of Virginia, the 
 facts were even stronger in the same direction than 
 with the Puritans. There was on their part an en- 
 thusiastic attachment for England. They were 
 the petted children of royalty. They loved En- 
 gland and English institutions with all the ardor 
 of grateful children. The English Church, too, 
 they loved with deepest devotion. It was another 
 bond to tie them to the mother country. They 
 witnessed with sad hearts the estrangement grad- 
 ually becoming more and more manifest between 
 the King and the Colonies. They were slow' to 
 tear themselves away from royal sunshin'e and the 
 splendor of royal greatness. Some never did so. 
 Others, when they recognized that an inevitable 
 conflict had come, one which could not be averted, 
 smothered their traditional love for their mother 
 
 '•" Presbyterians and the Revolution, 77. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 87 
 
 laud, and threw themselves into the great strug- 
 gle on the side of independence with all the ardor 
 and impetuosit}' of their ancestors fighting under 
 the fiery Prince Rupert. But mark, these were 
 not the men who urged forward the Revolution in 
 its inception. As we have seen, this had been the 
 work of Patrick Henry and of his Covenanter as- 
 sociates. As late as August 1, 1775, Mr. Jefterson 
 said: " I would rather be in dependence on Great 
 Britain, properly limited, than on any nation on 
 earth, or than on no nation." 
 
 In May, 1776, Washington said : " When I took 
 command of this army (June, 1775), I abhorred 
 the idea of independence." 
 
 These were patriotic Episcopalians, as true to the 
 American cause as men could be, and yet reluctant 
 to break away from the mother Church, and from 
 the splendor of the British Crown. Long before 
 this time, Patrick Henry, who was bound by no 
 inherited and traditional ties, had exclaimed: "If 
 we wish to be free, we must fight; I repeat, we 
 must fight. . . . There is no retreat but in 
 submission and slavery." 
 
 Turning to the Covenanters, we find a marked 
 contrast between them and the other two races. 
 They were not Englishmen, though the two peo- 
 ples were originally of substantially the same Ten- 
 
88 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 tonic blood. For centuries, the kingdoms of Scot- 
 land and England, and the people of the two 
 kingdoms, had been enemies, always at war with 
 each other, or with minds at all times ready for 
 war. They were practically alien enemies. Scot- 
 land accepted the Reformation with singular una- 
 nimity, and adopted the Presbyterian form of 
 Ciiupch government. England also accepted the 
 Reformation, but adopted Episcopacy, and made it 
 the religion of the State. In the course uf time, 
 the Covenanters were denied the right to exercise 
 their own chosen religion according to their own 
 forms. Both in Scotland and Ireland, efforts were 
 made by the Sovereigns of England, instigated by 
 the Bishops, during a part of the seventeenth and 
 most of the eighteenth centuries, to deprive them 
 of their cherished faith, and to impose on them a 
 worship they abhorred. This was accompanied in 
 Scotland by a century of heartless atrocities and 
 persecutions, and in Ireland by broken faith and 
 unfulfilled promises on the part of the government, 
 by cruel injustice on the part of the Bishops, and 
 by extortion on the part of the English landlords. 
 At last, filled with hatred of every thing English, 
 and burning for revenge, these spirited and ill- 
 treated Covenanters fled to the Colonies. 
 
 When the curtain began to rise on the grea.t 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 89 
 
 drama of the Revolution, the outrages inflicted on 
 these people were recent and fresh in their memo- 
 ries. It was not alone the wrongs borne by their 
 ancestors one hundred and fifty years before which 
 they remembered. True, tiiey had these, as the 
 Puritans also had them. But many and grievous 
 were the cruelties the Covenanters themselves had 
 endured. The memory of Claverhouse's victims, 
 the slaughter of poor unarmed peasants at Both- 
 well Bridge, the atrocities of the Highland soldiers, 
 the cries of agony wrung from strong men by the 
 rack, the boot, and the thumbscrew in the secret 
 chambers of the Old Castle at Edinburgh, the 
 crackling tire as it slowly enveloped the writhing 
 victims chained to the stake — all these and a thou- 
 sand more persecutions were well remembered. 
 But ten times more vividly than these were re- 
 called the recent wrongs, which many of those liv- 
 ing had endured in Ireland, when they were evicted 
 from their little homes by heartless landlords, when 
 their schools were closed by order of the Bishops, 
 when their ministers were silenced and deposed 
 from their own churches, when they were forbid- 
 den to bury their dead, except according to Epis- 
 copal forms. All these and many more grievances 
 were burned into the very souls of these men. The 
 accumulated wrath of long, terrible years, stored 
 
90 COVENANTER, CAVALIEE AND PURITAN. 
 
 up in their minds, was ready to burst forth into a 
 flame. The Covenanters had come indeed to hate 
 England and every thing English with an intensity 
 and a depth of bitterness seldom found among any 
 people. They had longed for the day when they 
 could repay England and the English Church and 
 the English landlords for countless oppressions. 
 The opportunity was now at hand. And every- 
 where throughout the Colonies, from Maine to 
 Georgia, were scattered this determined English- 
 hating people, ready and foremost in stirring up 
 the strife and in demanding resistance and separa- 
 tion. The multiplied grievances of two centuries 
 were now to be avenged. It is shown elsewhere 
 that at the time, these men, so ready, so eager for 
 resistance, were regarded by Tory and Episcopal 
 writers as chiefly responsible for the War of Inde- 
 pendence. But for their influence, it is doubtful 
 whether a single Colony south of New Jersey 
 could have been brought into the plan of resistance 
 and in favor of separation. In Pennsylvania, they 
 pushed the obstructing Quakers aside, and tijok 
 the control of the Colony into tlieir own hands. 
 In Virginia, they' overawed the aristocratic En- 
 glish-loving people of the Eastern Counties, and 
 either insured co operation on their part, or the 
 flight of those who still adhered to the royal cause. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 91 
 
 In North Carolina, the spirit of the Mecklenburg 
 Eesolutions animated the majority of the people, 
 ill spite of the English influences at work. In 
 South Carolina, notwithstanding there existed a 
 considerable tory power, the Covenanter spirit 
 (combined with that of the Huguenots), under the 
 lead of Rutledge, Sumter, Gadsden, Moultrie, the 
 Piuckneys^ Pickens, Huger, and Tennant, placed 
 that State alongside of the foremost Colonies in 
 the great patriotic uprising. 
 
 It must be kept in mind that the original set- 
 tlers in all the Colonies, excepting New York, 
 New Jersey, and Delaware, and perhaps to some 
 extent in Pennsylvania, were largely, and in most 
 cases, almost exclusively English people. All the 
 Colonies were settled before the advent of the 
 Covenanters. The English, especially in all the 
 Southern Colonies, were generally if not nearly 
 universally of the established- church, and many 
 of them royalists. They favored, as a remedy, re- 
 monstrance, petitions, and delay. And but for the 
 large Covenanter population in the Colonies, En- 
 glish influence in all probability wOuld have pre- 
 vailed in their councils, and the Revolution would 
 have been postponed or defeated. 
 
 It is true that jSTew England also like the South- 
 ern Colonies had been settled by people of English 
 
92 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 birth, but thej' were not Episcopalians, but orig- 
 inally Calvinists in religion. Like the Cove- 
 nanters, they had come to tiiis country burning 
 with the memory of the persecutions they had en- 
 dured in the mother country, but this was a long 
 time before. The generation that suffered had 
 passed away. They were not held to the mother 
 country by the sacred ties of a powerful and mag- 
 nificent church, but repelled from it on that very 
 account. While many of their wrongs were not 
 recent, as with the Covenanters, they were in their 
 origin of such a fundamental character as to cut 
 them loose from any special love for England or 
 for the English people. When the Revolution 
 came on, there was nothing to hold the New En- 
 gland people back from giving it their cordial sup- 
 port. They were, therefore, animated in their 
 course by a love of liberty as well as by recent and 
 great injuries. The Covenanters had both motives 
 to spur them forward. 
 
 And yet New England alone could not have 
 carried the Revolution to a successful termination, 
 and would not alone have undertaken such a thing. 
 A majority of the population of the Colonies were 
 in the South. The five Southern Colonies contained 
 perhaps half of the English speaking race in 
 America. Virginia alone contained one-fifth of 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 93 
 
 the populatiou, or about 550,000 souls. All the 
 Colonies together had only 2,750,000 inhabitants.* 
 Of that number more than 1,375,000 were in the 
 South. In 1790, when the first census was taken, 
 the population of the United States was a little 
 less than four millions, l^ew England had at that 
 time 1,002,660 inhabitants, Virginia contained 
 747,610, while the State of New York had only 
 340,120. The increase from the Revolution to 
 that time was about thirtj' per cent. Supposing 
 the rate of increase to have been about the same in 
 the New England States that it was in the whole 
 country, it would have given them at the time of 
 the Revolution scarcely 750,000 inhabitants. Nor 
 were all tlie New England population of 750,000 
 of Puritan blood. There were some Quakers and 
 many Baptists. Rhode Island was a Baptist Col- 
 ony. At an early day, a.s is elsewhere shown, 
 22,000 Covenanters settled in New England,t some 
 of them in 1718, and all of them in the tirst part 
 of that century. Douglas Campbell suggests that 
 there was probably a much greater number of this 
 stock in New England than is generally supposed. 
 They were numerous in New Hampshire, Ver- 
 
 * McMaster's Vol. I, 7, 8. This estimate is based on esti- 
 mates made by DeBow, Vol. Ill, 404. 
 t Scotch-Irish Seeds in America, 277. 
 
94 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 raont, and in Maine, as he points out, so much so 
 as to almost make the two first named Covenanter 
 States. Tlie Covenanters who settled in New En- 
 gland fifty years before 1775 must have numbered 
 at the latter date 50,000 or 60,000. These, with 
 with the Quakers and the Baptists, probably made 
 the number, not of Puritan blood in New England, 
 fully 100,000, leaving the latter race only about 
 650,000, including slaves and indentured servants. 
 
 On the other hand, the Covenanters numbered 
 in all the Colonies at that time over 900,000, mak- 
 ing them decidedly the most numerous people in 
 the country. When we consider the facts, this 
 should surprise no one. Between 1728 and 1750, 
 twelve thousand arrived annually in Philadelphia 
 alone.* Suppose they had only doubled in number 
 in these forty-seven \-ears; then they would have 
 numbered in 1775 half a million. But the Cove- 
 nanters who landed in Philadelphia were not the 
 only ones who came to the Colonies. They landed 
 at other ports as well: at New York, New Castle, 
 Baltimore; at "Wilmington, Charleston, and Savan- 
 nah. This immigration commenced about the 
 year 1700 and continued, with intermissions, until 
 the Revolution, a period of seventy-five years. 
 *' Scotch-Irish Seeds ia America, 276. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 95 
 
 Sometimes the immigration was very active. " In 
 the two years which followed the Antrim evic- 
 tions," says Fronde, "thirty thousand Protestants 
 left Ulster." James Logan, President of the Pro- 
 prietary Council of Pennsylvania, wrote, in 1729, 
 that: "Last week not less than six ships arrived, 
 and that every day two or three arrive also." 
 Froude says: "That ships could not be found to 
 carry the crowds that were eager to go." * 
 
 From the well-ascertained facts as to this re- 
 markable immigration, the conclusion may be 
 safely reached that, prior to 1775, not less than 
 . 500,000 people of the Covenanter race from Scot- 
 land and L-eland had settled in the Colonies. 
 Putting the average length of time they had been 
 here at thirty years, it can be safely assumed that 
 they had increased at least eighty per cent daring 
 that time, making them number not less than 
 900,000 people in 1775. 
 
 It is clear that the Puritans, in 1775, could not 
 have much exceeded 600,000, tor in 1790 the whole 
 population of New England was only a fraction 
 over 1,000,000. 
 
 The Cavaliers in Virginia at that time could not 
 have exceeded 400,000, if indeed they were nearly 
 
 * Scotch-Irish Seeds in America, 274. 
 
96 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 SO numerous, including their large number of slaves 
 and white servants, since the whole population of 
 the Colony in 1790 was only 747,610 * But sup- 
 pose they numbered 450,000; it would only make 
 them half as numerous as the Covenanters in the 
 entire country. These estimates show that the 
 Covenanters were, at the date of the Revolution, 
 the most numerous of the three great subdivisions 
 of the people in the country. 
 
 It has been computed that the Covenanters at 
 that lime amounted to one-third of the entire pop- 
 ulation of the country. This I think a very low 
 estimate. This would give them 916,666 souls — 
 about the same result reached by the previous 
 process of calculation. The larger part of these 
 were in the South, perhaps two-thirds, or more 
 than 600,000. They therefore constituted nearly 
 one-half of the entire population of the Southern 
 Colonies and States. It will be evident, on a little 
 reflection, that they were more numerous than any 
 other single people. In New York, and especially 
 in the western section, a large part of the popula- 
 tion seems to have been of this stock. Delaware 
 and New Jersey' also had a large Covenanter pop- 
 ulation. In Pennsyluania, they were very numer- 
 
 •■■■ Lecky says that they numbered 250,000 souls. England in 
 the Eighteenth Century, Vol. III. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 97 
 
 ous, being estimated at one-third of the population. 
 Their influence upon passing events was greater 
 than might have been expected even from their 
 numbers. In 1775, in all the Southern States, 
 they exercised considerable power. In ITorth and 
 South Carolina, their control was almost supreme, 
 as it has been ever since. Kamsay, the historian, 
 of South Carolina, states that Ireland — that is, the 
 Covenanter settlements — contributed most to the 
 population of that State. Williamson says the 
 same thing in reference to North Carolina.* It is 
 admitted that Kentucky was peopled by them. It 
 is equally clear that Tennessee, from the very first 
 settlement has always been in the main under the 
 direction of this people. Any one acquainted with 
 the names of its ear]y inhabitants, with the history 
 of the old families, and their customs, and with that 
 of the State, can have no doubt on this p(jint. In- 
 deed, the early settlers were almost entirely from 
 the Covenanter population of Virginia and of 
 ISTorth and South Carolina; as the population of 
 Kentucky was from the Covenanters of Virginia 
 and Pennsylvania. t 
 
 G-eorgia, also, was mainly settled by the Cov- 
 
 " Proceedings Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. IV, 141. 
 t Id. 142. 
 
98 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 enanter race. Oglethorpe's Colony failed in this 
 State in 1752. The New England Colony at Sun- 
 bury also failed.* Then came the Covenanters 
 " from the mountain and Piedmont regions of the 
 Carolinas and Virginia, and filled all Middle 
 Georgia." They have gone on from the day of 
 their arrival in Georgia, with that energy, intelli- 
 gence, and persistence so peculiar to them, build- 
 ing up the State in its material resources, in intel-^ 
 lectual achievements, in mora! and religious works, 
 and in molding and shaping its institutions, until 
 to-day its pre-eminence among Southern States is 
 acknowledged by all the world. 
 
 And when Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Flor- 
 ida, and Arkansas were opened for settlement, these 
 States were filled by tlie more numeuous and dom- 
 inant race from the older Southern States of Vir- 
 ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Ken- 
 tucky. To a large extent, indeed to a greater ex- 
 tent than from anj' other quarter, Missouri also 
 was settled from the same sources, it being a slave 
 State. Finally, Texas was at first built up almost 
 exclusivelj' by a Southern population. Thus the 
 
 ■•■■ For a particular account of this settlement and the achieve- 
 ments of the Covenanters in Georgia, I refer the reader to a 
 very able address by Patrick Calhoun before the Scotch-Irish 
 Congress, at Atlanta, in 1892, Vol. XIV, 136. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 99 
 
 Covenanters, the more numerous stock at the date 
 of the lievolution, were spread over the entire 
 South. And to-day the blood of that people greatly 
 predominates over any other in that section. 
 
 It is undeniably true according to both history 
 and tradition that the early settlers of Tennessee 
 and Kentucky, of "West Virginia, and of all the 
 upland regions of old Virginia and of JSTorth and 
 South Carolina and Middle Georgia, were nearly 
 all Presbyterians. If these were not Covenanters, 
 let me ask of what stock the}' were? 
 
 Has the reader ever reflected as to the source 
 from which the population of the Southern States, 
 formed since the Revolution, came and from what 
 stock ? They did not come from the Northern States, 
 except a few Geripans, who settled in Virginia and 
 Tennessee at an early day, and except a fairly large 
 German population which settled in Texas and 
 Missouri in later years. The Southern States 
 never attracted immigrants either from the North 
 or from abroad. The census of 1890 throws much 
 light on this subject. The North Atlantic Division, 
 consisting of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, 
 Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecti- 
 cut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
 has 47.4 per cent of persons of foreign parentage. 
 The South Atlantic Division, consisting of the 
 
100 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West 
 Virginia, ISTorth Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
 and Florida, has 6.02 per cent. The South Central 
 Division, consisting of the States of Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
 Arkansas, and Territory of Oklahoma, has a per- 
 centage of 7.50. The E'orth Central Division, con- 
 sisting of tlie Upper Mississippi Valley States, has 
 43.02 per cent. And the Western Division, consist- 
 ing of the States and Territories west of Kansas 
 and Nebraska, has a percentage of 48.67. 
 
 Let us take a few of the States for comparison : 
 Massachusetts has .56.24 per cent of persons of 
 foreign parentage; Connecticut, 50.32; Rhode 
 Island, 58.02; N"ew York, 56.65; Illinois, 49.06; 
 Michigan, 54.72; Minnesota, 75.42; North Dakota, 
 78.98 ; California, 56.72. In the Southern States, 
 ^^irginia has 2.63; North Carolina, 0.70; South 
 Carolina, 1.53; Georgia, 1.78; Kentucky, 9.87; 
 Tennessee, 3.02; Mississippi, 2.00; Texas, 15.00; 
 Arkansas, 3.37. 
 
 These figures disclose a remarkable state of facts. 
 They show that the only people of nearly a pure, 
 original type and blood in the United States are 
 in the Southern States, and that those approaching 
 the nearest to the original type are found in the 
 States where the Covenanters first settled in such 
 
THE COVENANT KRS IN THE SOUTH. lOl 
 
 great numbers, namely: in Virginia, West Vir- 
 ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Tennessee, and Kentucky. 
 
 Eeturning to the question as to the stock from 
 which a majority of the Southern people have de- 
 scended, we must keep in mind that during the 
 Eevolution there was a large tory element in the 
 Colonies. John Adams estimated that one-third 
 of the people were of this class. Justin Winsor 
 has estimated it at two-fifths.* These estimates 
 at this day seem large, but we have no means of 
 disproving or controverting them. The tories 
 were certainly numerous in New York and Penn- 
 sylvania, and in all the Southern States. There 
 was also a considerable number in the New En- 
 gland States. But of these tories the Covenanters 
 formed no part. The only apparent exception to 
 this statement were the Highlanders of North. 
 Carolina under Colonel Donald McDonald, who 
 took up arms for the King in the Revolution. 
 He and his followers had emigrated from Scotland 
 thirty years before. There they had borne arms 
 on the side of Charles Edward the Pretender, in 
 the battle of Culloden. They were pardoned for 
 their offense, on condition that they would leave 
 
 * Bryant's History, Vol. Ill, 455; Justin Winsor, History of 
 America. 
 
102 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the country and bear true allegiance thencefortli 
 to the King. They were bound to the King by 
 this oath, as well as by gratitude for sparing their 
 lives. It is to their credit, rather than otherwise, 
 that they kept their oath, and manifested their 
 sense of obligation for the mercy, so uncommon in 
 that day, sliown them. In addition to this the 
 Highlaliders were not generally Covenanters; 
 many of them were Catholics. Aside from this 
 exception, if, in fact, it is one, there is no other 
 case, so far as I can find, in all the Colonies where 
 the Covenanters were untrue or unfaithful to the 
 great cause of American liberty. As I elsewhere 
 point out, Eamsay, the historian of South Caro- 
 lina,* said that " the Irish " (that is the Cove- 
 nanters) were almost to a man on the side of 
 Independence. In Pennsylvania this people was 
 united in favor of Independence, and contributed, 
 though only one-third of the population, a ma- 
 jority of the troops of the State to the Continental 
 army. The same was true, we are told, to a large 
 extent, of the States south of Pennsylvania.f 
 
 The influence this people exerted in the 
 Southern Colonies in the Revolution can be better 
 appreciated when wc keep in mind how large a 
 
 "■" Fiske says that the Scotch merchants were loyalists, 
 t Campbell, Vol. II, 489, 490. 
 
THE COVENANTEES IN THE SOUTH. 103 
 
 part of the population it formed. Deducting the 
 tories and the Quakers, the Covenanters would 
 appear to have been considerably more than one- 
 half of the fighting population. And when we 
 recall how anxious to take up arms they were, 
 how united in an intense and common purpose to 
 achieve Independence, we can realize the great 
 work they did in the Eevolution. We m.ust 
 further keep before us, in estimating their serv- 
 ices, that they were the best educated race in the 
 South; that they had great force of will and 
 tenacity of purpose. As soldiers, they were as 
 brave as any in the American army. And when we 
 add to this the fact that they were urged forward 
 by an ardent love of liberty, by a deathless devo- 
 tion to their religion, and, as no other race was, by 
 the maddening memories of recent wrongs which 
 fired their whole beings, then their important 
 service in securing Independence can be clearly 
 seen. 
 
 We must keep in mind that the Quakers of 
 Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, as 
 before stated, would not bear arms. As we have 
 seen many members of the established church 
 adhered to the royal cause. The fact is undeniable 
 that there was a large number of tories in the 
 ■Colonies, and that they were for the most part 
 
104 COVENAfTTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 English. Many of them were pure, conscientious 
 men who thought there was no justifiable cause 
 for separation, and honestly preferred to remain 
 under the rule of England. When hostilities 
 commenced some of these quitted the Colonies 
 and never returned, and some took up arms in the 
 King's army, or refused to take part in the war. 
 Some went to England, some to Canada, some to 
 Nova Scotia, some to Bermuda, and others to the 
 Spanish Territory of Florida.* In such cases, 
 tliey lost caste, and were ever afterward herld in 
 the deepest detestation. The result was there was 
 a large population who would not and did not fight 
 for tlie Colonies. ]5ut the Covenanters, on the 
 other hand, forming a majority of the patriots, 
 were eager for the conflict. 
 
 When the tories and the Quakers were elimi- 
 nated from the 1,350,000 souls in the Southern 
 Colonies, only about 850,000 people were left from 
 which to draw soldiers. Who were these 850,000 
 people ? If previous estimates are correct, nearly 
 or quite 600,000 of them were Covenanters. If 
 much the larger number was not of this race, who 
 M^ere they? So far as I know, the Catholics of 
 Maryland were true to the cause of Independence, 
 
 *McMaster, Vol; 1,108 to 120; Justin Winsor, History of 
 America. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 105 
 
 but they were not numerous. The Baptists also 
 were every-where loyal to the Colonies, but their 
 number was very limited. The Methodists in the 
 country were also true and faithful. But that 
 great cliurch was then in its infancy. The liugue- 
 nots were as true to the American cause as the 
 Covenanters, but their numbers were likewise 
 small. The Germans who had settled in Virginia 
 constituted but a small part of the population, so 
 that not many fighting men could be drawn from 
 them. Many of the Cavaliers fought for Inde- 
 pendence ; so also did a part of the English settlers 
 outside of Virginia. But all these could not fur- 
 nish as many soldiers as the Covenanters. In this 
 view of the case, therefore, the fact must have been 
 as stated by Douglas Campbell, that the Cove- 
 nanters furnished to the Continental army a ma- 
 jority of its troops throughout the whole country 
 south of Pennsylvania.* 
 
 From natural causes this people at aa early day 
 after their arrival in the Colonies seemed to set 
 their face toward the South. This is partly ex- 
 plained by the fact that the Quakers of Pennsyl- 
 vania, a majority of them having first landed there 
 
 * Campbell's Puritan, Vol. II, 490, 491, and notes. 
 9 
 
106 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 on coming to this country, were unfriendly, and 
 did all in their power to drive them southward or 
 west of the Alleghanies. Many of them, from this 
 cause, were forced by the hard terms of James 
 Logan, the agent and secretary of the Proprietary 
 Government, to seek homes in the western part of 
 Pennsylvania. He spoke of them as "audacious 
 and disorderly', " and of their coming "where they 
 were not wanted." The English authorities also 
 persecuted and misrepresented them.* 
 
 It happened that many of them were driven out of 
 the State. ]!Tumerous as were those who remained, 
 a much larger number, perhaps, turned Southward 
 toward Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and 
 Georgia. The South held out splendid attractions 
 to them. Says McMaster on this subject : " The 
 reason is obvious. The Southern Colonies had 
 long before the Kevolution become renowned as 
 the seat of a lucrative agriculture. Nowhere 
 could such tobacco be raised as. was annually 
 grown on the banks of the Rappahannock, the 
 Potomac, and the James. The best rice on the 
 English market came from the swamps of the 
 Carolinas. Georgia was already famous for pitch, 
 for indigo, for tar. New England, on the other 
 •■■" Proceedings of Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. Ill, 132. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 107 
 
 hand, produced scarce euough corn and rye for the 
 needs of her citizens." * 
 
 The climate in the South was mild and delight- 
 ful; It was especially inviting to men who must 
 necessarily be exposed to the weather wherever 
 they plight go until they could build little homes 
 for themselves. The soil was fertile and gener- 
 ously yielded every thing needed to satisfy the 
 wants of a plain people. So, at an early day, the 
 Southern Colonies teemed with these hardy, in- 
 dustrious Covenanters. Wherever they went, in 
 the South, they met others of their race, who, 
 having landed at Southern ports, were working 
 toward the interior of the country. 
 
 In the light of these facts, it is apparent why, in 
 1775, these Colonies, as we have seen, contained 
 more than one-half of the population of the entire 
 country, and why more than one-half of those 
 friendly to the American cause were of Covenanter 
 blood. 
 
 Climate and soil, as well as a vast interior 
 country, open to settlement, gave promise of that 
 peace, freedom, and security which they were so 
 earnestly seeking. 
 
 Oglethorpe's Colony failed in Georgia in 1752. 
 The New England Colony at Sunbury also failed. 
 
 * History of People, U. S., Vol. I, 9. 
 
108 COVENAUTER, CAVALIEfi, AND tURITAN. 
 
 Then came the Covenanters " from the monntau: 
 and Piedmont regions of the Carolinas and Vir- 
 ginia," and filled all Middle Georgia. This race 
 has never failed. It has gone on from the day of 
 its arrival, in Georgia, with that energy, intelli- 
 gence, and persistence so peculiar to it, building 
 up the State in its material resources, in intellectual 
 achievements, in moral and religious works, and in 
 molding and shaping its institutions, so that to-day 
 its pre-eminence among Southern States is ac- 
 knowledged by all the world.* 
 
 Douglas Campbell calls the Covenanters, or, as 
 he designates them, the Scotch-Irish, " the Puritans 
 of the South." It is not well to thus confound 
 these two great peoples. Though the English and 
 the Scotch people were originally largely of the 
 same blood, they early became separated into two 
 distinct people, each with peculiar characteristics 
 of its own. It will be conceded that in certain re- 
 spects there were some striking resemblances be- 
 tween them, especially between the early Puritans 
 and the Covenanters. But the points of dissim- 
 ilaritv are more numerous and more marked than 
 
 "■'■" For a particular account of this settlement and the achieve- 
 ment of the Covenanters in Georgia, I refer the reader to an 
 able address by Patrick Calhoun before the Scotch-Irish Con- 
 gress at Atlanta, in 1892, Vol. VI, 136. 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 109 
 
 those of resemblance. In the stern austerity of 
 their religion, and in the somberness of their lives — 
 in a word, in the outward aspet't of religious life, 
 they seemed to be very much alike. And yet the 
 traits which distinguished the one from the other 
 were clear, striking, and manifest. This became 
 the more evident, perhaps, after each had left its 
 native laud, and had found a new home for itself 
 where its natural tendencies had room for develop- 
 ment. The Puritan was an Englishman, with 
 English tastes, ideas, and habits. In common with 
 his countrymen, he believed in caste, in social dis- 
 tinctions, and in the inequality of men. In religion, 
 the Puritan believed with all the earnestness of his 
 strong nature that he was right, and, so believing, he 
 used the whole power of the Church and the State 
 in enforcing conformity to it. He permitted no 
 dissent. In his view there must be universal con- 
 formity, banishment, the whipping-post, or tiie 
 gibbet. The State was merely the ally of the 
 Church, useful only to enforce its decrees and dog- 
 mas. The latter was supreme over the minds, the 
 consciences, and the bodies of men. This was the 
 Church polity of Puritanism in Massachusetts. 
 The Puritansjiad not learned the lessou left to the 
 world by Charles V of Spain, who, after his abdi- 
 cation, spent the evening of his life in a vain at- 
 
110 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 tempt to make two watches run alike. While a 
 monarch, he had used all the vast power of his 
 great kingdom, and all the refined cruelties of the 
 Inquisition, trj'ing to force his millions of subjects 
 into absolute uniformity in religious belief; that is, 
 to force all men to see, feel, and think, and, as it 
 were, to run alike. 
 
 On the other hand, the Covenanter demanded in 
 the Colonies total freedom of religion from the 
 control of the State. He denied the authority of 
 the magistrate, in any matter whatever, to inter- 
 fere with conscience, religious beliefs, or religious 
 practices. The religion of men should be, he in- 
 sisted, as free as air, or the water of the hillside 
 brook. As to Government, he was Democratic in 
 all his ideas. In his long experience, he had seen 
 the arrogance and the insolence of caste, he had 
 felt its power and its enmity, and had come to hate 
 it with all the strength of his soul. By reason of 
 centuries of ill treatment and persecution, he hated 
 England and every thing English as he hated no 
 other country or people. Of all the people in the 
 Colonies, he was perhaps the least aft'ected by 
 English ideas. It thus appears that the differences 
 in thought, habits, and in religious practices be- 
 tween the Puritans and the Covenanters were wide, 
 radical, and fundamental. So, to designate the 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. Ill 
 
 Covenanters, or the Scotch-Irish, by the name of 
 Puritan, is to confound race history and race dis- 
 tinctions. 
 
 Before closing this chapter, I wish to call atten- 
 tion to the singular fact, that in the Revolution, 
 Massachusetts furnished a larger number of men 
 to the Continental army, in proportion to popula- 
 tion, than any other Colony. It is remarkable, 
 that she sent more troops into the army than the 
 six Southern Colonies combined. The number of 
 soldiers from Massachusetts was twice as large as 
 that from Virginia, the leader of the Southern 
 Colonies, though the population of the latter was 
 nearly double that of the former.* How can 
 these remarkable facts be explained? Perhaps 
 they are incapable at this late date of a satisfactory 
 explanation. Tiiey seem to emphasize the fact that 
 there was a much more powerful tory, or English, 
 influence in the Southern Colonies than has gene- 
 rally been supposed. They, the tories, were not so 
 numerous in New England as in the South. Per- 
 haps the latter fact can be accounted for in part by 
 the feeble condition of the English Church there. 
 In all the Southern Colonies, however, which were 
 principally settled at first by Englishmen, that 
 
 * University of Virginia Magazine, April, 1894, p. 308 ; Camp- 
 bell's Puritan, Vol. II, 499. 
 
112 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 church had a large following. If therefore, there 
 were but few tories in New England, and if they 
 were equal in number to the computation of John 
 Adams, in the entire population of the country, 
 then it would seem that in the Colonies south of 
 New England they must have constituted nearly 
 or quite one-half of the population. If this were 
 the case, the people who were friendly to the 
 American cause, and from whom soldiers could be 
 enlisted for the army, were not nearly so numerous 
 as indicated by the total population. This was un- 
 questionably true in a large measure. 
 
 Perhaps another reason may have some force in 
 it. The warfare conducted by the tories was 
 largely of a predatory or guerrilla character. They 
 preyed on Whig farms and settlements, and often 
 on the helpless families of the patriots who were 
 absent in the army. The outrages they committed 
 were brutal and diabolical. Bitter as we some- 
 times suppose the Civil War of 1861-1865 to have 
 been, it was, in comparison with the deadly strife 
 of the Southern patriots and the tories, during the 
 Revolution, as the gentleness of the dove to the 
 fierceness of the vulture. This kind of warfare in 
 the South, often made it necessary for the patriots 
 to remain at home, to guard against the violent 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 113 
 
 outbreaks of the tories. On this subject a recent 
 historian says : 
 
 " Throughout that State (Georgia), and in South 
 and North Carolina, there broke out a partisan 
 warfare which had no parallel in any other part of 
 the country. The loyal and the patriot parties 
 were so nearly equally divided that each was con- 
 fident of gaining the ascendency, and the bitter- 
 ness of personal detestation intensified to cruelty 
 the evils of ordinary war. A district of country 
 remained loyal or patriotic so long as it was oc- 
 cupied by the troops of either one side or the 
 other. Citizens served as militia when organized 
 militia operations promised success; where success 
 seemed hopeless, or protection was no longer 
 afforded by the presence of regular troops, they 
 fled to the swamps and the woods, and carried on 
 a murderous and predatory warfare against their 
 neighbors on the other side. . . . Nowhere 
 else, except to a limited degree in Central New 
 York, was the war so entirely a desperate civil 
 war, where neighbor was arrayed in deadly hatred 
 against neighbor, each holding his life at the price 
 of sleepless vigilance, each knowing that the death 
 of the other was his only security." * 
 
 * Bryant's Popular History United States, Vol. Ill, 613. See 
 also King's Mountain and its Heroes. 
 
114 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 ' In this way, tens of thousands of men, doubtless, 
 who did not belong to the Continental army, and 
 whose names did not appear on its rolls, took part 
 in the war, either regularly or occasionally, from 
 its inception to its close. It is doubtful whether 
 a single private of the army of Sevier, Campbell 
 and Shelby, who helped to win the signal victory 
 of King's Mountain, and who fought in many 
 other battles, can be found among the i^ecords of 
 the war. Besides all this, from "Western Pennsyl- 
 vania to Florida, all along the frontiers of Penn- 
 sylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, North and South 
 Carolina and Georgia, there were thousands of 
 men who were kept constantly in the field, or in a 
 state of preparation for defense, against the mur- 
 derous warfare waged upon the infant settlements 
 by the powerful Indian tribes of the South and 
 West. And these men, who thus defended and 
 saved the West and the South-west, though scarcely 
 known to history, and perhaps not known at all on 
 the rolls of the war, were as really and efficiently 
 fighting the battles of the Revolution as were the 
 soldiers under Washington. 
 
 So, it may well be doubted, whether, in all the 
 Southern Colonies, where these conflicts with 
 tories, British, and Indians were taking place, 
 there was a single Covenanter or patriot who was 
 
THE COVENANTERS IN THE SOUTH. 115 
 
 not under arms a part of his time, though ouly a 
 small percentage of the entire population M'ould 
 seem by the records to have been in the regular 
 Continental army. 
 
 There was another reason why Massachusetts 
 furnished more men to the Continental army than 
 the Southern Colonies, and that was this : The 
 storm of war first burst on that State. Suddenly 
 Boston found her commerce destroyed, herself cut 
 off from the sea, and her people besieged. The 
 blow was as terrible as it was sudden. Quickly 
 the people flew to arms. All New England rallied 
 for the defense of Boston. The questions at issue 
 involved not only the liberties of the people, but 
 the privileges, the trade, and the commercial inde- 
 pendence of Boston, and other coast towns. The 
 seat of war was there. No such gloomy threaten- 
 ings at that time hung over any other city or State, 
 and never did exist in some of the Colonies. And 
 so, until near the close of the war. New England 
 was either the theater of active operations, or the 
 enemy was not so far removed from her but that 
 he might return to her territory again. Her citi- 
 zens i-emained in the army, or in a state of prepa- 
 ration, all the time. 
 
 But, after all has been said that can be in ex- 
 planation of the fact I have been considering, it 
 
116 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 would be both unjust and uncandid not to acknowl- 
 edge in the amplest terms the extraordinary zeal 
 and patriotism displayed by the people of Massa- 
 chusetts during the Revolution. The period from 
 1761 to 1783 forms an illuminated chapter in her 
 history, written in letters of gold, and resplendent 
 in eloquence, courage, patriotism, and sacrifices. 
 How warm and bright when compared with the 
 dreariness of her " glacial period." " Her ice age " — 
 sterile, forbidding, unproductive, her history dotted 
 only with boulders and stunted growth — was gone.* 
 The " florescent period " had come. 
 
 ® Charles Francis Adams's "Massachusetts; Its Historians 
 and Its History," 107. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 117 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 
 
 Covenanters left out of consideration by writers and speakers — 
 The most numerous of the classes — Covenanter ideas pre- 
 vailed in Virginia — John Knox's declaration — Cavaliers 
 the ruling class in Virginia — Political and religious 
 opinions — Bloody penal Code — Religious disabilities — 
 Early inhabitants — Many densely ignorant— Sir William 
 Berkeley, Governor, on education — Education neglected — 
 Life among the upper classes — Feasting, frolicking, 
 driuking and gambling— Dissipation of the Clergy — • 
 Cruelty to dissenters — Gloomy condition of the Colony — 
 The Covenanters appear in the Colony — They erect 
 Churches, start schools and spread westward— Patrick 
 Henry — His origin — Offers Resolutions in the House of 
 Burgesses denouncing Stamp Act — His speech on — The 
 Country electrified — Thomas Jefferson — Becomes a re- 
 former — The Presbytery of Hanover sends a petition to 
 the Legislature asking for freedom of speech-^Then a 
 second, a third, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth — They at 
 last triuniph — Bitterness of Mr. Jefferson toward the 
 Presbyterians— Was a freethinker. 
 
 Both writers and public speakers have long been 
 in the habit of dividing the men who have shaped 
 and molded the institutions of this country and 
 gnided its destinies into two classes, the Puritans 
 and the Cavaliers, the one the representative of 
 E"orthern thought and civilization, and the other 
 of Southern. This leaves entirely out of con- 
 
118 
 
 sideration the Covenanters, the most numerous 
 and in many respects the greatest of the three 
 races. At the time of the Revolution, as has been 
 shown, the men of Covenanter blood were scat- 
 tered evevy-where in the Colonies, and were es- 
 pecially numerous in all the region south of ISTew 
 York. It seems reasonably clear that when the 
 Quakers lost their influence, in Pennsylvania, by 
 reason of their opposition to separation from 
 Britain, the Covenanters became ascendant in the 
 councils of that State, and thenceforward mainly 
 controlled its destiny. In Virginia, it was not the 
 thoughts and opinions of the Cavalier which 
 mainly guided that Colony in the great crisis of 
 1775-6 and that were incorporated into the frame- 
 work of her government. Cavalier thought, 
 forms and principles, both in State and Church, 
 largely passed away with the opening of the 
 great Revolution. When Jett'erson, Wythe, Ma- 
 son, and others, were engaged in their important 
 work of purging the constitution and the statutes 
 of the State of the odious penalties and disabilities, 
 in reference to religious worship, imposed on dis- 
 senters by the established church, they were un- 
 doing the work, hoary with age and wrong, of the 
 Cavaliers, and substituting the ideas and prin- 
 ciples of the Covenanters. The highest and the 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIEE. 119 
 
 best thoughts of Virginia, the leading ideas in- 
 corporated into her government, as well as into 
 the national government, were Covenanter rather 
 than Cavalier thought. 
 
 It little matters by whom these thoughts and 
 principles were put into organic form, whether by 
 those of Covenanter blood, such as Patrick Henry 
 and Edmond Randolph, whether by the half Cove- 
 nanter Thomas Jefferson, or whether by James 
 Madison, the disciple of John Witherspoon in his 
 political education. Each and all of them had 
 caught the spirit and the ideas of the great Cove- 
 nanter, John Knox. Hear him as he spoke two 
 hundred years before : 
 
 "The authority of kings and princes was origi- 
 nally derived from the people; that the former 
 are not superior to the latter collectively con- 
 sidered ; that if the rulers become tyrannical, or 
 employ their power for the destruction of their 
 subjects, they may be lawfully controlled, and 
 proving incorrigible, may be deposed by the com- 
 munity as the superior power, and that tyrants 
 may be judicially proceeded against even to a 
 capital punishment."* 
 
 The ruling class in Virginia from its earliest 
 settlement were the Cavaliers. Some of them 
 
 t The Scotch-Irish in America, Vol. 1, 199. 
 
120 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 were of the English nohility. Most of them 
 believed in an established church, which should 
 be supreme over the consciences and religious 
 conduct of men, with the king as its spiritual 
 head. 
 
 They had been the adherents of Charles I in his 
 struggles with Parliament and the people in 1640, 
 and when he was dethroned and beheaded many 
 of them fled to Virginia. Here the Episcopal 
 Church was established as the only lawful church, 
 and all men, whether members or not, or however 
 much they might detest it, were compelled to sup- 
 port it. More than this, all other religions were 
 forbidden. One of Patrick Henry's most thrilling 
 speeches was made in 1763, in defending three 
 Baptist preachers, who were indicted as "dis- 
 turbers of the peace" for preaching, as Henry 
 expressed it, "the gospel of the Son of God." 
 
 The penal code, probably adopted in. England, 
 for the Colony of Virginia, and in force from the 
 earliest days, was, in reference to moral and relig- 
 ious duties, perhaps, the bloodiest ever enacted by 
 men. By it adultery was punishable by death, as 
 it was subsequently in Massachusetts and Connec- 
 ticut. Under Dale's Code, absence from church 
 on Sunday, without a good excuse, was made a 
 capital offense. The penalty of death was pro- 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 121 
 
 vided for all those who should blaspheme the name 
 of the Creator, and for those who refused obe- 
 dience to their ministers, while [lersons who ab- 
 sented themselves from the church, on weekdays 
 were to serve in the gallej's for six months.* These 
 laws of Cavalier Virginia were never repealed nor 
 modified until after the Revolution, though not al- 
 ways enforced. 
 
 The foregoing penalties were only a few of the 
 many which enslaved men in Old Virginia. Hun- 
 dreds, perhaps thousands, of persons — Quakers, 
 - Baptists, Moravians, and doubtless also many un- 
 godly, unsanctified fellows who did not wish to row 
 in the galleys for six months, for being absent 
 from church on weekdays — were driven out of the 
 Colony, and fled to l^orth Carolina. 
 
 By 1750, persecution and narrowness had nearly 
 run their dark course in Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut, but in Virginia, on the contrary, the es- 
 tablished church grew more intolerant as it grew 
 stronger.f It was the stifling effect of the prac- 
 tice of the Cavalier Church on the young mind of 
 Madison,' which, in 1774, made him write to a 
 
 * Campbell's Puritan, Vol. II, 415. Citing Doyle's. English 
 Colonies in America, 1 15, 139. 
 t Parton's Life of Jefferson, 202. 
 10 
 
122 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 l^orthern friend: "I want again to breathe your 
 free air. . . . That diabolical, hell-conceived 
 principle of persecution rages among some." . . . 
 He then goes on to tell that there were at that 
 time, "in a neighboring county, not less than five 
 or six well-meaning men in close jail for publish- 
 ing their religious sentiments." . . . These 
 prisoners were Baptists. ITor is it much wonder 
 that this ingenuous young man, on co'raiug home 
 from Princeton, fresh from the teachings of the 
 grand old Covenanter, John Witherspoon, should 
 have expressed the opinion that, " if the Church of 
 England had been established and endowed in all 
 the Colonies as it was in Virginia, the king would 
 have had his way, and gradually reduced all Amer- 
 ica to subjection.* 
 
 For the first hundred years, the population of 
 Virginia dwelt mostly in the low country, in the 
 tide-water region, and on the banks of the Lower 
 James, the Potomac, the York, and the Eappa- 
 hannock. It consisted nearly exclusively of En- 
 glish gentlemen, English clergymen, some com- 
 mon mechanics and laborers, and large numbers 
 of slaves and indented white servants. The aris- 
 tocratic gentlemen who first settled the Colony 
 were, as we have said, nearly all adherents of 
 
 » 1 Parton, 203. 
 
THE COVENANTER ANl) THE CAVALIER. 123 
 
 the king. They constituted the ruling class, though 
 perhaps a minority of the people. Many of this 
 upper class were densely ignorant. The lower 
 orders were entirely without education.* In 1671, 
 Sir William Berkeley, the Governor of the Col- 
 ony, expressed, no doubt, the opinions of his 
 , class, when he said : " I thank God there are 
 no free schools or printing, and "I hope we shall 
 not have them these hundred years. For learning 
 has brought heresy and disobedience and sects 
 into the world, and printing has divulged them. 
 God keep us from both." 
 
 It would be very hard for the greatest thinker of 
 the day to say so much in favor of education, in so 
 few words, as was done by this Cavalier in the 
 words just quoted, though he meant them quite 
 otherwise. With Cavalier ascendency and rule, 
 education, except with the higher classes, was neg- 
 lected. It was thought important by many only 
 to educate the eldest son, who was to inherit the 
 estate, sit with the justices, and represent his 
 county in the House of Deputies. He was sent to 
 William and Mary, an institution under the patron- 
 age and control of the Cavaliers. All persons who 
 were destined for the church and bar were sent to 
 this college, but the great body of the people, in- 
 * Lecky's England in theEighiteenth Century, Vol. III. 
 
124 
 
 eluding a large uumber of the first families, grew 
 up ill ignorance. In the upper classes, life was 
 spent, to a large extent, in drinking and feasting, 
 in fox-hunting and horse-racing, in visiting and 
 playing cards, and in attending balls, where the 
 stately rainuette was danced by the grave seniors 
 and the jig by the young and volatile. 
 
 The clergymen had fallen into such habits as to 
 become, as Bishop Meade, of the establishment ex- 
 pressed it, "the laughing stock of the Colony." 
 A few were good and learned men, and did their 
 duty faithfully, among them Bishop Meade him- 
 self. Says a pungent writer: "The greater num- 
 ber lived as idle hangers on of the wealthier 
 houses, assisting their fellow idlers, the planters, 
 to kill time and run through their estates.* . . 
 Sometimes the clergyman Avas the president of the 
 jockey club, and personally assisted in the details 
 of the race course. It was common for them to 
 follow in the chase ; they figured as the patrons of 
 balls, and were rather noted for their skill at cards.* 
 But the great failing with the clei'gymen was their 
 drunkenness, which helped even iu that age and in 
 that Colony of indulgence and excess, to bring re- 
 proach on the church and on religion." f 
 
 -» Parton's Jefferson, Vol. I, 56. t Id., 202. 
 
Mil COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 125 
 
 Bishop Meade bore unequivocal testimony to 
 this fact. 
 
 How cruel the Cavalier laws were against all 
 who did not conform to the faith and the ritual of 
 the church, and how dissenters were driven out of 
 the Colony to avoid the- dreadful penalties im- 
 posed on them has been shown. Says a writer : 
 "At the time when the Yankee magistrates were 
 hanging witches and whipping Quakers, Virginia 
 justices of the peace were putting Quakers in the 
 pillory for keeping their hats on in church, and 
 were appointing jurors of women to examine for 
 witch-marks on the bodies of old women." * John 
 Burk, a historian of Virginia, intimates that a 
 woman was burned to death in Princess Ann 
 County for witch-craft, and adds that in all proba- 
 bility the case was not solitary. f 
 
 The condition of things in Virginia before the 
 Revolution was indeed gloomy and almost hope- 
 less. All freedom of speech, of conscience, of 
 mind, soul and body was fettered and tied up, as 
 with manacles, by the laws and the religion of the 
 aristocratic Cavaliers. All growth was such as 
 came only in spite of repression. Population in- 
 creased because the climate and the soil were the 
 most inviting perhaps on the continent. No colony 
 
 * Parton's Jefierson, Vol. I, 000. t Id. 202. 
 
126 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 had so man}' natural advantages. Her resources 
 were prodigious. The cultivation of tobacco, like 
 that of cotton at a later day in the South, was sup- 
 posed to lead to speedy fortune. Thousands hurried 
 over from England to repair their broken estates by 
 engaging in its culture. Baptists and Quakers came 
 into the Colony notwithstanding the bloody laws 
 existing against them. But the great source from 
 which the population was enlarged, was the con- 
 stant and never-ceasing stream of Covenanter im- 
 migration which commenced pouring into the 
 Colony about 1732. 
 
 In the meantime bigotry and Cavalier incapac- 
 ity rested like a nightmare on the Colony. The 
 lower class of white men, ignorant and lazy, bor- 
 dered on a state of barbarity.* How could thej' 
 have been otherwise? Who had held out a help- 
 ing hand to them? What elevating example had 
 been set before them ? 
 
 During the more than one hundred and sixty 
 years of Colonial existence and Cavalier domina- 
 tion in Virginia, not a single great name ajjpears 
 in her history; not one in letters, in art, in science, 
 in invention or in war. Not a single great deed 
 or event marks this period. The only thing of 
 interest to the historian was the revolt of JSTathan- 
 
 ® Lecky's England in theEighteeuth Century, Vol. III. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 127 
 
 iel Bacon, in 1676, against the wrongs that the 
 people endured at the hands of the Cavalier Gov- 
 ernor, Sir William Berkeley. The attempt failed, 
 because it was premature by a hundred yeai's. 
 Bacon died just as the rebellion was declining, and 
 in that way escaped the fate reserved for him, 
 while his adviser, William Drummond, a Cove- 
 nanter, who had been the first Governor of ITorth 
 Carolina, was summarily hanged. 
 
 There is, howeyer, a bright gleam of sunshine 
 apparent above this gloom, lighting up that dark, 
 dreary waste, but for which even the most faith- 
 ful and obedient children of the church could not 
 have endured the oppression, and that is, that the 
 laws in reference to conformity and religious du- 
 ties were not rigidly enforced. Their violation 
 was often secretly winked at and passed over, or 
 the Colony would have become a Golgotha. The 
 Covenanters were allowed to stretch along the 
 borders of the northern and western settlements, 
 because they became a protection for the older 
 settlements against the hostile Indians. 
 
 While the Cavaliers of the tide-water country 
 were engaged, between 1700 and 1775, in raising 
 and selling tobacco, in purchasing and trading in 
 slaves, in hunting and horse-racing, and in all the 
 amusements of that rude age, the serious and ear- 
 
128 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 nest Covenanters, quietly passing over from Penn- 
 sylvania, where, as before stated, they were not 
 well received by the Quakers, into the rich and 
 beautiful valleys of Virginia, were spreading west- 
 wardly toward Wheeling, or ascending the slopes 
 of the Blue Ridge, and occupying all the fertile 
 highlands of that magnificent country on the east 
 side of the mountains. Finally they overleaped 
 the summit of the Alleghanies, spread over their 
 western slopes, and occupied the beautiful and 
 fertile country of South-west Virginia. 
 
 While the Cavaliers and the clergy in Old Vir- 
 ginia were living easy lives of indolence and lux- 
 ury, the Covenanters were felling the forests, 
 'building cabins and houses, sowing and reaping 
 with their own hands, and engaged in all the hard 
 vocations incident to a piont^er's life. They were 
 occupied in making a state. They were gather- 
 ing around their little homes all the comforts that 
 industry could supply on the frontier. Earnest 
 men they were. There was little mirth or levity 
 among them. They were strong in will and firm 
 in purpose; robust, brave, brawny, Sabbath-keep- 
 ing and God-fearing men. They had a great mis- 
 sion to fulfill. Freedom of worship, freedom of 
 thought, freedom of conscience were to be estab- 
 
THE COVENANTEE AND THE CAVALIER. 129 
 
 lished. In the wilderness they were to plant and 
 build up civilization. The things which their 
 fathers had struggled for, they songht : "A free 
 State and a free conscience." There was little 
 frolicking among these grave people. Serious 
 cares and duties demanded their attention. All, 
 young and old, male and female, were as busy as 
 the passing hours, or the flowing brook. 
 
 Soon the rude church edifice went up, then fol- 
 lowed the log-cabin schoolhouse. Of all the men 
 in the community, the minister was the busiest, 
 with preaching, teaching, visiting the sick, giving 
 advice as to the afl'airs of the settlement, and at 
 odd hours, caught from other duties, laboring on 
 the farm. He was the head .man of the neigVibor- 
 hood, and his opinion was sought on all points. 
 Many of these plain people, and all of the preach- 
 ers, were graduates from the universities of Eu- 
 rope. They were great scholars for that day. 
 ISTot only were the churches and the schoolhouses 
 to be erected, but seminaries, grammar schools 
 and colleges were to be provided. Thus, in 1747, 
 the rude structure of Liberty Hall, since grown so 
 famous and so great, arose in the wilderness. Un- 
 der the fostering care of the Presbytery of Han- 
 over it grew until it became Washington College. 
 11 
 
130 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Liberty Hall ! Significant and auspicious name ! 
 Truly it became a light set on a hill. 
 
 Into this region of Virginia came the IPrestous, 
 the Pattons, the Stuarts, the Breckinridges, the 
 Campbells, the McDowells, the Alexanders, the 
 Blairs, all of Covenanter stock. Among others 
 of this wonderful Scqtch people, there came John 
 Henry, an educated man, and a nephew of the 
 great Scotch historian, William Robertson. Pat- 
 rick Henry was his son. The son learned a little 
 Latin and something of English from his father, 
 but he cared but little for books. He loved to 
 hunt and fish and frolic, and was indolent and 
 dreamy. Failing twice as a merchant, he read 
 law six weeks and obtained a license. Soon he 
 gained great notoriety by his 'celebrated speech in 
 defense of the people, in the "Parsons case," as it 
 is called. This was a suit, and a just one too, by 
 the clergy for the tobacco allowed by law as their 
 salaries, but under the whirlwind of Henry's 
 eloquence the jury rendered an adverse verdict. 
 
 In 1765, Patrick Henry, this backwoodsman, 
 dressed in home spun, took his seat the second 
 time in the House of Burgesses. The comiug 
 Revolution was casting forward its dark shadows. 
 Soon the news came that Parliament had passed 
 the Stamp Act, taxing the Colonies. Every re- 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 131 
 
 fleeting mind saw that to quietly submit was to 
 become enslaved. The Colonies were agitated 
 from one end of the country to the other. No 
 one knew better than Henry that taxation with- 
 out representation was contrary to the natural 
 rights of men — was in fact tyranny. lie had 
 learned this from his race long before he saw a 
 law book. No people in the world understood 
 the liiws of natural right so well at that time as 
 the Covenanters. They had, in their hard ex- 
 perience, been studying and asserting them for 
 mqre than two centuries. It was the violation of 
 these laws that caused the presence of that long 
 stream 'of stern Covenanters, constantly passing 
 up the valleys of Virginia, moving westward, 
 seeking homes, liunting out a place where they 
 could have a "free church." 
 
 Henry waited for some one of the old members 
 to move in the matter of the Stamp Act. They 
 held back. The session was about to close. Burn- 
 ing with the fire of his own patriotic thoughts, 
 he tore a blank leaf from a law book, and hur- 
 riedly wrote and offered in the House four resolu- 
 tions, containing the germ of all that has been or 
 can be said on the subject. These resolutions 
 asserted, in their inner meaning, the right of the 
 people to govern and to tax themselves. This 
 
132 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 was the key note to the Revolution, and the real 
 meaning of the Declaration of Independence. It 
 was the undertone and the interpretation of John 
 Knox's propositions, and of liis answer to Queen 
 Mary. ISTo new doctrine to the Covenanters. ,But 
 it startled, as from a dream, the old Cavaliers of 
 Virginia. The debate that followed was fiery, and 
 as Mr. Jefll'erson said, " most bloody." The old 
 leaders, Wythe, Pendleton, Bland and Pej'ton 
 Randolph, strove to defeat the resolutions. But 
 nothing could resist the wild tempest-like elo- 
 quence of Henry, " the forest-born Demosthenes," 
 as Byron called him. As that awkward body 
 warmed and lifted itself up, it was transformed 
 by its own inward spirit into one of commanding 
 grandeur and majesty. That halting, stammering 
 voice rose and swelled until it now sounded like a 
 tempest, now it was like the noise of the storm 
 bowing the woods and the forests before it. 
 Finally, rising in the brilliant sweep of his oratory 
 to a climax, and stirred by his own great spirit, he 
 exclaimed in tones that thrilled every hearer: 
 " Caeser had his Brutus, Charles I had his Crom- 
 well, and George III ." " Treason ! " shouted 
 
 the speaker; " treason ! treason ! ! "' echoed the ter- 
 rified loyalists springing to their feet. "And 
 George III may profit by their example," con- 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 133 
 
 tinned Henry. " If this be treason, make the 
 most of it!" 
 
 The coLintry was electrified by the audacious 
 words of Henry. They rang and echoed through 
 the land. The venerable citadel of royal and 
 priestly bigotry was shattered to its foundation. 
 A new force in government had been evoked — the 
 ultimate power in all free government — the sove- 
 reignty of the people. In that hour New Vir- 
 ginia was born, and Old Virginia commenced pass- 
 ing awa}'. While Henry was sounding the first 
 notes of the coming Eevolution in Virginia, James 
 Otis and John and Samuel Adams were doing the 
 same in Massachusetts. This was the first breach 
 in the partition wall which separated the ptist — 
 dai=k with the crimes of tyranny, intolerance and 
 bigotr}- — from the future, already aglow with the 
 promise of freedom and deliverance. 
 
 While this declaration of the rights of men was 
 being proclaimed by Henry, there stood behind 
 the bar of the House a modest young law student, 
 cold and impassive, wLose eager ears caught every 
 word as they fell from the lips of the great orator. 
 As he listens, he is transfixed and spellbound. 
 This was young Thomas Jefferson, the friend of 
 Henry then, and ever afterward. He was there 
 watching bis ungainly, plainly dressed friend, as 
 
134 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 he rose to make that speech which has given him 
 immortality. 
 
 Eleven years after this time, this young law 
 student of 1765 is in the Legislature of the State, 
 himself now become immortal as the author of 
 the Declaration of Independence. He is there as 
 a Reformer, associated with two of the best and 
 greatest men iu Virginia, George Wythe and 
 George Mason. He is there to lift and remove the 
 burdens imposed on the minds, the consciences 
 and the bodies of men by a century and a half of 
 Cavalier misrule and priestly bigotry and bitter- 
 ness. It is "easy to see how the generous-minded 
 Mason and the noble Wythe, who had emanci- 
 pated their own slaves, should have been anxious 
 to aid in removing from the statute book as dark 
 a penal code as ever was devised by the haughtiest 
 oppressors, and by the narrowest and the bitterest 
 sectarians. But at first it is not so easy to under- 
 stand how Jefferson, this half Randolph,''^ half 
 Covenanter, this vestryman in the established 
 church, should have been a reformer. He says> 
 he learned his lessons of freedom from Coke on 
 Littleton ; others say from the philosophers of 
 France. But more likely he unconsciously im- 
 
 * Jefferson's mother was a Randolph. The Randolphs 
 claimed descent from the Scottish Earls of Murray.— Parton, 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 135 
 
 bibed them from sources immediately around him 
 before he ever saw Coke, or he had read a 
 word of the writings of the great eneyclopsedists 
 of France, De Lambert, Diderot, Voltaire, Rous- 
 seau, Turgot and others. He was reared in the 
 country into which the Covenanters were pour- 
 ing just as he was coming to manhood. He 
 was not ignorant of them, of-their opinions, nor 
 of their history. He knew that the strong, brave, 
 educated people he was every- where meeting had 
 fled from Ireland to escape the very evils then to 
 be seen on every side in his own colony. He had 
 heard the red-hot words of Patrick Henry, in 
 his memorable speech, on that May da^^ in 1765, 
 when in the House of Burgesses he proclaimed 
 the oracles and the creed of his fathers. That 
 the words had sunk deep into his mind there 
 is no doubt, so much so that in his old age 
 he always warmed with enthusiasm when re- 
 ferring to that great day. Out of his own ex- 
 perience and observation, it would seem, Mr. Jef- 
 ferson would have learned, and with his generous, 
 noble nature, would certainly have realized the 
 crying need of reform, wide, radical and universal, 
 in his own State, especially as to liberty of con- 
 science and freedom of worship. The sight of a 
 poor Baptist, or Quaker, in the pillory, or under- 
 
136 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 going the agony of the whipping post, on account, 
 not of crime, but of the neglect of some duty to- 
 ward the church, ought to have been sufficient to 
 keep him from both sleep and rest until the last 
 dark spot on the State was forever washed out. 
 Such a sight might have made the very stones cry 
 out against the iniquity of such laws. We cau 
 realize how the picture must have afi'eeted a phi- 
 lanthropist like Mr. Jefferson. Even the sight of 
 five or six Baptists in "close jail" for "publishing 
 their religious sentiments " had made the gentle 
 Madison sigh, in 1774, for the free air of another 
 State. 
 
 But dull indeed Mr. Jefferson would have been 
 if he had not perceived in his own mind the quick- 
 ening spirit of the times, and felt the trembling of 
 the approaching upheaval in every fiber of his 
 being. A new force had entered the Colony. The 
 sleepless Covenanters had planted their churches 
 beyond the Blue Ridge, and had organized the 
 Presbytery of Hanover, and so long as their re- 
 mained a wrong under which they suffered, they 
 would never cease to protest against it. This 
 Presbytery, in 1774, sent its petition to the legisla- 
 ture, remonstrating against a bill devised to re- 
 strict religious rights. It asked "for that freedom 
 in speaking and writing on religious subject 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 137 
 
 which is allowed by law to every member of the 
 British Empire in civil affairs;" a sentiment after- 
 ward, on motion of Patrick Plenry, embodied in 
 the Virginia bill of rights.* 
 
 In October, 1776, there came another memorial 
 from Hanover Presbytery to the legislature, which 
 was considered in Committee of the whole House. 
 The result was, says Mr. Jefferson, that " after 
 desperate contests in that committee almost daily 
 from October 11th to December 5th, we prevailed 
 (only) so far as to repeal the laws which rendered 
 criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, 
 and further to exempt dissenters from contribu- 
 tions to the support of the established church."* 
 
 What was the necessity of debating and con- 
 sidering for so long a time these simple proposi- 
 tion, presented by the sturdy Covenantei'S, dwell- 
 ing beyond the mountains? At this day all 
 Christendom receives them as true. It was the 
 last death struggle of the old aristocracy in church 
 and state to hold on to its ancient power. 
 
 Scarcely had the echoes of the debate over these 
 propositions died away, when this same Hanover 
 Presbytery, from its session near Liberty Hall, in 
 1777, sent a third memorial to the legislature. 
 Then followed a fourth, then a fifth, and finally 
 * Scotch-Irish iu America, Vol. II, 237. 
 
138 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 a sixth. In 1785, there followed the " Covenanter 
 Memorial," protesting against the incorporation 
 of the Episcopal Church, and the act, "provid- 
 ing for the support of religion by taxation." 
 The true and the whole doctrine in reference to 
 the relation of religion and the state is contained 
 in these words. Said Eev. William Graham in 
 this memorial : 
 
 " The end of civil government is security to the 
 temporal liberty and property of mankind, and to 
 protect them in the free exercise of religion. . 
 Religion is altogether personal, and the right of 
 exercising it inalienable; and it is not, can not, and 
 ought not to be resigned to the will of the society 
 at large, and much less to the legislature, which 
 derives its authority wholly from the conseut of 
 the people." 
 
 Here was sounded the key-note to the whole 
 question. And at Bethel Church, far over in the 
 valley of Virginia, the Covenanters again came 
 together, as they did at Gray Friars Church, in 
 16-38, and ten thousand names were appended to 
 this second league and covenant. And so at last, 
 but not till 1786, after ten years' fight, the doctrines 
 of the new covenant — of these backwoods Cove- 
 nanters — were incorporated into the laws of Vir- 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 139 
 
 ginia, and the " act for establishing religious 
 liberty," became a law. 
 
 How deeply rooted in the soil the old system had 
 been, and how tenaciously its friends clung to it, 
 may be inferred by the length of time it took to 
 eradicate it. Jefferson and his co-workers, strong 
 and great ais they were, could not have succeeded 
 when they did, long as it was after the Revolution, 
 if it had not been for the votes, the encourage- 
 ment and the moral power and force of the Cove- 
 nanters. Says Campbell : " In the end, the work " 
 (the reform) " was carried through by the energetic 
 efforts of the dissenters, who formed a majority of 
 the population, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians be- 
 ing the leading element."* 
 
 A singular inconsistency in Mr. Jefferson is the 
 extreme bitterness he manifests in his writings 
 against the Presbyterians, i.e., " the Covenanters." 
 In this great struggle, they M^ere his strongest, his 
 most advanced support. Without their aid, even 
 after his long fight, he would have utterly failed 
 to remove the shackles put on the minds, con- 
 consciences and bodies of men, by the very church 
 in which he was a vestryman. It was his efforts 
 in this great reform perhaps, more than any single 
 act of his life which gave him his reputation for 
 » Campbell, Vol. II, 492. 
 
140 
 
 liberality. And yet he wrote of those who gave 
 him his chief support, if not his first hint on the 
 subject, as a bitter and narrow religious zealot 
 might have done of some opposing sect, and not 
 with the charity and hroad-mindeduess expected 
 of a great philosopher and philanthropist. He 
 knew how great the work of the Covenanters had 
 been in the Colonies in preiiaring the minds of the 
 people for the Revolution, and how conspicuous 
 and splendid had been their record in sustaining it 
 with patriotic ardor, and in helping to carry it 
 forward to a triumphant conclusion. He must 
 have realized that without their co-operation his 
 great "Declaration" could not have been made 
 good by arms before the nations of the world, and 
 that in that event his own name would have gone 
 down in history as that of a traitor. He knew of 
 the intelligence of the Covenanteis and of their 
 great value as citizens. He knew their sturdy 
 virtues, the purity of their lives, their respect for 
 law, and their reverence for all things sacred. He 
 knew they were the best educated, and the most 
 sober and industrious people of A^'irginia, and that 
 their infliience was always on the side of law and 
 good government. Tet, in his later years, he 
 wrote of them, as Presbyterians, as he might have 
 done of almost worthless outcasts, and with a 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 141 
 
 bitterness and a nafrowncss out of keeping with 
 his advanced age and his exalted standing. This 
 may be accounted for in part, when it is kept in 
 mind that he became what is known as a free- 
 thinker in religion, though he probably remained 
 a verstryraan in the established church as long as 
 he lived.* 
 
 "•■■" In 1887, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Peter Garr as follows : "Fix 
 Reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, 
 every opiniun. Question with boldness even the existence of 
 a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve 
 of the homage of reason than of blindfolded fear. You will 
 naturally examine first the religion of your own country. 
 Read the Bible then as you would Livy or Tacitus. For ex- 
 ample, in the Book of Joshua we are told that the sun stood 
 still for several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or 
 Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speak- 
 ing statues, beasts, etc. But it is said that the writer of that 
 book was inspired. Examine, therefore, candidly, what evi- 
 dence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension 
 is entitled to your inquiry because millions believe it. On the 
 other hand, you are astronomer enough to know how con- 
 trary it is to the law of nature. You will next read the New 
 Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. 
 Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions : (1) Of those who 
 say he was begotten by, God, born of a virgin, suspended and 
 reversed the laws of nature at will and ascended bodily into 
 heaven, and (2) of those who say he was a man of illegitimate 
 birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out 
 with pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and 
 
142 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, ac- 
 cording to the Roman law, which punished the first commission 
 of that offense by whipping, the second by exile, or death in 
 furca. . . . Donotbefrightenedfromthisinquiry by any fear 
 of its consequences. If it ends in belief that there is no God, 
 you will find incitements to ^'irtue in the comfort and the 
 pleasure you will find in its exercise, and the love of others 
 which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe 
 that there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting 
 under his eye and he approves of you, will be a vast ad- 
 ditional incitement ; if that Jesus was also a God, you will 
 be comforted by a belief of his aid and love. Your own 
 reason is the only oracle given you by heaven. And you are 
 answerable, not for the rightness, but the uprightness of the 
 decision." Parton's Life of JefTerson, 335. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 143 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER CONTINUED. 
 
 Love of Church and loyalty to King in Virginia — Love of lib- 
 ' erty — Nathaniel Bacon — Mr. Burke on love of liberty in 
 the South— Landed estates in Virginia— Tobacco used as 
 money — Indentured servants— Splendid hospitality — Cove- 
 nanter element introduced — Covenanters superior to Cav- 
 aliers — Patrick Calhoun on the Covenanters — Education 
 among the Covenanters in the Colonies, in Ireland — In 
 North Carolina, in South Carolina and in Georgia — Cove- 
 nanters in New Hampshire — Roosevelt on early inhabit- 
 ants of Tennessee and Kentucky — Covenanters on the 
 Holston — Covenanters not paupers — Why education de- 
 clined with Southern Covenanters — Covenanter influence 
 in forming the institutions of the South — Little known of 
 the Covenanters — The reason of this — Henry AVatterson 
 on the Covenanters — They made the Southern States — 
 Their monuments — Great names among them — Their in- 
 fluence in making the West — Covenanter ideas and char- 
 acteristics in Southern society — Preach the same faith 
 their fathers did — Southern women — High moral and re- 
 ligious standard in the South. 
 
 I^^otwith Stan ding the paucity of great names in 
 the history of Virginia previous to the appearance 
 of the master minds of the Revolutionary epoch, 
 there certainly arose then above the horizon splen- 
 did lights of marvelous brilliancy : Washington, 
 Henry, Jefferson, Madison and others. How grand 
 
144 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 in outline! How majestic in intellect! These 
 were the products of the storm of the Revolution. 
 ~ They were the children of the new era in human 
 progress. But for it, they would have died and 
 been forgotten, as their ancestors had died .and 
 had passed forever from the memory of man. 
 Great events make great men. They quicken the 
 human intellect and stir its powers to unwonted 
 intensity. The Revolution aroused the fires of 
 genius from their slumbers, and they leaped forth 
 with a splendor rarely paralleled in history. It 
 gave the world the peerless Washington ; it gave 
 it Patrick Henry with his tongue of flame. The 
 darkness which had overshadowed old Colonial 
 Virginia was followed by a display of genius of 
 surpassing brightness. , 
 
 I would not underestimate the ante-Revolution- 
 ary people of Virginia. They were a brave, a 
 noble and an honorable race of men, though 
 haughty and imperious. The two dominating, all- 
 controlling passions of their lives were love of the 
 church and devotion to their king. They strug- 
 gled long to save their church unshorn of its 
 power. In none of the Colonies was loyalty so 
 deeply rooted as in Virginia. All the sufferings 
 of the early settlers wore only evidences of their 
 love for their king. Intense as this feeling was 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 145 
 
 ill the days of Charles I, it lost none of its force 
 in subsequent reigns. It cost the old aristocracy 
 of Virginia many a bitter pang to give up their 
 sovereign. It is almost impossible for this genera- 
 tion to realize the depth of devotion felt for the 
 mother country. Its history, its traditions, its 
 glory were a part of their own inherited posses- 
 sions. Affectionate, even enthusiastic love of the 
 royal house was a sentiment which had descended 
 from father to son. It was interwoven with their 
 ver}' beings. To sever this bond of attachment 
 and to break away from these hallowed recollec- 
 tions-was indeed a severe trial. 
 
 The Cavaliers were a proud-spirited race. They 
 were acutely sensitive and jealous of their privi- 
 leges. They would submit to no wrong, either as 
 private individuals or as citizens of th.e Common- 
 wealth. Enthusiastically and warmly devoted to 
 their rulers and to the mother land as they were, 
 they loved liberty and their chartered rights just 
 as much. They were fur from being abject slaves. 
 Nathaniel Bacon, the leader of the first rebellion 
 in the Colony, was an educated gentleman, a man 
 of wealth and high social distinction, a member of 
 Governor Berkeley's council. Yet he drew his 
 sword against kingly authority in defense of the 
 12 
 
146 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 rights "accorded in the royal charter."* The 
 spirit of freemen still animated the minds of the 
 Cavaliers. In the lievolution, in the supreme 
 hour of peril, after years of remonstrance, petition 
 and humble supplication, sad as was the alterna- 
 tive, many of them, perhaps a majority, turned 
 away from the memories and the splendid records 
 of the past and bore arms for their country. 
 When the great conflict was at hand, and it be- 
 came evident that a stand must be taken, they 
 threw away their cherished and most sacred senti- 
 ments and nobly sustained the cause of indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 Mr. Burke is quoted by Philip Alexander Bruce, 
 in his recent history of Virginia in the seven- 
 teenth century, as attributing the ardent love of 
 liberty during the Revolutionary era, in the South- 
 ern Colonies, to the institution of slavery. The 
 fact is undeniable that no people in any country, 
 o.r in any age of the world, have possessed the 
 spirit of liberty in a higher degree than the peo- 
 ple of the Southern States. Most of this was due, 
 and especially so in the Revolutionary epoch, to 
 the spirit of the Covenanters. There seems, how- 
 
 ■*• Address of Rev. Alexander White before Scotch-Irieh Con- 
 gress, Vol. IV, 122. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 147 
 
 ever, to be much truth in Mr. Burke's conclusion. 
 He said: 
 
 "There is a circumstance attending these 
 Southern Colonies which makes the spirit of 
 liberty still more high and haughty than in those 
 to the northward. It is that in Virginia and the 
 Carolinas, they have a vast multitude of slaves. 
 Where this is the ease, in any part of the world, 
 those who are free are by far the most proud and 
 jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them, not 
 oiily an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and priv- 
 ilege. ISTot seeing there that freedom, as in coun- 
 tries where it is a common blessing, and as broad 
 and general as the air, may be united with much 
 abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior 
 of servitude, liberty looks among them like some- 
 thing that is more noble and liberal. I do not 
 mean to commend the superior morality of this 
 sentiment, which has at least as much pride as 
 virtue in it; but I can not alter the nature of man. 
 The fact is so; and these people of the Southern 
 Colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher 
 and more stubborn spirit attached to liberty, 
 than those to the northward. Such were all the 
 ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic an- 
 cestors ; such, in our days, were the Poles, and such 
 will be all masters of slaves who are not slaves 
 
148 COVENANTEE, C iVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 themselves. In such a people, the haughtiness of 
 domination combines with the spirit of freedom, 
 fortifies it, and renders it invincible." 
 
 The landed estates of the wealthy in Old Vir- 
 ginia, were of immense size. Recent investiga- 
 tions have shown that their average size was about 
 five thousand acres. Some estates amounted to 
 twenty-five thousand acres. The chief industry in 
 those days, indeed almost the only one, was the 
 cultivation of tobacco. This formed almost the 
 sole article of export. This was exchanged in 
 European markets for such articles of necessity or 
 luxury as the planters needed. These- included 
 nearly every thing. There was no paper money 
 and but little coin in the early days. The wealthi- 
 est men seldom had more than thirty shillings in 
 coin. Tobacco was the medium of exchange. It 
 passed at a fixed value per pound and was a legal 
 tender for all debts. In it, at a price fixed by law, 
 tithes, taxes and debts were paid. 
 
 These vast landed estates required large numbers 
 of laborers. Free white labor could not be had, 
 and probably was not desired. Large numbers of 
 indented, or indentured servants were used for this 
 purpose, as well as African slaves. These inden- 
 tured servants were white men, who were sold into 
 slavery for a terni of years, because of crimes, or 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 149 
 
 political offenses. For the time being they were 
 as absolute slaves as the, African negroes. 
 
 On these great estates reigned a splendid and 
 generous hospitality, alter the style of Old En- 
 gland. Exchanges of visits were constantly taking 
 place between tha wealthy planters. On every 
 plantation the door of "the great house" stood 
 wide open to all persons of "good conditions" who 
 chose to enter. Feasting and the pleasures of 
 entertaining formed a large part of the life of the 
 old Virginian. It was in this school that the sons 
 of the Cavalier Colony earned their reputation for 
 the most prafuseand elegant hospitality known on 
 this continent, which distinction was still sustained 
 by their descendants, as long as slavery lasted, 
 with scarcely diminished honor. 
 
 But it must be kept in mind that with the in- 
 ception of the revolutionary movement, the new 
 and powerful Covenanter element, shown in the 
 preceding chapter, was introduced into the councils 
 of the Commonwealth of Virginia. To this a large 
 part of the glory of the state must be attributed. 
 How to apportion this glory between the two peo- 
 ples with any thing approximating exactness and 
 justice, it is impossible to determine. It is suffi- 
 cient to say that many distinguished, and some 
 great names, belong to each class. 
 
150 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Since the Revolution the old Cavalier stock of 
 Virsi-inia has borne a most honorable and eon- 
 spicuous part in the history of this country. It 
 were needless to attempt to enumerate their many 
 noble qualities, or to set forth their achievements, 
 in statesmanship and in arms, since they are known 
 of all men. Virginia is no longer a Cavalier 
 State, but a happy blending of the blood of both 
 the Cavalier and the Covenanter — of the best 
 qualities of both united in one. 
 
 But comparing the old races as they were prior 
 to the Revolution, and counting also their faults 
 and defects, I do not hesitate to say that, in the 
 essentials that constitute a mighty people, of the 
 two the Covenanters were decidedly the superior. 
 This will be more manifest as I point out briefly 
 some of the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 Covenanters. 
 
 In coura'ge, persistency, fortitude, firmness, nat- 
 ural capacity, purity of life, and in high moral and 
 religious principle, no people ever surpassed them. 
 Their industry and thrift were proverbial. In love 
 of liberty, and in quickness to discern and resist 
 every approach of oppression and wrong, an ex- 
 perience of centuries, had made them the foremost 
 people in the world. Their long and bitter trials 
 in struggling for freedom of conscience had given 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 151 
 
 them the true idea of religious toleration, as it 
 exists today in every State in the Union, and as 
 it is fixed in the constitution of every common- 
 wealth. They required for themselves the fullest 
 liberty in religious matters, and both in Ireland 
 aud in the Colonies generously conceded the same 
 to all other SBcts. They did not demand that their 
 church should be made the church, but that it 
 should be equal with all ftthers. They did not 
 seek to impose restrictions on other religions, nor 
 to gain peculiar privileges for their own. Thoug'h 
 their fathers, at an early day, in Scotland, had per- 
 secuted men for opinion's sake,* a century and a 
 half of suffering, of trial, of development, had 
 lifted them up to an elevation of larger vision aud" 
 of more charitable thought. And except for the 
 voice, the influence and the votes of the Cove- 
 nanters in Virginia, it may be safely affirmed that 
 Mr. Jefferson and his associates could not have re- 
 moved the deeply-rooted and strongly-entrenched 
 Cavalier restrictions on a free religion in that State. 
 On these points the remarks of Mr. Patrick 
 Calhoun, in his address before the Scotch-Irish 
 Congress, in Atlanta, in 1892, are so pertinent 
 that I venture to quote a couple of paragraphs : 
 
 * Lecky and other writers say that at an early day they were 
 narrow and bitter. 
 
152 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 "In what striking contrast was the advent of 
 the hardy pioneers who had left home and fireside, 
 for conscience sake, to seek liberty and freedom in 
 the wilderness of America. They wrote their 
 history with the rifle and the ax, the sword and 
 the plow. There was no herald of their coming, 
 save the splash of the pole as they pushed the 
 rnde ferrj'-boat across the upper waters of the 
 Savannah, or the crack of the whip as they urged 
 their tired bensts, drawing primitive wagons over 
 rough mountain roads. The record of their com- 
 ing was lost as the ripples of the river sunk back 
 into its current, or the echoes of the mountain 
 died away in its silence. We know neither the 
 day, nor the month, nor the year when thousands 
 came. But the fact that they had come was at- 
 tested by the falling of the trees. Cabins rose and 
 fruitful farms appeared where forests grew and 
 Indians roamed. And not far off" the church, the 
 house at once of worship and education." . . . 
 
 "From the time when the Scots left the north 
 of Ireland to the period when the Ulster planta- 
 tion was settled, in 1609, Scotland was one con- 
 stant theater of war. The sterility of the coun- 
 try, the clannish life its people led, the constant 
 dangers to which they were exposed, the frugal 
 manner in which their surroundings compelled 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 153 
 
 them to live — all contributed to produce a brave 
 and hardy race. Alone frequently in the moun- 
 tains, forced to rely purely upon their own pow- 
 ers, there was developed in a marked degree not 
 only physical courage, but that high moral cour- 
 age and reliance which have so distinguished the 
 race, and enabled it under all circumstances to 
 stand so unswervingly for what it believed to be 
 right, and made it ready to sacrifice home, family, 
 hope of emolument, life itself, for the dictates of 
 conscience. Love of individual liberty, devotion 
 to home and family ties, the habit of reflection, 
 promptness and decision in action, deep religious 
 convictions, belief in self-government, and a readi- 
 ness to resist the central power in the interest of 
 the clan, were characteristics naturally growing 
 out of the environment of the Scots. They were 
 frequently overrun by stronger and more numer- 
 ous forces, but they were never conquered. The 
 sturdiness, endurance and persistency of the race 
 enabled them to surmount every form of conquest 
 and oppression. The moment the pressure of su- 
 perior power was removed, the rebound occurred, 
 and Scotland was again in arras fighting for hei* 
 rights. The indomitable courage of the Scot was 
 invincible. Their natural characteristics could not 
 13 
 
154 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 be destroyed, even by merger with other races. 
 The Dane, the Saxon and the Norman settled in 
 Scotland, and their blood is liberally intermingled 
 in the veins of the Scotch, but the virility of the 
 Scotch blood has preserved its distinctive national 
 traits. Not even centuries of union with England 
 could destroy these. The Scots were stronger for 
 their life in Scotland, better for the blood of the 
 Pict, the Dane, the Saxon and the Norman. 
 When they returned to the north of Ireland, the}' 
 found nothing there to weaken or enervate, but 
 much to temper and to strengthen. Transplanted 
 to the wilderness of America, their environment 
 was as well calculated to develope their courage, 
 independence and sturdiness of character as the 
 lives their ancestors had led in Scotland. They 
 were the pioneers of civilization and stood for 
 more than half a century as the guards and pro- 
 tection of the Colonists nearer the coast. To the 
 hardship of the frontier and the wilderness was 
 added the daily fear of Indian attacks. And then 
 the war school of the Revolution ! Is it a wonder 
 that with the numbers the Scotch and Irish had 
 contributed to the population of the Colonies—is 
 it a wonder that with the character stamped by 
 the action of centuries upon their hves, they 
 should have played an important part in that great 
 
THE COVENANTER AKD THE CAVALIER. 155 
 
 historical drama? Is it a wonder that Froude 
 gives to them the credit of having won independ- 
 ence for America, and goes so far as to suggest 
 that even Bunker Hill was borrowed from Ireland ? 
 It was these people and their descendants who, 
 pouring into Middle and Upper Georgia, gave di- 
 rection to its civilization."* 
 
 In education-, tlie Covenanters were superior to 
 any other people or sect which came to the Colo- 
 nies. If they were equaled by any, it was only by 
 the higher class of the tirst Puritan settlers. As 
 a whole they were far better educated than the 
 Puritans. "After the death of the first settlers," 
 Campbell says, "there was a marked decline 
 (among the Puritans), not only in education, but 
 in all manifestations of a liberal spirit in every 
 direction.'" t Prof. Jameson said: "Puritanism 
 (had) gone to seed, grown narrow and harsh and 
 petty." X 
 
 At the time the Covenanters left Scotland for 
 Ireland, the state of education was higher and 
 more universal in that country than in England. 
 The Covenanters did not deteriorate in Ireland in 
 
 ■'■' Proceedings Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. VI, 136. 
 t Campbell, Vol. II, 494. 
 
 t The History of Historical Writing in America, by J. 
 Franklin Jameson, Ph.D., 21, quoted by Campbell. 
 
156 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 this respect, but remained a more thoroughly edu- 
 cated people than the English who were planted 
 there at the same time. When they reached the 
 Colonies, as I have already shown, their first care 
 and thought, next after their religiou, were to 
 provide for the education of the rising generation. 
 Douglas Campbell says of the Coveuanters : 
 "Nor were they children of ignorance. Although 
 their schools had been closed by law, they had 
 found means of private instruction in. the com- 
 mon branches, while those desiring a higher edu- 
 cation — and they were very numerous — had made 
 their way to the Presbyterian Universities of 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow. When they, came to 
 America these Scotch-Irishmen were not only 
 among the most industrious and virtuous, but 
 they were, as a whole, like the early settlers of 
 New England, probablj^ the best educated of the 
 English speaking race."* 
 
 Again, the same author says: "In the fields of 
 education the debt of America to these immi- 
 grants " (Covenanters) " can hardly be exaggerated. 
 Not only did they give life and character to 
 Princeton College, and found the institution now 
 known as the College of Washington and Lee, 
 
 * Campbell, Vol. II, 479, 480. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 157 
 
 in Virginia, but they gave lier free school system 
 to New Jersey and Kentucky, and for nearly a 
 century before the Revolution they conducted 
 most of the classical schools south of the province 
 of New York. It was in these schools that the 
 fathers of the Revolution in the South, almost 
 without exception, received their education.* 
 
 Along this same line, a recent writer sa3'8 of the 
 Covenanters of North Carolina : 
 
 " Fl-om the arrival of the immigrants" (the 
 Scotch-Irish, in 1706) " dates the establishment 
 of schools throughout the State. It is to the 
 Presbyterian Church that North Carolina owes 
 the establishment of her first classical schools, and 
 during the second half of the eighteenth century 
 the history of education in this State is insepara- 
 bly connected with that of this denomination." 
 . . . "Almost invariably," says Foote (History of 
 North Carolina) " as soon as a neighborhood was 
 settled preparations were made for the preaching 
 of the gospel by a regular stated pastor, and 
 wherever a pastor was located, in that congrega- 
 tion, there was a classical school, as in Sugar 
 Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, 
 Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington, and the churches 
 
 * Campbell, Vol. II, 486, 
 
158 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 occupied by Patillo in Orange and Granville Coun- 
 ties.* 
 
 Again, the same author says : " To the Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians occupying Central and Pied- 
 mont Carolina is due the lasting honor of having 
 established the first academies in the province, and 
 it is said that it was through their influence that 
 the clause providing for a university " (and for 
 common schools) " was inserted in the initial 
 constitution of the State." f 
 
 Again, he says: "The pioneer promoters of 
 advanced educational work in North Carolina 
 were Presbyterians." % 
 
 The author enumerates by name fifteen classical 
 and scientific schools, academies and colleges 
 started by Covenanter ministers in that State in 
 the eighteenth century, besides, doubtless, many 
 more referred to in general terms. In fact, nearly 
 the entire educational system in that State was in 
 the hands of the Covenanters. 
 
 In South Carolina they were also active in the 
 same cause. The celebrated school of Rev. Moses 
 Waddell, at Willington, where so m an j' great and 
 distinguished men were educated, was the most 
 
 * History of Education in Noith Carolina, by Cliarles Lee 
 Smith. Bureau of Education, Washington, 23. 
 t Id. 52. i Id. 109. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 159 
 
 'noted of all the Carolina schools. Bat there were 
 others also. In Georgia they did a great work in 
 the same cause, but not an exclusive one. In 
 Virginia they spread education wherever they 
 went. In Kentucky also at an early day they 
 established schools and colleges. In Tennessee 
 the first four colleges in the State were founded in 
 the eighteenth century by Covenanters, or pre- 
 sided over by Covenanters. 
 
 In the historical society of ISTew Hampshire there 
 is an ancient parchment, dated 26th of March, 
 "AnnoDom.," 1718, to which three hundred and 
 nineteen names are appended. It is the petition of 
 certain Covenanter, or Scotch-Irish, heads of fam- 
 iUes, " from Ulster, of the IS'orth of Ireland," ad- 
 dressed to Governor Shute, of Massachusetts, in- 
 forming him of their desire " to transport ourselves " 
 (themselves) "to his very excellent and renowned 
 plantation," upon obtaining suitable encourage- 
 ment. Of the three hundred and nineteen signers 
 of this paper, all but thirteen, or ninety-six per 
 cent, signed their own names in " fair and vigorous 
 characters." * 
 
 The learned professor to whom I have referred, 
 says in reference to this document : " It may well 
 
 *■ Prof. A. L. Perry's address before the Scotch-Irish Con- 
 gress of 1890, Vol. II, of Proceedings, 107. 
 
160 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 be questioned whether in any other part of the' 
 United Kingdom, at that time, one hundred and 
 seventy-two years ago, in England or Wales, or 
 Scotland, or Ireland, so large a proportion of pro- 
 miscuous householders in the common walks of 
 life, could have written their own names."* 
 
 On August 4, 1718, five ships came to anchor in 
 Boston, having on board one hundred and twenty 
 families of these adventurous Covenanters, num- 
 bering seven hundred and fifty persons, who had 
 some months before sent that letter or parchment 
 to Governor Shute, asking for permission to trans- 
 port themselves to his " renowned plantation." A 
 part of these daring people, probably fifty large 
 families, settled in Worcester, Massachusetts. f 
 
 Some of this noble band of heroes, namely, six- 
 teen families, settled at Londonderry, 'Sew Hamp- 
 shire, and others in the Kennebec country, in 
 Maine. The descendants of these pioneers in the 
 course of a few years spread all over New England, 
 and especially over Sew Hampshire and Maine. 
 Indeed, these two states became largely Cove- 
 nanter in population, especially the former. 
 
 As previously pointed out, the first public meefc^ 
 
 *■ Prof. A. L. Perry's address before the Scotch-Irist Con- 
 gress of 1890, Vol. II, of Proceedings, 107. 
 t Id., 110, 111. 
 
THE COVENAN'CBR AND THE CAVALIER. 161 
 
 ingi held in the Colonies, which set forth the 
 precise essential principles of the Declaration of 
 Independence, was held in the County of Wor- 
 cester, Massachusetts, in 1773, where the fifty 
 Covenanter families had settled more than a half- 
 - century before.* From this little hive came Mat- 
 thew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, and the renowned botanist, Professor 
 Asa Gray.f 
 
 It is singular how events, remote from each 
 other, in point of space and time, sometimes seem 
 to duplicate each other. Thus, in 1776, the mem- 
 bers of the Watauga Association, in Eastern Ten- 
 nessee, most of whom were of the Covenanter 
 stock, sent a memorial to trhe legislature of North 
 Carolina, signed by one hundred and four persons, 
 all of whom except two subscribed it with their 
 own names. J 
 
 Again, Mr. Roosevelt, in speaking of the early 
 inhabitants of the large region in the South, first 
 occupied mainly, and indeed, almost entirely, by 
 men of Covenanter blood, says : 
 
 "In examining numerous original drafts of peti- 
 tions and the like, signed by hundreds of the original 
 
 » Bryant's Popular History of the U. S., Vol. Ill, 472. 
 t Proceedings of Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. II, 123. 
 t Eamsey's Annals of Tennessee, 137, 138. 
 
162 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 settlers of Tennessee and Kentucky, I have been 
 struck by the small proportion — not much over 
 three or four per cent, at the outside — of men who 
 made their mark, instead of signing." * 
 
 Fortunately we are not left in doubt either as to 
 who these early settlers were, nor as to their moral 
 standing and intellectual attainments. Mr. Roose- 
 velt has resurrected a manuscript left by the Hon- 
 orable David Campbell, a son of one of the Holston 
 pioneer Covenanters, giving an account of the 
 early settlers on the Holston in South-west Vir- 
 ginia. The settlers on the lower Holston, in Ten- 
 nessee, were but an overflow of the people from 
 the upper Holston. Campbell says : 
 
 " The first settlers on the Holston river were a 
 remarkable race of men, for their intelligence, en- 
 terprise and hardy adventure, . . . were 
 mostly descendants of Irish stock, and generally 
 where they had any religious opinions were Pres- 
 byterians. A very large proportion were re- 
 ligious and many of them were members of the 
 church." f 
 
 Nor did the Covenanters who sought homes in 
 the Colonies belong to the lower or pauper class. 
 Pei-haps no people who ever emigrated to the 
 
 * " Winning of the West," Vol. I," 180. 
 t Id. 167. 
 
THE COVENANTEE AND THE CAVALIER. 163 
 
 Colonies, or to the States, as a whole, equaled 
 them, and certainly none ever surpassed them, in 
 material condition and circumstances. The colo- 
 nists from Scotland who settled Ulster, under the 
 charter of James I, of May 16, 1605, were picked 
 men. James had agents for this very purpose. 
 None but persons above exception were received. 
 Ill one of the letters of Arthur Chichester, deputy 
 of James for Ireland, he says: "The Scottish 
 men came in better port {i. e., manifest character), 
 they are better accompanied and attended, than 
 even the English settlers." * For many years, 
 perhaps nearly a hundred, before the great emi- 
 gration to America commenced, they lived in com- 
 parative peace in Ireland, and were very prosper- 
 ous. Many of those who settled in the Colonies 
 were wealthy. Campbell says : "In the tirst 
 place, it should be noticed that they' were not so- 
 cially poor peasants, such as Ireland has contrib- 
 uted to America in later days. Among them were 
 wealthy yeomen, and in their ranks were the most 
 intelligent of Irish manufacturers." f 
 
 When the Covenanters landed in the Colonies 
 they were comparatively independent in the mat- 
 
 * Proceedings of Scotch-Irish Congress, Address of Kev. Dr. 
 Mcintosh, Vol. II, 93, 94; Froude, 393. 
 t Campbell, Vol. II, 479, 480. 
 
164 COVENANTER,. CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 ter of property. Many facts might be given to 
 sustain this statement.* "Within my own observa- 
 tion, I know that the early settlers of Tennessee, 
 who were largely of this stock, got hold of and 
 title to nearly all the best lands of the country. 
 After the early settlers had passed away, the rich- 
 est families and the richest citizens were of this 
 race. And to-day, nearly all the old families who 
 have been distinguished either for talents or 
 wealth are descended from the old Covenanter 
 stock. And what is true of Tennessee is believed 
 to be true of nearly all the Southern States. 
 
 Long after the Revolution the Covenanters from 
 Ireland still continued to come into Eastern Ten- 
 nessee. They were all Protestants (generally 
 Presbyterians), well educated, and many of them 
 comfortabTe in point of property. I never knew 
 one who was not reasonably well educated. , In 
 the course of time they almost universally became 
 possessed of considerable property — enough to 
 make them independent. 
 
 It may be asked, if the early Covenanter set- 
 
 * Haywood says that in 1768, 1769, 1770, all mercantile trade 
 in North Carolina was in the hands of Scotch merchants, who 
 lived in great style. The members ot the Council were 
 chiefly Scotch, and the members of the Assembly also. New 
 edition, 50, 51. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 165 
 
 tiers were generally so well educated, why so 
 many of their descendants in the Southern States 
 are to-day illiterate. Several answers can be given 
 to this question. 
 
 1. Population in the Southern Colonies, before the 
 Revolution, and in the States for a long time aft- 
 erward, was so greatly scattered and diftused over 
 that great territory, that a general system of com- 
 mon schools was well nigh impracticable. There 
 was and there could be no concentration of effort 
 and of means for this purpose. Unfortunately, as 
 I suggest elsewhere, the township principle of 
 local self-government, one of the main sources 
 of the growth and glory of New England, was 
 never introduced into the South. The result was 
 that in the course of time, common education in 
 remote districts was from necessity neglected, and 
 the grandchildren of these educated Covenanters 
 often grew up in comparative ignorance. 
 
 2. The Southern States, with inconsiderable ex- 
 ceptions in a few of them — those admitted into 
 the Union since the adoption of the Federal Con- 
 stitution — have derived no benefit from the provi- 
 sion made by Congress for the support of common 
 schools, which set aside for this purpose every 
 sixteenth section of the public lands, and by a 
 later act gave an additional section. The reason 
 
166 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 is obvious: When that law went into effect, there 
 were no public lands in the older Southern States, 
 and therefore the law had no force in them. These 
 States had patriotically, but most unwisely and in- 
 considerately, for' themselves, surrendered to the 
 ISTation, for the common good, all the territory be- 
 longing to them respectively, without reserving 
 any part of it for the education of their own chil- 
 dren. Virginia gave up a princely domain in the 
 ]Srorth-west, making no provision for the education 
 of her own people. The result has been, the chil- 
 dren of that State, from generation to genoratiou, 
 have grown up in ignorance, while in the IS'orth- 
 western States a splendid system of education has 
 been built up, founded on the land grant of Con- 
 gress, origiually the bounty of Virginia. 
 
 3. Slavery, if not positively unfriendly, never 
 gave the cause of general education a cordial sup- 
 port. Perhaps this was because it was thought 
 that a large educated, reading, thinking popula- 
 tion of non-slaveholders was neither safe nor de- 
 sirable in the midst of a slave population. Per- 
 haps, also, the large slavekalders who had to pay 
 for the education of their own children any way, 
 generally having to send them away from home 
 for that purpose, were unwilling to be taxed to 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 167 
 
 pay for the education of the children of the others 
 who had nothing. 
 
 "While the influence of the Cavalier has always 
 been, and justly, too, very considerable in the 
 South, owing to the prestige of a great name and 
 splendid virtues, it is indisputable and undeniably 
 evident that a ranch larger race, with equal natu- 
 ral capacity, with higher culture as a rule, and 
 with greater enterprise and energy, scattered 
 through all the Southern States, and with marked 
 influence in most of them, could not have been 
 overshadowed by the smaller one, confined mainly 
 to one State. The mere statement of the proposi- 
 tion, without elabora,tiou, is suflicient to demon- 
 strate its correctness. The larger and the greater 
 race has not been lost in the smaller one. Neither 
 Cavalier ideas, nor thoughts, as has been generally 
 assumed, have given form and shape and color to 
 the institutions, the policies and the public opinion 
 of the South. It has been the ideas and thoughts 
 and the genius of that greater and more numerous 
 people, the Covenanters, that have accomplished 
 this. So quiet and earnest have they been in ef- 
 fecting this noble work and mission, that the world 
 had almost forgotten until recently that there was 
 such a people. Even their descendants, in very 
 many cases educated persons, too, seem to have 
 
168 
 
 been ignorant of their own origin. The Covenant- 
 ers have a history, but no historian. To obtain 
 any definite knowledge of this remarkable people, 
 it has been necessary to pint together fragments 
 and scraps of history gathered from a multitude of 
 sources.* 
 
 The historians of the country have been almost 
 silent concerning tbera. Bancroft in his first edi- 
 tions gave only pai'tial information about them. 
 Haywood and Ramsey, the early historians" of 
 Tennessee — though the latter was honorably de- 
 scended from a distinguished Covenanter-ances- 
 try, and was proud of the fact, and though nearly 
 all of our population were of this blood, and the 
 
 ■* About 1878, I undertook the preparation of a lecture on 
 the Scotch-Irish in East Tennessee, and, to my surprise, I could 
 find in American histories onlj- slight references to this people. 
 There was no full, connected account of them to be found any- 
 where. While I was thus engaged, the little volume by the 
 Kov. J. T. Craighead, CD., entitled " Scotch and Irish Seeds in 
 American Soil," made its appearance. Ten years later, the 
 " Scotoh-IrisVi Society of America" was organized in Tennes- 
 see, and it has published eight volumes of addresses from 
 prominent men all over the country, containing valuable ma- 
 terial for the future historian. Recently, too, Douglas [Camp- 
 bell, in his valuable book, " The Puritan in Holland, England, 
 and America," has devoted one chapter to the Scotch-Irish in 
 America. It is to be hoped that he will take up this subject 
 in a separate work. 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 169 
 
 monuments of their deeds and of their courage 
 could be seen every-where — are as silent about 
 them as if no such people ever existed. 
 
 It is surprising, indeed amazing, how little credit 
 the Covenanters have received for their great 
 work in this country; how historians and public 
 speakers alike have overlooked and ignored them, 
 and how, until recently, they had passed out of 
 the public mind, and were known only by tradi- 
 tion as a people that once existed, but which had 
 been lost in the course of time. By many persons 
 they have been confounded with the native Irish- 
 men — a majority of wh&m were uneducated and 
 of a totally different religious faith — who have 
 poured in such uumbers upon our shores during 
 the last sixty or seventy years. 
 
 One reason, perhaps the main reason, why so 
 little is known of the Covenanters, why they have 
 received so little credit for their work, is that 
 they were scattered over the whole country from 
 Maine to Georgia. They settled no colony ex- 
 clusively, and founded no State, as the Puritans 
 and the Cavaliers did. They were in the absolute, 
 the undisputed control of none. In each of the 
 Colonies, if they were not in a minority, they 
 could only work in co-operation with or in subor- 
 14 
 
170 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 dination to the older people whom they found ou 
 their arrival. Thus environed, there was no op- 
 portunity for the manifestation of that individual- 
 ity, for those high evidences of greatness which 
 have distinguished this people in every part of the 
 world. The nearest exception, perhaps, to the 
 truth of the above statement is found in the later 
 history of the Colonies of ISTew Jersey and Penn- 
 sylvania, and in the States of Tennessee and Ken- 
 tucky. And yet, neither of these was distinctively 
 of Covenanter, as Massachusetts and Connecticut 
 were of Puritan, and as Virginia was of Cavalier 
 origin. 
 
 At the eighty- ninth annual dinner of the Pil- 
 grim Fathers in New York, December 22, 1894, 
 where as usual all the talk and all the eloquence 
 were expended in praise of the Puritans and the 
 Cavaliers, the gifted Plenry Watterson (when his 
 time to speak came), after speaking at some length 
 of these races, said: 
 
 "Each was good enough and bad enough, in its 
 way, while they lasted ; each in its turn filled the 
 English-speaking world with mourning; and each, 
 if either could have resisted the infection of the 
 soil and climate they found here, would be to-day 
 striving at the sword's point to square life by the 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 171 
 
 iron rule of theocracy, or to round it by the dizzy 
 whirl of a petticoat." . . . 
 
 " If you wish to get at the bottom facts, I do n't 
 mind telling you — in confidence — that it was we 
 Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you — some 
 of us in peace, others of us in war — supplying the 
 missing link of adaptability, the needed ingredient 
 of common sense, the conservative principle of 
 creed and action, to which this generation of 
 Americans owes its intellectual and moral eman- 
 cipation from frivolity and pharisaism, its rescue 
 from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand, and 
 its crystallization into a national character and 
 polity, ruling by force of brains and not by force 
 of arms." 
 
 While Puritan Massachusetts was still over- 
 shadowed by the gloom of a narrow and cruel 
 fanaticism, and Cavalier Virginia was still held in 
 the iron grasp of an eifete caste and lingering 
 bigotry, the Covenanters were every-where from 
 their pulpits and in their schools, quietly but ef- 
 fectively sowing the seed of toleration and of 
 political aud religious emancipation, and blazing 
 out the pathway of the Revolution. They sounded 
 the first notes of the war, and helped to fight its 
 battles. When peace again came, they fixed the 
 unfading impress of their advanced ideas and 
 
172 
 
 strong characters ou the institutions and on the 
 life and th^ thought of the larger part of the 
 country. 
 
 It was the people of Covenanter blood who 
 made the Southern States. Whatever these States 
 and the people of these States may be, whatever 
 of good or evil there may be, in religion, in edu- 
 cation, in science, in art, in invention, in literature, 
 in thought, in orator^', in statesmanship, or political 
 economy, whatever heroism and glory in war there 
 may be, tbese are all mainly due to the Cove- 
 nanters. I will not enter into a criticism of the 
 political methods and political theories of these 
 peoples, but it must be strikingly manifest to all 
 candid minds that they have gloriously maintained 
 their theories and opinions, both in the forum of 
 debate and on the field of blood, with a skill, 
 a daring, an ability and prowess never excelled. 
 I would not withhold from the Cavalier just 
 praise for the share he has had in molding the 
 political and social institutions of the South, but 
 must deny that he is entitled to the chief credit, 
 or even to an equal credit with the Covenanter in 
 what has been done. 
 
 Though history has not recorded the work of 
 tills people, the evidences of their deeds still re- 
 main. They have builded monuments, but put -no 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 173 
 
 inscription thereon to tell who the builders were. 
 They left monuments in the assertion and estab- 
 lishment of religious liberty; in first declaring 
 for the Independence of the Colonies; for their 
 share in the battles and the victories of the Revo- 
 lution; in the large share they had in the framing 
 of the Constitution of the United States, and in 
 giving form to the national government; in or- 
 ganizing states and stamping the policies thereof 
 with their own peculiar impress; in founding and 
 building institutions of learning, and in maintain- 
 ing every-where their lofty and pure principles of 
 religion, morality, justice and honor, which con- 
 stitute the true glory of any people. 
 
 If great names are the evidences of a great 
 race, surely no people of modern times has sur- 
 passed the Covenanters, though too modest to 
 write their own history. I name only a few: 
 Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Thomas 
 Jefferson, James Witherspoon, the Livingstons, 
 the Clintons, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, 
 James K. Polk, John Bell, Hugh Lawson White, 
 Sam Houston, the Rutledges, the Pickneys, 
 John C. Calhoun, W. C. Preston, the Breckin- 
 rldges, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Stephen 
 A. Douglas, Andrew Johnson, U. S.- Grant, 
 Chester A. Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, Gen- 
 
174 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 erals Knox, Montgomery, Stark, Sullivan, Morgan, 
 -Howard, Sumter, Moultrie, Reed, Stuart, Martin, 
 "Wayne, Armstrong, Mercer, Marion, Rutherford, 
 George Graham, Joseph Graham, Irwine, David- 
 son, Pici^ens, St. Clair, Lewis, Porter, Nash and 
 George Rogers Clarke. Take six of these names, 
 Hamilton, J efterson, Henry, Calhoun, Jackson and 
 Grant, and it would be impossible to find in our 
 own annals, or in the annals of any other nation, 
 in any one century of time, six grander names. 
 
 Wendell Phillips said: "Races are tried in two 
 ways, first, by the groat men they produce; 
 secondly, by the average merit of the mass of the 
 race." 
 
 Surely the race must be a remarkable one tha-t 
 could produce so many eminent men. 
 
 I have thus far been speaking chiefly of the 
 Covenanters in the South. I have shown that it 
 has been their ideas and their acts priricipally; and 
 not those of the Cavaliers, which have dominated 
 and controlled that region, and molded and given 
 form to its institutions. Their influence, however, 
 has not been limited to the South. Their sons 
 and daughters have gone out to the North-west 
 and have spread all over that vast region, even to 
 the far-off" shores of the Pacific. Whenever a new 
 State or territory was opened to settlement among 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 175 
 
 the first to enter it have been the descendants of 
 the Covenanters, vieing with the Puritans in the 
 eager race of lite and in planting civilization in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 The Southern Covenanters formed only a part, 
 though the larger part, of that people which came 
 to the Colonies. Pennsylvania, Delaware, ISTew 
 Jersey, New York and !N^ew England, as we have 
 seen, all had a share of the influx of the Cove- 
 nanters in the eighteenth century. They spread 
 westward with the great stream of settlers who 
 filled that vast region. They, too, have had a part 
 in the glory of the marvelous development and 
 growth of the West. The Covenanter has not 
 heen lost there in the Puritan, nor absorbed by 
 him. They have retained every-where their 
 mai'ked individuality. In every State and ter- 
 ritory, they can be found to-day, the equals of the 
 Puritan in all the essentials of manhood, and fully 
 as advanced in culture and civilization, and in all 
 the arts of peace and refinement. 
 
 In the entire framework of Southern society 
 and Southern ideas, the characteristics of the 
 Covenanters appear. Time and association and 
 afiiliation with other races, especially with Cava- 
 liers and Huguenots, have modified to some extent 
 his original traits. But there runs through South- 
 
176 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 erii life a manifest undertone of Covenanter 
 thought. The steadfastness of purpose, partic- 
 ularly in reference, to all questions of religious 
 faith and practice, is a remarkable illustration of 
 the well-grounded character of this stock. This 
 fact stands out as one of the marked distinguish- 
 ing peculiarities of the Southern people. They 
 believe and worship as their forefathers did. 
 They preach the same faith that was preached one 
 hundred years ago, only with less of the terrors of 
 the law. I refer to those who are of the Calvinistic 
 faith. Many have gone into other churches, and 
 in the course of more than a century, the Cove- 
 nanter blood- has been largely intermingled with 
 that of other sects. But the faith and the practice 
 of those who still adhere to the grand old church 
 remain substantially as in colonial days. The 
 strictness of former ideas alone has ^yielded to 
 greater liberality. On all the vital moral questions 
 of the time, the lofty standard of the old Cove- 
 nanters, slightly relaxed, is maintained to-day. 
 . There is a high conservatism in religious thought 
 in the South which is remarkable. It is found 
 only in that quarter. ISTo new theories, no new 
 creeds, no new religions make any headway. 
 They soon perish and die out. Infidelity, agnosti- 
 cism, spiritualism, universalism, and the infinite 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 177 
 
 number of new theories prevalent in New England, 
 find no home in the South. The extreme austerity 
 of the early Covenanter may possibly still cast 
 its gloom over their descendants. Be that as it 
 may, they, are unquestionably a thoughtful, seri- 
 ous, conscientious people. There is, as a general 
 rule, but little of the light-hearted merriness, the 
 sparkling gayety of the frolicksome Cavalier of 
 Old Virginia, or of Old England about them. The 
 men are earnest, ambitious of fame and power, 
 fond of home, knightly toward women, and jealous 
 of their honor. 
 
 The women are modest, graceful and lovely. 
 They shrink from notoriety, and have no desire 
 for the applause of the rostrum, or the lecture plat- 
 form, or to mingle in the exciting scenes of a ward 
 election, or to propagate new religions. They are 
 content to be as • their mothers were: virtuous, 
 gentle, the guides of the family, the counselors of 
 their husbands, the ornaments of society; adorning 
 the home, and reigning supreme in it with queenly 
 grace, filling tlie atmosphere around them with the 
 sweet fragrance of love. 
 
 NoAvhere in the world is public sentiment more 
 exacting as to ethical and religious observances 
 and practices. It demands propriety of conduct, 
 15 
 
178 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 honorable deportment, and purity of life. Things 
 sacred — home, religion, the Sabbath, and the 
 church — must be treated with the most reverent 
 respect. Herein appears the spirit of the pious 
 old Covenanters. Some things are deemed too 
 high even for the State to touch. They are placed 
 beyond its reach, and are excepted out of the 
 powers of government. ,The perfect freedom of 
 religion from the first was guaranteed against all 
 human power. This was largelj' the work of the 
 Covenanter. While the legislature of Virginia, as 
 already shown, was struggling with the old bigotry 
 of the State, abolishing tithes and an established 
 church, imposed upon the people by the early 
 Cavaliers, the Covenanters both in that State and 
 in New York, were demanding, and successfully, 
 too, an absolute divorce of Church and State. 
 This was the yoke which had -galled them. This 
 it was which caused them to quit their peaceful 
 homes in Ireland, and to seek the wilderness, 
 where they might found a free church. Never 
 did men come with higher, purer, nobler purposes. 
 And never did men consecrate themselves to their 
 great work with more heroic or with sublimer 
 courage. It sometimes seems to be forgotten that 
 the Covenanters, quite as much as the Puritans 
 
THE COVENANTER AND THE CAVALIER. 179 
 
 and the Pilgrims, fled to this land to escape perse- 
 cution. And it is true of them, as it is not of the 
 Puritans, however it may be of the Pilgrims, that 
 
 "They left unstained what there they found, 
 Freedom to worship God." 
 
180 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 The Puritans — Grand history since 1761 — Important influence 
 in England — Revolution started by Covenanters in Soot- 
 land — Puritans leave England — Covenanters a better race 
 than the Puritans — Comparison of two races — The Church 
 in Massachusetts — A cruel theocracy — Enumeration of 
 cruelties, with authorities cited — Annals stained with nar- 
 rowness and crimes — Whipping, banishment, and hang- 
 ing — Children condemned to banishment — Intolerance — 
 Reason given for cruelties and intolerance — Reasons ex- 
 amined — Not the best educated people in the Colonies — 
 Massachusetts as the leader of liberal ideas— Caste — Dif- 
 ference between Puritans and Covenanters as to liberal 
 ideas — Massachusetts as to the equality of men before the 
 law. 
 
 The length of this discussion forbids that I 
 should do more than glance at the Puritan, the 
 other principal race justly credited with having 
 contributed largely toward founding our institu- 
 tions. E^o one will deny their claim to a large 
 share in the glory of having made this great coun- 
 try what it is. The only question is whether they 
 do not demand, and have not received, too much 
 credit. In considering this race we meet a history, 
 since 1761, replete with noble deeds and abounding 
 m distinguished names. It is luminous and re- 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 181 
 
 splendent in statesmanship, in oratory, in letters, 
 ill science, and in all the industrial arts. Its mate- 
 rial, like its intellectual development, has indeed 
 been marvelous. Unlike the Covenanters, while 
 it has accomplished splendid tilings, it has had its 
 historians to proclaim its deeds. Pens and tongues, 
 mapy'in number and of unquestioned ability, have 
 made known to the world all that the Puritans 
 have done. The land rings with their praise. 
 There is not a corner of the world in which it has 
 not been sounded. And Yet not a single laurel 
 that hangs on the monuments of their greatness be 
 taken away, for their achievements are a part of 
 the common glory of our country. 
 
 I freely and gladly acknowledge that the Pnri- 
 itans had a large agency in establishing political 
 and religious freedom in England. Unquestion- 
 ably, they helped to set in motion currents of 
 thought, which, though small at first, finally be- 
 came so broad, so deep and so resistless that they 
 swept away the monarchy, and up-rooted many 
 hoary wrongs and iniquitous practices. But the 
 Puritans were not alone in the accomplishment of 
 that, the most important of politico-religious revo- 
 lutions, and the forerunner of all subsequent ones. 
 They were powerfully aided by the Separatists, 
 or the Independents, and by the dissenters and 
 
182 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 non-conformists of all kinds, as well as by many 
 lovers of liberty who were attached to no particular 
 ecclesiastical organization. Unquestionably the 
 action of the Scotch. Covenanters, or Presbyterians, 
 previous to this time, in resisting successfully both 
 the King and the Church of England, in their de- 
 termined efforts to fasten on the people of Scot- 
 land a liturgy and an ecclesiastical polity they 
 hated, had a great reactionary influence on the 
 still incipient movement in England. We have 
 already seen, according to Macaulay, that the suc- 
 cessful revolution which began in Scotland, in re- 
 sisting the enforcement of the liturgy, spread to 
 England, and that to it the latter country owed 
 her freedom. 
 
 Campbell says : " James drove out of Scotland 
 many of the leading ministers; the}' took refuge 
 in England, to disseminate there the doctrines of 
 the Presbyterian Church standing above the state, 
 and in time their teaching developed into action." 
 
 So it appears, that while the Puritans and the 
 Separatists (the Pilgrims), were struggling for 
 reforms in the established Church in England, — 
 the former remaining in the Church and seeking 
 to correct its abuses, and the latter going out of it 
 and insisting on its entire separation from the 
 State,^the Covenanters of Scotland had already 
 
THE COVENANTERS ASI) THE PUEITANS. 183 
 
 achieved these reforms by the revolution spoken 
 of above. They had previously virtually driven 
 the Church of England from their country. This 
 revolution in England, as we have seen, resulted 
 in the overthrow of the monarchy, and in the end 
 in the establishment of civil and religious liberty. 
 Before this was accomplished, however, many of 
 the Puritans, as well as Pilgrims, suffering under 
 persecutions and despairing of any relief, had 
 abandoned their country, and found an asylum in 
 the wilderness of Massachusetts. 
 
 It is not my purpose to run an extended parallel 
 between the Puritans and the Covenanters. Both 
 were great races, and both performed a leading 
 part in making the republic what it is. But one 
 race has been applauded and glorified in all the lit- 
 erature of the century, while the other has been 
 neglected and almost forgotten. Let justice be 
 done to the one as well as the other. It must be 
 kept in mind that the earlj' history of the Puritans 
 in this country, is far from being so bright as that 
 after 1761. 
 
 I venture to state, and I believe I will be un- 
 qualifiedly upheld in my opinion, in the face of all 
 that has been written and sung in praise of the 
 Puritans, that the Covenanters, taking their beliefs, 
 their practices, and their acts as a basis of estima- 
 
184 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 tlon, were all in all, a better and equally as great a 
 race of men as the Puritans. For want of space, 
 I can only briefly cite a few facts to sustain this 
 opinion: 
 
 No one will question the statement that in devo- 
 tion to the cause of civil liberty, both in the 
 Colonies, and in their respective native lands, the 
 Covenanters were always as true as the Puritans. 
 Both were faithful, with singular unanimity, to 
 the cause of Independence in the days of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 But in reference to religious liberty, the two 
 races were as unlike in the Colonies as light and 
 darkness. The history of one is shadowed by nar- 
 rowness and often by crimes ; the other reflects 
 only the soft mellow light of toleration. It is freely 
 admitted that the Covenanters, at one time in 
 Scotland, at an early day, were guilty of persecu- 
 tion. But they never were so in Ireland, where 
 they went prior to the settlement of the Puritans 
 in Salem. In the Colonies they nowhere advocated 
 or practiced intolerance. They had felt the iron 
 yoke of bigotry on their own necks, and in the 
 bitter school of experience and suffering they, had 
 learned the beauties of forbearance. They de- 
 nounced the union of Church and State. They 
 favored no religious tests of any kind, holding to 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 185 
 
 the sacred right of religious liberty. TSTo person 
 was persecuted on account of his religious opin- 
 ions. Quakers and Baptists were neither banished, 
 nor whipped, nor hanged for their heretical opin- 
 ions. No one was ever hanged by them for witch- 
 craft. The sacred precincts of the family were 
 never entered to prescribe the kind of garments 
 women should wear, and what they should not 
 wear.* 
 
 They did not attempt to exercise an immediate 
 supervision over the conduct of individuals in the 
 community in any of their private or public acts 
 and relations. They had no selectmen, or over- 
 seers, who were required to have a special over- 
 sight over the education, the behavioi', and the oc- 
 cupations of children within their jurisdiction, and 
 "to see that they were taught to read, to under- 
 stand the principles of religion, the nature of the 
 laws; also to spin, to knit and to weave; a fixed 
 quantity of ' lining, cotton, or wooliug' being re- 
 quired to be spun by each family ."f Thej' had no 
 sumptuary laws fixing the price of all articles sold 
 in the community; "of all labor, and of all serv- 
 ants' wages."- J Heavy fines and penalties were 
 never imposed by them on men for non-attendance 
 
 » Bryant's History, Vol. II, 62. t Id., 64. t Id., 62. 
 
186 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PDRIXAN. 
 
 at church, or for failing to observe fast days. All 
 of these were Puritan practices or requirements. 
 
 In short, the Covenanters, though austere and 
 rigid in all church observances, never deprived 
 the citizen of every vestige of volition, of every 
 exercise of freedom, of every attribute of manhood, 
 nor made him the blind slave of a most narrow, 
 bitter, and intolerant theocracy. 
 
 The church in Massachusetts was the State. The 
 magistrates were only its willing instruments to 
 execute its fanatical and intolerant will. In all 
 the Colony there was not, and there could not be, 
 a free conscience or a free man. Even the magis- 
 trates and the ministers of the gospel were enslaved 
 by their own dark devices. They M'ere made 
 gloomy by the pall of superstition and bigotry 
 which they threw over their own minds and con- 
 sciences, as well as over those of their deluded fol- 
 lowers. In all the Colonies, so far as personal and 
 religious liberty was concerned, no picture so -som- 
 ber and forbidding, so absolutely without one 
 gleam of light, can be found as that of Massachu- 
 setts and Connecticut in their earlier days. The 
 press was muzzled, and all free speech suppressed. 
 1^0 man dared to censure or condemn the church, 
 the ministers, the State, or the magistrates, or to 
 utter one word of independent thought contrary to 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 187 
 
 the policy of those in authority. ,And no man 
 could vote, or was even a citizen, unless he was a 
 member of the church. Was this condition any 
 thing short of the most abject slavery? Freemen 
 of Massachusetts ! They were slaves all — slaves of 
 a terrible and austere fanaticism, and of a cruel 
 theocracy. 
 
 Even the town meetings, the boast and the glory 
 of Massachusetts, were most undemocratic. The 
 people took part in them, it is true; but as Prof. 
 Alexander White pertinently asks : " Who were 
 the people ? " He answers : " The members of 
 the Congregational Church. Voting and office- 
 holding are (were) limited to church members. 
 The right of citizenship is (was) decided by the 
 church register. The form of the government is 
 (was) a theocracy. The real rulers are (were) the 
 church officials, more intolerant of personal liberty 
 than Archbishop Laud himself. . . . Hardly 
 one-fifth of the adult population belonged to the 
 Congregational Church, but this oligarchy of 
 ' saints' ruled the rest with a rod of iron."* 
 
 On all these points, it would be easy to multiply 
 authorities, but I shall quote only historians who 
 are in deepest sympathy with the Puritans. 
 
 « Proceedings of Scotch Irish Congress, 1892, Vol. IV, 121. 
 
188 
 
 Thus, Douglas Campbell, who is their constant 
 eulogist, says : 
 
 " 0^1 the other hand, Massachusetts showed her 
 English origiia by the exhibition of some less pleas- 
 ing chai-acteristics. She was the only one of the Col- 
 ouies, except Connecticut, in which witches were put 
 to death; she alone hanged the inoffensive Quakers, 
 and her records tell the worst tale — with the ex- 
 ception of those of Virginia — regarding the atroc- 
 ities committed on the Indians, who were robbed 
 of their land and constantly kidnaped and sold as 
 slaves to the Southern planters. So, too,^ she, 
 longer than almost any other Colony, clung to the 
 censorship of the press, and longer than almost 
 any other state to the union between the State and 
 the Church."* 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 "They" (the Independents under Cromwell) 
 alone stood up and demanded liberty for others, as 
 well as for themselves. They alone proclaimed the 
 principle of religious toleration, denounced the 
 witch-madness, and asked, with Milton, that the 
 press should be left untrarameled." 
 
 "But with these novel ideas the founders of 
 Massachusetts, who had left England at an earlier 
 date, were, in the main, unacquainted. At home 
 
 ■•■■■ Campbell, Vol. 11, 414. 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 189 
 
 they had belonged to the established church. 
 Their ministers were Episcopalians, who, until 
 Laud began his persecuting rule, had been satisfied 
 with Episcopacy. They believed firmly in a union 
 of Church and (State, and in the suppression of all 
 schisms, provided theirs ivas the church and the sup- 
 pression of schisms was intrusted to their hands." * . 
 
 I quote from a distinguished son of Massa- 
 chusetts, Charles Francis Adams : 
 
 " The offense, as well as the policy to be pursued 
 bv the government, was explicitly and unmistaka- 
 bly set forth by the chief executive and the pre- 
 siding ofl&cer at the trial of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, 
 when Governor Winthrop said to her: 
 'Your course is not to be suffered. . . . We 
 see not that any should have authority to set up 
 any other exercises beside what authority hath 
 already set up.' . . . But "Winthrop's words 
 speak for themselves; and in the subsequent his- 
 tory of Massachusetts, the policy set forth in them 
 was maintained and vigorously enforced by fre- 
 quent infliction of the penalties of banishment and 
 death. The public sentiment behind the policy, 
 and which insured its enforcement, expressed itself 
 in many forms." f 
 
 «■ Campbell, Vol. 11, 413, 
 
 t Massachusetts, its Historians and its History, 13, 14. 
 
190 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 In 1661, Samuel Willard said : " I perceive they 
 are mistaken in the designs of our first planters, 
 whose business was not toleration; but were pro- 
 fessed enemies of it, and could leave the world 
 professing they died no libertines." * 
 
 Again. . . . "It is putting the case none too 
 stronglyjto say that for nearly half a century, until 
 1680, religious conformity of a rigid character was 
 in Massachusetts enforced by all necessary ec- 
 clesiastical and civil compulsion. During that 
 period, the clergy was inquisitorial, the magistrates 
 severe." f 
 
 " If in the somewhat arid as well as meager 
 record of Massachusetts' seventeenth century utter- 
 ances, there are any which, subsequent to 1637, 
 favor religious toleration, or breathe the spirit of 
 toleration, I am not familiar with them, and would 
 much like to have my attention called to them." J 
 
 "When we come to examine the results of this 
 theocratic government in Massachusetts, we find 
 tliat its annals are stained with narrowness, bigotry, 
 superstition and crime. If there be in the history 
 of civilization pages of darker crimes and cruelties 
 against men, than those of this Colony, in the 
 
 *■ Massachusetts, its Historians and its History, 18. 
 * W., 17. t Id., 27. 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND TBE PURITANS. 191 
 
 seventeenth century, then we must search the 
 records of the Inquisitioh to find them. 
 
 Says Mr. Adams, reviewing this history, and evi- 
 dently with no impartial mind : "Wholesale pro- 
 scription, frequent banishment under penalty of 
 death in case of return, the infliction of punish- 
 ments both cruel and degrading, amounting to 
 torture, and that regardless of the sex of those 
 punished ; the systematic enforcement of rigid con- 
 formity through long periods of time — all these 
 things are a part of the record — and iu these bad 
 respects it is not at once apparent how the Massa- 
 chusetts record differs from those of Spain or 
 France or England." * 
 
 Again he says; "But there that record is, and 
 it will not out. Roger Williams, John Wheel- 
 wright, and Anne Hutchinson come back from 
 their banishment and stand there as witnesses ; the 
 Quakers and Baptists, with eyes that forever glare, 
 swing from the gallows or turn about at the cart's 
 tail. In Spain it was the dungeon, the rack, and 
 the fagot; in Massachusetts it was banishment, the 
 whip, and the gibbet." f 
 
 This is the testimony of a Puritan and a Massa- 
 chusetts man. I quote again his words: "Dur- 
 ing the forty years which immediately followed the 
 *Adams, 41, 42. t Id., 34. 
 
192 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 synod of 1637 dissenters and intruders were ac- 
 cordingly punished in the Colony, or expelled from 
 the Colony, under the penalty of death in case of 
 their return. ISTor was the threat of this penalty 
 an empty one."* 
 
 Here he quotes from Palfrey, a Massachusetts 
 historian, who says : " The provision which threat- 
 ened with death persons returning after being ban- 
 ished was no novelty in Massachusetts legislation. 
 It had been resorted to over and over again through 
 a course of years, and had never once failed of its 
 intended eti'ect." f That is, over and over again 
 persons who had been banished on account of their 
 religious opinions had been hanged on returning. 
 In 1659 William Robinson, Marmadulce Stevenson, 
 and Mary Dyer, all Quakers, were. hanged on Bos- 
 ton Common under this very law. And the mag- 
 istrates would not incur the expense of coffins for 
 their burial, and so their bodies were stripped and 
 thrown into a pit unburied.J 
 
 1^0 one can doubt the absence of the spirit of 
 liberty in the Puritan as ho reads one of the laws 
 passed about, this time (1658 or 1659) : " That all 
 children and servants and others that for conscience 
 sake can not come to their meetings to worship, and 
 
 » Adams, 32 ; Palfrey, Vol. II, 471 . t Adams, 32. 
 
 t Bryant's Popular History, U. S., Vol. IT, 193, 194. 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 193 
 
 have not estates in their hands to answer their 
 fines, must be sold for slaves to the Barbadoes, or 
 Virginia, or other remote parts." * 
 
 Under this law Daniel and Provided Southwick, 
 son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick, who 
 had been banished under penalty of death — two 
 poor children with no jiroperty — were condemned 
 to be sold into slavery, and would have been sold, 
 but no shipmaster in Boston would transport 
 them, f 
 
 Kead-this order directed to the marshal, signed 
 by Edward Rawson, secretary : " You are to take 
 with you the executioner and repair to the house 
 of correction, and there see him cut off the right 
 ears of John Copeland, Christopher Holder, and 
 John Rous, Quakers." J 
 
 Men and women were tied to the cart's tail and 
 scourged from town to town. This happened also 
 in New Hampshire, Avhicb then belonged to the 
 jurisdiction of the Bay. Three women preaching 
 in Dover were driven from constable to constable 
 through several towns, receiving ten lashes in each 
 town. This was in cold weather in December, 
 1662. " Josiah Southwick, an elder brother of the 
 
 * Bryant's Popular History, U. S., Vol. II, 190. 
 t Id., 190. t Id., 190. 
 
 1-6 
 
194 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 two Southwick children, for retuniiug from ban- 
 ishment, was whipped through Boston, lioxbury, 
 and Bedham, and east off into the wilderness." * 
 
 Says Bancroft : "A tine was imposed on such as 
 should entertain any of the accursed sect," . . "and 
 a Quaker, after the first conviction, was to lose one 
 ear ; after the second, the other ; after the third, to 
 have the tongue bored with a red-hot iron." f 
 
 Look on this remarkable picture of 1692: Cot- 
 ton Mather, the greatest of Massachusetts divines, 
 excepting Jonathan Edwards, sitting on horseback 
 at the foot of the scaffold denouncine: a brother 
 minister, George Burroughs, who died before his 
 1 eyes for no other crime than a denial of belief in 
 witchcraft.^ It was shocking to hang people be- 
 cause they were accused of being witches, but to 
 hang them for unbelief in that miserable delusion 
 was superlatively monstrous. 
 
 The foregoing acts of cruelty are given to illu- 
 strate the spirit of Puritanism in New England. 
 It is most natural that its historians should pass 
 over this phase of that I'ema.rkable people as lightly 
 as possible. But Mr. Adams, from whom I have 
 already quoted, frankly admits the truth of the 
 
 * Bryant's History IT. S., Vol. II, 190. 
 t Bancroft's History (15tli ed.), Vol. I, 452. 
 t Prof. Alexander White, Ph. D., in Scotch-Irish Congress, 
 Atlanta, 1892, Vol. IV, 122. 
 
THE COVENANTEllS AND TIl'E PURITANS. 195 
 
 record, so far as the nuked question of religious in- 
 tolerance is concerned, taking good care, however, 
 to say but little about the shocking crimes perpe- 
 trated in the name of religion.' He says: "The 
 question of religious toleration was, so far as Mas- 
 sachusetts could decide it, decided in 1637 in the 
 negative. . . . But it is curious to note from 
 that day to this how the exponents of Massachu- 
 setts polity and thought, whether religious or his- 
 torical, have, so to speak, wriggled and squirmed 
 in the presence of the record — ' shuffling,' as George 
 Bishop, the Quaker writer, expressed it in 1703, 
 'and endeavoring to evade the guilt of it, being 
 ashamed to own, it. So that they seldom mention it 
 to any purpose even in their histories.' They did 
 so in 1637 when they were making the record up; 
 they have done so ever since.' There was almost 
 no form of sophistry to which the founders of Mas- 
 sachusetts did not have recourse then, for thej- 
 sinned against light, though they deceived them- 
 selves while sinning; and there is no form of so- 
 ,phistry to which the historians of Massachusetts 
 have not had recourse since, really deceiving them- 
 selves in their attempt to deceive others." * 
 
 That is very candid and explicit as to the fact. 
 But I am not sure but that Mr. Adams " wriggles " 
 
 * Adams, 12. 
 
196 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 a little himself when he comes to explain the cause 
 of this very extraordinary condition of things in 
 Massachusetts under Puritan domination. - If I 
 understand him, he attributes all the narrowness of 
 the theocracy of Massachusetts to the narrowness 
 of the prevailing religion — Calvinism. It may oc- 
 cur to reflecting minds free from bias and partiality, 
 and entirely removed from the influence of what 
 he calls the " filio pietistic" feeling, that the logical 
 inference is that the narrowness of their religion 
 arose from the narrowness of the minds of the pro- 
 fessors of that religion. Calvinism did not make 
 William the Silent and the people of Holland blind 
 and intolerant, with whose example the Puritans 
 were,' perfectly familiar. There the principle of 
 moderation was first proclaimed and practiced, 
 even while the people were subject to the most re- 
 morseless persecutions by the Catholics recorded 
 in all history. Nor did Calvinism make the Cov- 
 enanters in Ulster' narrow. There they lived a 
 quiet, peaceful life of Christian charity, molesting 
 no one, and seeking to molest no one, on account - 
 of his religious opinions. With the example of 
 these people, the early Puritans of Massachusetts 
 ought to have been familiar, and some of them no 
 doubt were. Calviuism did not cause the Cove- 
 nanters of MassachusettSj,who came later, nor those 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND HIE PURITANS. 197 
 
 of Pennsylvania, of Virginia, of South Carolina, 
 of ISTew Jersey, nor anywhere else in the Colonies, 
 to be narrow in respect to toleration. On the con- 
 trary, they every-where demanded freedom for all 
 religions. Calvinism did not make Cromwell and 
 his army of Independents intolerant. On the con- 
 trary, they demanded liberty of conscience for 
 others as well as for themselves. And Calvinism 
 did not influence the Dutch of New York to be 
 narrow and tyrannical during the sixty years they 
 controlled that Colony. It is freely admitted that 
 the Calvinists of Geneva and the early Calviuists 
 of Scotland did persecute men on account of their 
 religious belief; but this was at an early day, when 
 it was the universal practice among all sects in 
 Europe. 
 
 On reading Mr. Adams' most interesting little 
 book, from which I have quoted, one can scarcely 
 escape a slight suspicion that his hard blows were 
 aimed at Calvinism more than at the men whom 
 he arraigns for preaching and acting as they did 
 in Massachusetts. He squirms, as he terms it, at 
 their record, which he says they " can not escape," 
 but seeks to palliate their bad acts by laying the 
 blame on the religion and letting the actoi's escape. 
 The world can not thus be deceived. The truth 
 is, the founders of Massachusetts were a narrow, 
 
198 COVENANTER, CAVALIEU AND PURITAN. 
 
 superstitions, stern set of men, and have left a 
 gloomy record behind them, which no skillful use 
 of words and sophistry can render bright or lova- 
 ble. The most and the utmost that can be said in 
 their defense is, that it was the fashion and the 
 spirit of the age to persecute, the only exceptions 
 being in the Netherlands, in Ulster, in England 
 under Cromwell, and in the Dutch Colony of New 
 York, and in the Colonies of Maryland, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and Rhode Island, 'all being Calvinistic. 
 Mr. Bancroft admits the ofienses of Massachusetts, 
 but by tioweryj stilted rhetoric seeks to palliate and 
 excuse them. He seems almost to consider them 
 virtues. 
 
 'Now, what did Massachusetts — the Puritans — 
 accomplish for the world during its first century 
 and a half of existence? Let Mr. Adams answer : 
 
 "As a period" — the theological period from 1637 
 to 1761 — "it was singularly barren, almost incon- 
 ceivably somber. It has left behind it a not incon- 
 siderable residuum of printed matter, mainly theo- 
 logical, but of little, if indeed any, literary value. 
 Than this residuum there can, indeed, 'be no bet- 
 ter proof how fully Puritanism had done its de- 
 structive work.' ... In the mother country 
 that period was a fruitful season, for it began with 
 Milton and closed with Johnson.' ... In 
 
.THE COVENANTEES AND THE PURITANS. 199 
 
 Massachusetts, of writers or thinkers whose names 
 are still remembered, though their works have 
 passed into oblivion. Cotton Mather and Jonathan 
 Edwards can alone be named. They were, indeed, 
 typical of the time— strange products of a period at 
 once provincial and glacial — huge literary bowlders 
 deposited by the receding ice." * 
 
 "But it is a fact worthy of note that the Mag- 
 nalia (by Cotton Mather) stands to-day the one 
 single literary landmark in a century and a half of 
 colonial and provincial life — a geological relic of a 
 glacial period — a period which, in pure letters, pro- 
 duced, so far as Massachusetts was concerned, ab- 
 solutely nothing else, not a poem, nor an essay, nor 
 a memoir, nor a work of fancy or fiction of which 
 the world has cared to take note." j 
 
 It is said these Puritans were highly educated, 
 and it is sometimes said they were the best educated 
 people in the Colonies. While denying the latter 
 assertion, I admit the former, but insist that the 
 fact only makes their case the worse by reason of 
 it. If they had been simply ignorant fanatics, the 
 world could make great allowance for them on ac- 
 count of that ignorance. But as Mr. Adams says : 
 "They sinned against light." The leaders were 
 educated in a double sense; they had learning, and 
 * Adams, 64, 75 ; quoting Doyle. t Id., 67. 
 
200 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 they had had experience in the school of intolerance 
 and persecution. The latter, at least, if not the 
 former, should have taught them wisdom, as it had 
 taught the Covenanters and the people of the 
 ITetherTands a noble knowledge. 
 
 But were the Puritans of ^ew England the best 
 educated people in the Colonies ? This has already 
 been disproved in a previous chapter. There is no 
 proof of it, except the assertion of their own too 
 partial friends. It was with them, as it was with 
 the Covenanters and the English of that day, and 
 of this day also. Some were well educated, some 
 were moderately well educated, and many were 
 not educated at all, or very imperfectly so.- The 
 means of universal education did not exist in 
 England at the time the Puritans emigrated to 
 America. It would be remarkable to suppose that 
 all who came over were well educated. They had 
 had no better chance for universal education 
 among them, than the Covenanters had had when 
 they emigrated, nor even so good a chance. The 
 fact is about this : The world has so long been 
 accustomed to hear that the Puritans were the 
 best educated people in the Colonies, and so little 
 has been published, or even known about either the 
 Covenanters in the Colonies, or their education, 
 that it has been assumed that the former were 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 201 
 
 greatly superior in this respect to the latter. I 
 have referred to the fuct that of the three hundred 
 and nineteen Covenanters who applied to Governor 
 Shute, of Massachusetts, in 1718, for leave to settle 
 on the lands of that Colony, all signed their own 
 names to the petition except thirteen. Can Massa- 
 chusetts show a better record among her first 
 settlers? It iBust be kept in mind that the Scotch 
 or Covenanter Colony planted in Ulster, by James 
 I, from which most of the Covenanters emigrated 
 to this country, were " picked men ; " superior 
 men in all respects, and that education with them 
 was always a matter of the highest consideration 
 in Ireland, as it had been in Scotland. 
 
 It has been assumed and proclaimed a thousand 
 times that Puritan Massachusetts has been the 
 leader of the liberal and advanced political thou-ght 
 of this country. In the following extract from- 
 Mr. "Adams' book, we have a little boasting, a 
 little " ancestry worship," as he styles it. 
 
 "In that field" (in the field of political activity) 
 " Massachusetts was always at home — it enjoyed; 
 an easy American supremacy which even its ice 
 age did not wholly arrest. And now when the 
 struggle against superstition had drawn to a close, 
 that against caste came again to the front, with 
 17 
 
202 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Massachusetts still in the van. Indeed Qn this issue, 
 in 1837, as in 1635, the proper and natural place for 
 the Puritan Commonwealth was in the van. It 
 stood there : indeed it was the van.* " 
 
 Again, he says: 
 
 "The record, opened at Plymouth in December, 
 1620, closed as a distinct and independent record 
 in April, 1865. That long struggle for the recogni- 
 tion of the equality of man before the law, of 
 which Massachusets was the peculiar and ac- 
 knowledged champion, came to its close at Appo- 
 mattox." f 
 
 The truth is, from the beginning "caste" was in 
 higher favor and more regarded in this than in 
 any of the Colonies, except possibly in Virginia. 
 The distinction between the "better class"— 
 those " above the ordinary degree" — and those of 
 "mean condition," was expressly pointed out and 
 declared by the General Court in 1651. Under 
 the law enacted by it, regulating the kind of dress 
 to be worn, and other things, magistrates, civil 
 and military officers, persons of education and em- 
 ployment " above the ordinary degree," those who 
 were worth two hundred pounds, and those whose 
 estates had been considerable, but had decayed, — 
 all those in a word called the better class, were 
 » Adams, 105. t Id. 107. 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 203 
 
 exempt from the operation of these sumptuary 
 laws. But the court declared most earnestly, 
 almost pathetically, its " utter detestation aud dis- 
 like that men or women of mean condition, educa- 
 tions and callings, should take upon them the 
 garbe of gentlemen, by the wearing of gold or 
 silver lace, or buttons or poynts at their knees, to 
 walke in great bootes; or women of the same 
 ranke to weare silk or tiffany hoodes or scarfes, 
 which, though allowable to persons of greater 
 estates, qr more liberal education, yet we can not 
 but judge it intolerable in persons of such like 
 condition." * 
 
 On this point I quote Mr. Adams, who says : 
 
 "The magistrates talked of the 'common peo- 
 ple,' and one code of criminal laws applied to them, 
 while another applied to the gentry." f 
 
 This was the way Massachusetts, in 1651, "led 
 the van, was the van, indeed," in its war against 
 caste, and in its struggle for the "recognition of 
 the equality of men before the law." 
 
 Another author says on this point : 
 
 " The 'New England Colonies were-republics, but 
 not democracies. Most of them had state churches ; 
 their suffrage, though broad, was restricted, and 
 
 * Bryant's Popular History United States, Vol. II, 63. 
 t Adams, 9. 
 
20A COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PORITAN. 
 
 among their people social distinctions were very 
 marked. "When these Colonies became States they 
 clung, with true English tenacity, to their old tra- 
 ditions, and looked with horror upon the leveling 
 Democratic theories advanced in other quarters." * 
 
 N'ow look at the contrast as the learned autjipr- 
 goes right on to say : 
 
 "In the South, on the other hand, with its' large 
 and influential Scotch-Irish (Covenanter) popula- 
 tion, the natural tendency was to get as far as pos- 
 sible from the past. Those men hated England as 
 the ISTew Englanders never did, and they also hated 
 her institutions. Their religion had taught them 
 the absolute equality of men, and on this point they 
 were in full accord with men like Jefli'erson, who 
 had learned the same lesson from the philosophers 
 of France."! 
 
 I quote again: 
 
 " Here, then, in this difference of race we may 
 perhaps find an explanation of .the fact that ' Vir- 
 ginia' (under the lead of the Covenanter, Patrick 
 Henry, and the Hanover Presbytery), 'formerly the 
 most aristocratic, became the most democratic of 
 all the States; while Massachusetts, standing on 
 old conservative ways, became the chief exponent 
 of the opposing theories. One tiling is very clear — 
 
 » Compbell , Vol . II, 502. t Id . , 502. 
 
THE COVENANTEES AND THE PURITANS. 205 
 
 from no English element of the population, except 
 the Separatists' (not the Puritans, but the Pilgrims), 
 ' would have come the ideas of human equality, free- 
 dom of religion, separation of Church and State, 
 and universal suffrage.' " * 
 
 I ask the reader to carefully consider the three 
 paragraphs just quoted from Campbell, the eulo- 
 gist of the Puritans, as they prove all I have said 
 as to the relative merits of the Puritans and the 
 Covenanters. They also disprove the extravagant 
 claim made by Mr. Adams, when he represents 
 Massachusetts as sweeping forward triumphantly 
 in the van as the champion of human equality be- 
 fore the law, from 16B7 to 1865, at Appomattox. 
 
 I quote again from Mr. Adams on the same 
 point : 
 
 " When the Constitution " (of Massachusetts) " of 
 1780 was framed, it yielded a grudging and reluc- 
 tant consent to limited concessions of non-conform- 
 ity, but it" (religious intolerance) " was then so po- 
 tent and so rife that the frarner of the instrument 
 abandoned in despair the attempt to put his idea of 
 religious freedom in any form of words likely to be 
 acceptable to those who were to pass upon his 
 work."f 
 
 * Campbell, Vol. II, 502. 
 
 t Adams, 97 ; quoting from John Adams. 
 
206 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Thus, while the constitutions of the several 
 States were, during the Revolution, sweeping away 
 nearly every vestige of religious intolerance, Puri- 
 tan Massachusetts only granted partial toleration. 
 Not until 1833 did she open wide her doors to all 
 sects in worship. Thus, according to Mr. Adams, 
 as late as 1780, religious intolerance was so potent 
 and so rife that the framer of her constitution 
 (John Adams) " abandoned in despair" the attempt 
 to make religion free. 
 
 On the main line of thought, I submit one more 
 citation : 
 
 " They (the Covenanters) contributed as little 
 which was original to American institutions as did 
 the Puritans of Ifew England, but thej' were also 
 willing to accept new ideas from other quarters, 
 and they contributed elements to American thoughts 
 and life without which the United States of to clay 
 would be impossible. By them American Inde- 
 pendence was first openly advocated, and but for 
 their efforts, seconding those of the N"ew England 
 Puritans, that independence would not have been 
 secured." . . . 
 
 " They were the Puritans of the South — Calvin- 
 ists in theology and republicans in politics, l^fot 
 only did they contribute largely to the success of 
 the lievolution, but it was mainly through their 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 207 
 
 influence that after the Revolution republican in- 
 stitutions, unknown in England, were introduced 
 into the South and West." * 
 
 Most reluctantly do I attempt to take from " Pur- 
 itan Massachusetts" any of the honors she so 
 gracefully and so complacently wears, won in the 
 long contest over the abolition of slavery, but the 
 truth of history compels my doing so. That State 
 was not " in the van ; " much less " was she the 
 van " on that question until after 1836. The lead- 
 ing men of Virginia condemned the institution of 
 slavery both before and immediately after the Rev- 
 olution. In 1804 a number of JBaptist ministers in 
 Kentucky started a crusade against the institution, 
 which resulted in a hot contest in the denomina- 
 tion, and the organization of the "Baptist Licking 
 Locust Association Friends of Humanity." f Li 
 1806 Charles Osborne began to preach " immediate 
 emancipation " in Tennessee. I Ten years later he 
 started a paper in Ohio, called the " Philanthro- 
 pist," devoted to the general cause of humanity. 
 In 1822 a paper was started atShelbyville (no State 
 rfientioned, probably Kentucky), called the "Abo- 
 lition Intelligencer." § 
 
 « Campbell, Vol. II, 471. 
 
 tLife of Lincoln, in McClure's Magazine, Nov., 1895, 507. 
 
 t Id. ? Id. 
 
208 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 Osborne probably went from Jeifersou County, 
 Eastern Tennessee, tbe same county from which 
 John Rankin, the noted abolitionist, went, since 
 his was the first name on the roll of the " Lost 
 Creek Manumission Society " of that county in 
 1815. 
 
 Twenty years before Massachusetts took her 
 stand at all on this subject, there were eighteen 
 manumission, or emancipation, societies in Eastern 
 Tennessee, organized by the Covenanters, the 
 Methodists, and the Quakers of that region, which 
 held regular meetings for a number of years in the 
 interest of emancipation or abolitionism.* In 1822 
 there were five or six abolition societies in Ken- 
 tucky. In ] 819 the first distinctively emancipation 
 paper in the United States was published in Jones- 
 borough, Eastern Tennessee,- by Elihu Embree, a 
 Quaker, called the " Manumission Intelligencer." 
 In 1821 Benjamin Lundy purchased this paper, and 
 published it for two years in Greenville, East Ten- 
 nessee, u-nder the title of the " Genius of Universal 
 Emancipation." f Lundy was merely the successor 
 of Embree. At and previous to this time, the 
 Methodist Church in Tennessee, at its conferences, 
 
 * History of Tennessee, by Goodspeed Publishing Co., East 
 Tennessee Edition, 882. 
 
 tSee Autobiography of Benjamin Lundy, Hist. Tennessee 
 (Goodspeed). 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 209 
 
 was making it hot for its members, who held, or 
 who bought or sold slaves, by silencing or expell- 
 ing; them. * 
 
 On the other hand, as late as 1835, William 
 Lloyd Garrison was mobbed in the streets of 
 Boston, because he was an abolitionist. About 
 1827, Benjamin Lundy could not find an aboli- 
 tionist in that city. In 1826, of the one hundred 
 and forty-three emancipation societies in the 
 United States, one hundred and three were in the 
 South, and not one, so far as I know, in Massa- 
 chusetts. f John Rankin, the noted abolitionist 
 of Ohio, who went from East Tennessee in 1815, 
 qr 1816 — a Covenanter and from a Covenanter 
 neighborhood — declared in the latter part of his 
 life that it was safer in 1816 to 1820 to make 
 abolition speeches in Tennessee or Kentucky than 
 it was in the North. 
 
 In 1835, the poet "Whittier, and George Thomp- 
 son, the celebrated English abolitionist, were 
 mobbed and narrowly escaped with their lives, in 
 attempting to make abolition speeches in one of 
 the towns of Massachusetts. 
 
 * History of Methodism in Tennessee, by John B. McFerrin, 
 D.D. 
 
 t Autobiography of Benjamin Lundy ; Wilson's Eise,etc., 
 1, 179. 
 
210 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 In 1833, Governor Everett, of Massachusetts, 
 suggested the expediency of prosecuting aboli- 
 tionists.* Mr. Garrison said, in the first number 
 of the Liberator, that he found in the !N"orth," con- 
 tempt more bitter, prejudice mor.e stubborn, and 
 apathy more frozen than among slave owners 
 themselves." f It was estimated, in 1828, that in 
 Tennessee three-fifths of the people were favor- 
 ably disposed toward the principle of emancipa- 
 tion. J 
 
 In the Constitutional Convention of Tennessee, 
 in 1834, a proposition was made to emancipate 
 the slaves of the State, and it received over one- 
 third of the votes of the members, and the favor- 
 able indorsement of ail, those opposing it, approv- 
 ing the principle, but insisting that the time for 
 that step had not yet arrived. || 
 
 It is well known that Henry Clay commenced 
 his political career in Kentucky by an efl:brt to 
 secure the emancipation of the slaves of that 
 State. The fact is, the emancipation movement 
 seems to have gotten its first start and strength 
 
 * Life of Lundy, 286. 
 
 t Centennial Address of Hon. J. M. Dickinson, Nashville, 
 1896. 
 t Id., quoting Life of Birney, 79. 
 II Journal of Convention. 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 211 
 
 in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, though the 
 ■Quakers of Pennsylvania made feeble efforts in 
 that direction before the Revolution. 
 
 It thus appears that Massachusetts was a long 
 ways behind even some of the slave states in the 
 struggle for " man's equality before the law." It 
 was not until 1836 that she led in the abolition 
 movement. 
 
212 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS — CONTINUED. 
 
 Noble traits of the Puritans— Their liberality aud public 
 spirit — Puritans and Covenanters contrasted — The Puritans 
 a commercial people — Kept in a compact body — The Cove- 
 nanters separated and scattered — Forced into interior—. 
 Covenanters build up a high civilization in the South— 
 Their influence extends to North-western States — Were an 
 agricultural people — No stimulus to authorship — Politics 
 the highway to honor— Free thought and speculation in 
 New England — Caste and social distinctions in Massachu- 
 setts — Puritans and Covenanters in the Revolution — The 
 blood of the latter in the South — Their liberal ideas and 
 influence in molding the thought and institutions of the 
 South. 
 
 ,1 now turn with pleasure to the more lovable and 
 charming features in the character of " Puritan 
 Massachusetts." In many respects she has a rec- 
 ord of which every American citizen ought to be 
 proud. In her educational system she stands pre- 
 eminent. In great scholars and writers she enjoys 
 an " easy supremacy' " over her sister States. In 
 manufactures and in all the industrial arts she has 
 led in the, wonderful development made in these 
 directions in the last half ceiitur}' by our marvelous 
 people. In all things material that minister to the 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 213 
 
 comfort, the convenience, or the happiness of man- 
 kind, in their homes, no people on earth excel the 
 Puritans of New England. They are nowhere 
 surpassed in thrift, ingenui.ty, energy, or enter- 
 prise. Their vast accumulations of wealth and 
 their stupendous adventures and enterprises prove 
 the truth of this statement. 
 
 The charitable institutions of the Puritans are 
 magnificent monuments of their liberality and pub- 
 lic spirit, showing an enlightened sympathy with 
 struggling humanity. While close, exact, and cal- 
 culating in their dealings, and careful in their ex- 
 ''penditures, they are capable of the most noble lib- 
 erality. Their charities, when the objects are 
 worthy, are as boundless as their sympathy with 
 want. Who can forget how nobly, how enthusi- 
 astitjally, how munificently all IS'ew England, and 
 especially Boston, under the lead of the noble Ed- 
 ward Everett, responded in 1864 to the cry for help 
 which reached them from the starving people of 
 East Tennessee after that region had been eaten 
 as bare as a desert by fourlarge armies. All classes, 
 even the children, vied with each other in their 
 noble emulation in giving. They poured out their 
 money for the relief of the destitute, as freely as if 
 it had been water. If the climate of the Puritan is 
 cold and icy and dreary, his heart, when touched 
 
214 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 with sympathy or a sense of duty, warms and glows 
 in the presence of suffering as if filled by tropical 
 heat. 
 
 In private life the Puritans have always been re- 
 garded as exemplary and upright, and in morals 
 pure. In these respects the Covenanters were 
 equally as much so. The Puritans were an in- 
 dustrious and frugal race ; and so also were the 
 Covenanters. 'The wilderness and wild savage foes 
 ha'l no terrors for the Puritans; equally as httle 
 had they for the brave and hardy Covenanters. If 
 the Puritans came to the N"ew World to plant there 
 a pure religion, so also did the Covenanters. If the 
 former was too manly to endure persecution, so 
 also was the latter. If the one braved the perils of 
 the sea and the hardships of the dreary wilderness 
 for the sake of conscience and religion, the other 
 did the same thing. There was no sacrifice made, 
 no danger met, no heroic fortitude displayed, no 
 sublime purpose manifested by the one, that was 
 not as heroically made, met, and displayed by the 
 other. If the conditions and the environments of 
 the Puritans and the Covenanters had been re- 
 versed, it is almost certain that, in education, in 
 the accumulation of wealth, in literary culture, and 
 in general development, so grand and so successful 
 in Massachusetts, the Covenanters would to-day 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 215 
 
 hold the place now so proudly occupied by the 
 Puritans. The two were not very unequal in any 
 respect. Certainly the Covenanter was not the in- 
 ferior of the Puritan in any element tending to the 
 making of a great State or a great people. 
 
 Consider this matter for a moment. The Puri- 
 tan, with equal advantages, had the start in a new 
 country by one hundred and twenty-five years. 
 He had a state all his own, and could form it as he 
 pleased. The Puritan looked out on the ocean, 
 which invited him to engage in trade and com- 
 merce. He built ships and ventured on its waters, 
 and became a common carrier. He went abroad 
 in search of trade among the nations, thus keeping 
 up with the march of the world. He had the coast 
 trade and the fisheries. He made gain and became 
 rich. The people kept close together in compact 
 settlements. The township system of local self- 
 government, to which New England owes so much 
 of its importance, secured concentration of money, 
 energy, and purpose in any given direction. It 
 made possible universal education. The town 
 meetings stimulated free thought and inquiry. By 
 them the inhabitants became a live, an alert peo- 
 ple. In them they learned to argue, to debate, to 
 question things, to govern. They started schools 
 and made education universal. 
 
216 COVENANTER, CiVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 On the other hand, the Covenanter, coming late, 
 and after the whole coast, from Massachusetts to 
 Georgia, had been occupied bj' prior settlers, was 
 forced into the interior in all the Colonies. In 
 New York, in Pennsj'lvania, in North and South 
 Carolina, and in Georgia this was the case. There 
 was no room for him to found a new State on the 
 Atlantic coast. As a people, the Covenanters be- 
 came scattered from the Kennebec to the Savan- 
 nah. In Pennsylvania they were forced to the 
 frontier. Finally driven across the mountains, they 
 scattered over the western part of the State. In 
 Virginia, following the frontier, they settl.ed along 
 the foot of the mountains. Crossing these they 
 entered what is now West Virginia. Then in one 
 line they passed on into Kentucky, and by another 
 they went west of the Alleghanies, and spread 
 over South-western Virginia, and, down into what 
 is now East Tennessee. In North and South Car- 
 olina the same process of finding' homes in the in- 
 terior took place. Finally, scaling the Blue Ridge, 
 they came to the wilderness on the Watauga and 
 the Holston. A part continued on three hundred 
 miles further, through the pathless forests, to the 
 Cumberland, where they founded Nashville and 
 scattered oyer Middle Tennessee. 
 
 Thus the process of scattering, of separation, of 
 
THE COVENANTEES AND THE PURITANS. 217 
 
 isolation, in a greater or less degree, took place 
 nearly every-where. They had no ocean, no com- 
 merce, no fisheries, no intercourse with the outside 
 world. They had no trade, except with near neigh- 
 borhoods; no great navigable rivers on which to 
 float their products; no markets ; nogr^at or even 
 small cities, and no means of growing rich. They 
 had the absolute control of no State, though with 
 a large influence in a number of them, until Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky came into the Union. Under 
 such conditions a thorough and universal system 
 of education was impossible. Tlae settlements 
 were for a long time too sparse, and the people in 
 too moderate circumstances for such an accom- 
 plishment. And yet, as we have seen, colleges 
 and grammar schools every-where came into being. 
 Education was kept alive, with a high standard of 
 scholarship. Most persons of moderate means be- 
 came educated. 
 
 While the Covenanters with pack-horses were 
 toiling up the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge, 
 on their way to Tennessee and Kentucky, rich 
 argosies, laden with the products of the Indies, 
 were sailing home to Boston to make glad the 
 hearts of her merchant princes. At the time the 
 Covenanters were building their rude log-huts on 
 18 
 
218 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 the frontiers, rows of stately buildings lined the 
 streets of Boston, Nowburyport and Providence. 
 While the Covenanters in primitive wagons were 
 slowly struggling through mud on their way to 
 the nearest little village market, to barter and ex- 
 change their domestic products, proud ships, laden 
 with sperm and fish, grain and rum, were sailing 
 out of the harbors of New England, on their way 
 to the great marts of the world. 
 
 And yet, with all these disadvantages, the Cove- 
 nanters in all the States south of New York, have 
 gone on, quietly, modestly, and intelligently, 
 building up a Christian civilization as perfect and 
 as splendid in every respect as that of New En- 
 gland, and in some respects much more so. This 
 work has not been confined to the old States. It 
 has extended to the new States in the South-west " 
 and in the West. The influence of this race on 
 the institutions, the thought and morals of these 
 States, especially that of the more southerly ones, 
 has been quite as far-reaching as that of the 
 Puritans. The great States of Ohio, Indiana, Il- 
 linois, Iowa, Missouri and Texas, as well as Cali- 
 fornia and Oregon, are largely the product of the 
 brain, the energy, the enterprise and the capital of 
 the Covenanters of the old Middle States, and of 
 those south of them. This is notably the case as 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 219 
 
 to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Texas,. 
 In an able address delivered at Harrisburg, before 
 the Scotch-Irish Congress, in 1896, Mr. Wilijam 
 Henry Egle, M.P., spoke as follows on this sub- 
 ject: , _ 
 
 "It was the same race of people " (the Scotch- 
 Irish or Covenanters) " Avho, when peace came and 
 independence was acknowledged, formed the ad- 
 vance guard of civilization. The winning of the 
 West was due more to the Scotch-Irish, the land- 
 marks of whose early settlement have been brought 
 before you, than to any other race or class of men." * 
 
 I do not fail to recognize the share the Puritans 
 have had in some of these States in this great 
 work, but I utterly deny the justice of the claim 
 usually made for them and by them. JSTor do I 
 refuse to the Cavaliers, the Germans, the original 
 English, and perhaps other races, the honor of a 
 hand in building up these States, 
 
 The legislature of Illinois of 1834, consisting .of 
 eighty-one members, was composed nearly entirely 
 of " njen of Kentucky, Tennessee, or Virginia 
 origin, with here and there a Frenchmen." f The 
 States of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri were 
 
 * Proceedings of Scotch-Irish Congress, Vol. "VIII, 81. 
 t McCliife's Magazine, for February, 1896, 234. 
 
220 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 largely settled by the people of the States above 
 named. 
 
 The reasons are obvious on a little reflection, 
 why the Covenanters of the South have not built 
 up a splendid literature, such as the Puritans boast 
 of. They were at first, from the very necessities 
 of their surroundings, an agricultural and a plant- 
 ing people. Commerce was impossible. There 
 was no motive for settling in cities, and nothing 
 indeed to build up cities. Country life became the 
 fashion, as w.ell as a necessity. Except the few 
 who entered the learned professions, educated men 
 sought a life in the retirement of a farm or a plan- ■ 
 tation. Tliere, the stimulus, the hot excitement 
 of emulation, existing in a literary atmosphere 
 was entirely absent. There could be, and there 
 was no contact of mind with mind, thought with 
 thought. The enkindling influence of one mind, 
 fired with a high inspiration, a divine afilatus over a 
 kindred mind was entirely wanting. No hints, no 
 vague suggestions, no gleams of great thoughts 
 were caught from others and molded into fiction, 
 or poetry, or history. Many a person of real 
 power and genius has slept away his life, in vain, 
 because he had not the contagion of fellowship, of 
 contact, of emulation to kindle his own mind into 
 a flame. No great literary center, such as Boston, 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 221 
 
 attracted authors to it, to draw from each other 
 inspiration — where minds were quickened and 
 iuteusified by contact with other rainds. Author- 
 ship was not the fashion in the South, and did 
 not become a profession. At an early day polities 
 became the highway to honor and power. This 
 field seemed to suit the bent of the fiery, the 
 impulsive, the enthusiastic Southern gentlemen. 
 Here high ambition found its vent, and the fulfill- 
 ment of its aspirations. Into that flattering, se- 
 ductive field, ambitious young men eagerly entered 
 as the w;ay to honor. The impetuosity and tlie 
 ardent spirit of Southern genius naturally led in 
 that direction. There have been at all times 
 talents of the highest order in the South. In 
 statesmanship, in oratory, at tlie bar, on the bench, 
 in the pulpit, in medicine and in war, this fact has 
 been constantly and most signally illustrated for 
 more than a hundred years. In these respects the 
 South can proudly challenge a comparison with 
 any other region of our country. Authorship re- 
 quires leisure, repose, libraries and freedom from 
 care. Above all it needs fellowship, stimulation, 
 emulation and a literary atmosphere. The South- 
 ern people had leisure and repose on their great 
 plantations, but- not the other requisites. They 
 had no literary center, no literary circles, no incite- 
 
222 
 
 meut to authorship. They had no group of literary 
 men, like Emerson, Bryant, Whittiei', Longfellow, 
 Holmes, Lowell, Bancroft, Prescott, Motle^', Haw- 
 thorue, and Thoreau to inspire them with a noble 
 emulation. 
 
 I have referred to the fact that the preachers of 
 the Covenanter faith in the South (and it is true 
 of nearly all other sects also) have always been and 
 still are conservative in all their religious opinions, 
 never having abandoned the creed of their fathers 
 in any of its essentials. How different in Puritan 
 Massachusetts. That State — indeed, all New En- 
 gland is more or less so — has become a hot-bed in 
 which every -religions opinion, every wild theorj-, 
 every vague speculation, every shade of belief, 
 hanging on the " ragged edge" of disbelief, iinds 
 a congenial soil in which to germinate, take root, 
 blossom, and bear fruit. Like a huge pendulum, 
 religious ojiinion -has swung from one extreme to 
 the opposite — from the rigid and somber ortho- 
 doxy of Jonathan Edwards to the liberalism of 
 William Ellery Channing — from the strictest Cal- 
 vinism, with good works and faith in Christ as the 
 corner stone, to the doctrine of " the efficacy of good 
 works and moral living " without Christ. This, 
 however, is only one of the developments of free- 
 thinking — the supremacy of reason. Every form 
 
THE COVENANTERS ANB THE PURITANS. 223 
 
 of unbelief seems to be creeping into tbe religion, 
 the thought, and the lives of that people. The 
 work of destroying the monuments of the past has 
 gone forward fearfully fast. It is well that some 
 of them should be pulled- down, but let those that 
 are valuable be respected and spared. 
 
 From the very beginning, as we have seen, there 
 has always been a tendency toward caste in Massa- 
 chusetts. Her people were Englishmen. They had 
 English ideas. Ideas of caste were a part of their 
 heritage. I have already quoted one of their early 
 statutes showing that a clear distinction was drawn 
 between the " better class," those " above the ordi- 
 nary degree," and those of" mean condition." Those 
 of the latter class were not to wear the same cloth- 
 ing that the former did. Douglas Campbell points 
 out, as we have seen, the fact that in New England 
 "social distinctions were very marked," and that 
 " when these Colonies became States, they clung, 
 with true English tenacity, to their old traditions, 
 and looked with horror upon the leveling demo- 
 cratic theories advanced in other quarters." 
 
 I refer to one more fact on this subject. In the 
 discussion over the formation of the Federal Con- 
 stitution, and during the twelve years following its 
 adoption, the Federal and the anti-Federal parties 
 were formed and came into being; the one, thor- 
 
224 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 onghly democratic, was led by Mr. Jefferson ; the 
 other, led by Mr. Hamilton and John Adams, 
 leaned toward a strong central government. Mas- 
 sachusetts and New England, following the lead of 
 Mr. Adams, ranged themselves on the Federal side, 
 while the Southern States followed the leadership 
 of Mr. Jefferson. Massachusetts became a Federal 
 State, while Virginia became thoroughly deraor 
 cratic. 
 
 In the great Revolutionary struggle, both in the 
 advocacy of resistance and separation, and in fight- 
 ing its battles afterward, the Puritans performed 
 a glorious part. !N"o one would take from them 
 any of the honor they so nobly won in that time of 
 trial. But the Covenanters were equally as patri- 
 otic and as ardent in the cause of independence, 
 and as brave in battle. In the progress of the war 
 the Puritans and the Covenanters (as well as many 
 of the Cavaliers) stood manfully and bravely, side 
 by side, through the long struggle, without wav- 
 ering or dishonor anywhere, until independence 
 was won. And though history has hitherto given 
 to the Covenanters no distinct place, as a people, 
 in that great contest, it must be that some future 
 historian, with more ample materi^al, will give 
 them the high position they should occupy before 
 the world. 
 
THE COVENANTEES AND THE PURITANS. 225 
 
 ISTow, ill conclusion, what has become of the five 
 or six hundred thousand (or, if that is too manj^, 
 of the four or five hundred tliousand) Covenanters 
 in blood who were in the Southern States at the 
 date of the Revolution? Have they disappeared 
 and been lost by the overshadowing influence of 
 some greater race ? What race ? Has this sti'ong, 
 brainy, self-assertive — this great intellectual stock 
 that has made itself felt wherever it has gone in 
 any part of the world — has it sileutly disappeai'od 
 and melted away in the South by contact with 
 other and superior races ? By no means. The 
 blood and the splendid elements which formed the 
 character and the life of the old Covenanters in 
 their native land are still as potent as in the days 
 of the Revolution. From generation to generation 
 they still reappear, in as distinct outline as in the 
 days of the absolute purity of its blood in the hills 
 of Scotland. From generation to generation the 
 manly forms, the great qualities, and the splen- 
 did endowments of the Prestons, the Henrys, the 
 Randolphs, the Breckenridges, the Campbells, the 
 Alexanders, the Witherspoons, the Blairs, the Jack- 
 sons, the Polks, the Grahams, the Boaks reappear 
 in their descendants. Sometimes they appear 
 among the Methodists; sometimes the Baptists; 
 19 
 
226 COVENANTER, CAVALIEK AND PURITAN. 
 
 sometimes the Episcopalians, and sometimes among 
 the Presbyterians. The Covenanters no longer ex- 
 ist as a distinct sect. The term "Presbyterian" 
 no longer signifies a " Covenanter." The old 
 Covenant no longer binds and holds them together. 
 They are scattered, and have mixed with other 
 races, but their splendid blood still pours its rich 
 current through the veins of the Southern and 
 many of the Western people. And so long as the 
 nation shall last, the blood of this wonderful stock 
 will exist, and make itself felt among men. 
 
 As the logical conclusion of the discussions in 
 the last four chapters, and the underlying thought 
 running through them all, it is nflirmed as almost an 
 undeniable proposition that the advanced theories 
 and the liberal ideas, in reference to both political 
 and religious liberty, which, like threads of gold, 
 were woven into the institutions of the country 
 and the life of the people, and which gave them 
 their chief glory, were of Covenanter, and not 
 of Puritan or Cavalier, origin. This is so mani- 
 festly true as to religions liberty that the reader 
 has only to recall the facts already given in order 
 to command his ready assent to the truth of the 
 proposition. For it will be remembered that, 
 until after the coming of the Covenanters, there 
 was not one gleam of light in all the dreary 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 227 
 
 regions dominated by the Puritans and the Cava- 
 liers. The despotism and the gloom of intolerance 
 reigned supreme. A narrow bigotry and super- 
 stition cast their blighting shadows over the minds 
 of men. Notwithstanding the bold and never- 
 ceasing teachings of the Covenanters, from the 
 day of their arrival in the country' until they had 
 aroused the storm of the Revolution, so difficult 
 was it to induce the Puiitans and the Cavaliers to 
 relax their deadly grasp on the consciences of 
 men, that eleven years passed away after the in- 
 auguration of hostilities in the Colonies before 
 universal religious liberty prevailed in the Cava- 
 lier State, and nearly sixty years before complete 
 religious emancipation was accomplished in Mas- 
 sachusetts. 
 
 The struggles for political and personal liberty 
 are always easily remembered. The glare and 
 the thunders of war are never forgotten. But 
 the quiet, the persistent and the courageous war- 
 fare waged by the Covenanters, every-where and 
 at all times, for the right of conscience, while it 
 was efl'ecting a revolution as important for the 
 happiness of mankind as the great one settled by 
 arms, did not appeal to the senses and the imagi- 
 nation of men, and hence it has been but little 
 noted by speakers or by historians. 
 
228 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 To prove the correctness of the other branch of 
 my summary, or proposition, in reference to poli- 
 tical freedom, it is only necessary to refer to the 
 facts already given, to show the deeply-rooted 
 ideas of caste and social distinction existing in the 
 minds of the ruling classes, and in the society 
 of Virginia and Massachusetts, previous to and 
 at the date of the Revolution. These caste ideas 
 and social distinctions did not prevent those favor- 
 able to Independence from doing their duty in the 
 great contest of arms, but they did have a most 
 important influence in shaping the institutions of 
 the country, and in giving tone and coloring to its 
 thought afterward. And in this second stage of 
 the Revolution these Covenanters, dwelling in 
 large numbers in all the States south of ISTew 
 England, with their liberal and advanced ideas, 
 learned in their bitter experience of nearly two 
 centuries, and with their creed of Republicanism, 
 were ready to infuse their spirit and inject their 
 ideas of equality into the constitutions, the insti- 
 tutions, and into the life of tliat vast region. 
 Under this influence even aristocratic Cavalier 
 Virginia became, as we have seen, the most 
 democratic of all the States. Under this influence, 
 also, the Constitution of Tennessee was framed, 
 which was pronounced by Mr. Jefferson the most 
 
THE COVENANTERS AND THE PURITANS. 229 
 
 republican in its spirit of all the American consti- 
 tutions. And this same spirit pervaded the insti- 
 tutions of all the Southern States, excepting South 
 Carolina. T do not withhold from Mr. Jefferson 
 the high meed of praise he so richly merits, for 
 his magnificent work in behalf of libei'al ideas and 
 republican institutions in Virginia. But Mr. 
 Jefferson was always a Covenanter in his opinions 
 as to political and religious liberty. Besides this, 
 we have seen that he would have failed in his 
 great reforms, except for the powerful aid he re- 
 ceived from the Covenanters. 
 
 N"or do I ignore the teachings of Roger Will- 
 iams, nor the liberal ideas of the Dutch of ISTew 
 York, nor the conservative opinions of the 
 Quakers, nor the tolerant spirit of the Catholics 
 of Maryland, in accomplishing these great results, 
 but these were insignificant in their influence in 
 comparison with the widely extended power of 
 the great Covenanter race. 
 
230 COVENANTEE, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS IN THE 
 SOUTH. 
 
 The terms Covenanter, Presbyterian and Scotch-Irish — Coven- 
 anter blood in all churches— Presbyterians in the South — 
 Have lost ground— Pioneer Methodists and Baptists — 
 Methodists in 1770, in ]S18 and 1890— Wonderful growth- 
 Itinerant system— Remarkable growth oflBaptist Church- 
 Its record in behalf of political and religious liberty — 
 Eoger Williams— Numbers of the leading denominations 
 given — Educational standard in leading churches — Use- 
 fulness of Christiau Ministry — Civilizing influence of re- 
 ligion—Honor to the memory of Luther, Calvin, Knox, 
 Roger Williams — Influence of Calvinism on the destiny of 
 the world— Authorities quoted — Mission of Presbyterian- 
 ism — Presbyterians in the South. 
 
 It has been very fur froni my intention to in- 
 dulge in a sectarian spirit in any discussions in 
 these chapters. And yet it is very difficult to 
 write the history of the Covenanters, and espec- 
 ially to do them justice, without the appearance 
 of sectarianism. Up to a period near the begin- 
 ning of the Eevolution, the Covenanters and the 
 Scotch, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, were 
 so nearly identical, that to speak of the one was to 
 refer to the other also. But in the course of time, 
 and especially after the Revolution, by reason of 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 231 
 
 intermarriages with other sects, the two terms 
 ceased to mean the same thing. To- day they are 
 by no means identical. These intermarriages be- 
 tween the Covenanters, or the Scotch-Irish Presby- 
 terians, and other Christian denominations, have 
 been so frequent that the term Covenanter maj^, or 
 it may not, at this day signify a Presbyterian. 
 The Covenanter in blood may be a Methodist, a 
 Baptist, an Episcopalian, even a Roman Catholic, 
 or a member of any other denomination. ISTor 
 does the term Presbyterian necessaril}' mean a 
 Covenanter in blood. The members of the dif- 
 ferent branches of the universal church in this land, 
 have so intermingled in marriage and blood, and 
 so many have changed church relations, that no 
 racial term will correctly distinguish them. The 
 term Covenanter now simply means a distinct peo- 
 ple and not a sect. Covenanter blood is plentifully 
 diffused thi-ough all churches and sects, and all 
 sects should be proud of the great deeds and the 
 splendid history of that people. 
 
 There is not perhaps a Protestant Church in the 
 South to-day without more or less Covenanter 
 blood among its members. Take away all persons 
 of Covenanter blood, especially in the mountain 
 country of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, 
 Tennessee, Georgia and JSTorth Carolinia, where so 
 
232 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 many of this stock originally settled, and in many 
 cases the congregation would be nearly or quite 
 broken up. This is as true of the Methodist and the 
 Baptist congregations as of the Presbyterian. In 
 some counties in this region settled by Covenan- 
 ters, the Presbyterian Church has entirely disap- 
 peared, while the names of the people as unmis- 
 takably indicate the Scotch origin of a majority of 
 them as would a district in Ulster. In all this 
 large region, to which I have just referred, per- 
 haps five-sixths of the Covenanters in blood are 
 either Methodists or Baptists. Intermarriages 
 have obliterated the original religious race distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 Both the Methodist and the Baptist Churches, 
 and indeed all other churches in the Southern 
 States, are full of members of Covenanter descent. 
 Many of the men in the Methodist Church who 
 have been distinguished for piety and ability, and 
 who have shed luster on that denomination, are 
 known by their very names to have descended 
 from Covenanter stock. I need only mention 
 Bishop McKendree and Bishop McTyre, the Rev. 
 Dr. McAnally and the Rev. Dr. McFerrin, all well 
 known in the South-west. 
 
 The Presbyterians have relatively lost ground 
 in the South, especially in the mountain region 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 233' 
 
 thereof, during the last eighty years. They were 
 for the most part the first settlers in that region. 
 They oecupied the new towns as they were built 
 up, and also many of the rich coufitry neighbor- 
 hoods. In these they erected their church edi- 
 fices and their school-houses. To their churches 
 at an early day immense congregations flocked from 
 all the surrounding country, to attend divine ser- 
 vices.'^ But as the population spread out from the 
 towns and the valleys, into the hills and mountains, 
 Presbyterian ministers were unable in all cases to 
 accompany their members. 
 
 The result was, the pioneer Metliodists and the 
 Baptists came along and picked up these Presby- 
 terian stragglers. The Presbyterian Church did 
 not have the ministers necessary to meet the great 
 and constantly increasing demands of a vast and 
 ever- widening territory. However laborious they 
 may have been, however active in missionary or 
 evangelical work, and however earnest and ener- 
 getic in planting new churches, it was impossible 
 for a few men to meet the wants of all the new 
 towns and new settlements which were constantly 
 springing into being. Many settlements had to be 
 
 '- The Presbyterian Church, in Greenville, Tenn., contained 
 at an early day 1,000 members, while the town was a mere vil- 
 lage and the population of the county small. 
 
234 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 neglected, and were therefore lost to the Presby- 
 terian Church. Many evidences exist of the en- 
 ergy, industry and zeal of the early Presbyterian 
 ministers in the South, in the closing quarter of 
 the last and in the early part of this century. But 
 it was beyond human abilitj' to do all things at 
 once. It was impossible for a few men to estab- 
 lish and teach schools, conduct colleges, build 
 churches, preach at stated times, perhaps to sev- 
 eral congregations widely separated, and also to 
 follow the settlements in the discharge of minis- 
 terial duties as they rapidly spread southward and 
 Avestward. 
 
 The Methodist Church was very weak in the 
 days of the Kevolution, and for some time after- 
 ward, in the Colonies. "When Asbury came to 
 this country, in 1770, he found 14 preachers and 
 371 members of his denomination. When he died, 
 in 1816, there were 2,700 ministers and 214,000 
 members. In 1785 they numbered only 10,000, 
 with 104 preachers.* In 1784 there were just 60 
 members in the llolston Circuit, which embraced 
 nearly all of South-west Virginia, and all of upper 
 East Tennessee.f In 1890 there were 30,000 min- 
 isters and 4,589,284 members in the United States. 
 
 ■'* Methodism in Tennessee, Vol. T, 28, 
 t Id. 32, 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 235 
 
 Most opportune was the coming of Asbury, in- 
 troducing a new system and a new element of 
 spiritual life into the country. The Presbyterians 
 had already occupied the towns and the densely 
 populated neighborhoods, but the hills, the obscure 
 corners, the mountain recesses had not been 
 reached. 
 
 The Methodist itinerant system exactly met this 
 want. Under it there was no point so remote, oo 
 corner inhabited by men so obscure or inaccessi- 
 ble, that was not reached. Earnest, fervent and 
 aggressive, though often rude and uneducated, the 
 itinerant preacher did his work bravely, patiently, 
 joyfully. He soon arrested attention, found listen- 
 ers, made converts, and then the rude church edi- 
 fice arose in the wilderness. In summer's heat, or 
 winter's cold, in rain, or sleet, or snow ; Sabbath 
 and week-day alike, badly clad, shivering with 
 cold, pinched with hunger, often ridiculed or re- 
 viled, and sometimes maltreated, the humble, 
 faithful itinerant uncomplainingly went about, 
 from year to year, as he was ordered by the 
 bishop. It mattered not whether his lot fell in 
 the older settlements, or in the wild mountains, or 
 on the dangerous frontier, or across swollen 
 streams, his duty was to go. There was no moun- 
 tain so high but it was passed, no stream so broad 
 
236 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 or deep bat it was crossed, no wilderness so lonely 
 but it was penetrated, no inhabited nook or corner 
 but it was found. The itinerant may not have 
 been learned, nor eloquent, nor brilliant, but if he 
 had the spirit of Wesley, if his lips had been 
 touched by a live coal off the altar, men would 
 hear, and many would heed him. 
 
 The machinery which put these itinerants in 
 motion was moved and controlled by strong arms 
 and intelligent heads, and directed by almost ab- 
 solute authority. There was no friction in its 
 movements. Nothing could have been devised 
 more efficient for widespread conquests. Nothing 
 could have so perfectly met the wants of a new 
 and widel}- extended country. The growth of the 
 Methodist Church is a marvel, as much so as the 
 unparalleled growth of our republic. And yet it 
 is exactly what ought to have been expected from 
 such a system ot" church polity in a new country. 
 
 The growth of the Baptist Church is but little 
 less remarkable than that of the Methodist. It, 
 however, had an existence in England, in Holland 
 and in the Colonies long before the Methodist 
 Church was born. Its membership in the United 
 States in 1890 was 3,712,468, only 776,716 less than 
 the Methodists. 
 
 The record of the Baptists in the cause of politi- 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 237 
 
 cal and religious freedom is a noble one. When 
 the Baptists from England established their church 
 in Amsterdam, in 1611, they declared: "The 
 magistrate is not to meddle with religion or mat- 
 ters of conscience, nor compel men to this or that 
 form of ;'eligi<)n." . . . "But no words of 
 praise can be too strong for the service which the 
 English Baptists have rendered to the cause of re- 
 ligious liberty."* Under the general name of In- 
 dependents, they formed a part of Cromwell's 
 invincible army; they went down with the Com- 
 monwealth and afterward suffered relentless per- 
 secutions. f In the Colonies, Roger Williams was 
 the first man to proclaim the great doctrine that 
 conscience should be free. He protested to the 
 bigoted Puritans of Massachusetts that "the doc- 
 trine of persecution for cause of conscience is 
 most evidently and lamentably contrary to the 
 doctrine of Jesus Christ." Such sentiments could 
 not be tolerated at that day by Puritan Massa- 
 chusetts, and he was accordingly banished to 
 Rhode Island. There he established the first Bap- 
 tist Church in the Colonies. In the Revolution 
 the Baptists were faithful, as they ever have been 
 
 « Campbell's Puritans, Vol. II, 202. 
 t Id, 203. 
 
238 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 to the cause of independence and the cause of 
 human freedom. 
 
 While many of the Baptists, both preachers and 
 laymen, are uneducated and ignorant, especially 
 in the great mountain regions of the South, and 
 some of them are opposed to education, they have 
 done a great work in restraining vice and in lift- 
 ing men into a higher life. Though the preacher 
 may not always be learned, he is more so than 
 most of his congregation. Though he may be ig- 
 norant, and he is often densely so, yet what he 
 has to say is on the side of morality. He at least 
 is capable of leading those who have had less ad- 
 vantages than himself, and he generally leads in 
 the right direction. Better a feeble light than 
 pagan darkness. 
 
 It may be of interest to state that Pennsylvania, 
 in the North, with 216,248 members, is the great 
 stronghold of Presbyterianism, while Tennessee 
 takes the lead in the South, having 66,573 mem- 
 bers. ISTorth Carolina is foremost among all the 
 Southern States in Methodism, having 276,386 
 members ; then follows Georgia with 275,784. 
 Georgia leads all the States in the number of Bap- 
 tists, having 337,241, followed by Virginia with 
 303,134. The Roman Catholics far exceed in 
 number any other denomination in any single 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 239 
 
 State, having in the State of ISTew York 1,153,650 
 members. In Massachusetts they have 615,072 
 members, and this is more than double the num- 
 ber of all the other denominations in that State 
 The total number of Roman Catholics in the 
 United States is 6,257,871; Lutherans, 1,231,072; 
 Disciples of Christ, 641,051 ; Protestant Episco- 
 palians, 540,509'; and Congregationalists, 512,771. 
 
 While no exact standard of education, indeed, 
 while no education at all is required in the Baptist 
 Church, as a qualification for preaching, it must 
 not be inferred that the great body of that de- 
 nomination is indifi'erent to this vital matter. 
 Such is not the case. As a denomination they are 
 now as thoroughly alive to its importance as any 
 other. They have many very learned and able 
 men. In every part of the country their colleges 
 and universities are found, some of them among 
 the leading educational institutions of our land. 
 
 It is little to be wondered at that the Methodists 
 and the Baptists outnumber the Presbyterians in 
 the Southern States, even in those States and sec- 
 tions where the latter at one time had the un- 
 doubted ascendency, when all the conditions are 
 taken into account. 
 
 The Presbyterians must have a high degree of 
 scholarship, as well as a thorough training in the- 
 
240 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 ology, before he is allowed to officiate as a minister. 
 These requisites are always insisted uj^on. It 
 might, therefore, be expected that the candidates 
 for the ministry would not he as numerous as they 
 would be under a lower standard. And yet, strange 
 to sa}', notwithstanding the long and expensive 
 preparation which is necessary for an entrance into 
 the Presb^'terian ministry, the number of minis- 
 ters in that church, in proportion to their respec- 
 tive membership, very decidedly exceeds the num- 
 ber either in the Methodist or the Baptist Churches. 
 The ratio is about as four to three. The Metho- 
 dist members (17 bodies) number 4,589,264; they 
 have 30,000 ministers. Baptists members (13 
 bodies) number 3,712,468; they have 2,5,646 minis- 
 ters. Presbyterian members (12 bodies) number 
 1,278,882, and they have 10,448 ministers. Total 
 number of Presbyterians and Reformed (Presby- 
 terians) 1,587,790, having 11,944 ministers. 
 
 It is perhaps not inappropriate in this connection 
 to bear unequivocal testimony in behalf of the 
 usefulness of the Christian ministry, even aside 
 from the religious aspects of the question. One 
 of the most potent agencies for the education of 
 the people, whether in city or country, for the for- 
 mation of healthy public sentiment, and for the 
 dissemination of advanced thought is the pulpit. 
 
PRESBYTEUIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 241 
 
 It arouses by suggestion public thought and pri- 
 vate investigation. It arrests and directs public 
 attention. Sermons from Sabbath to Sabbath from 
 the lips of men of real learning and ability, are 
 equal to the best popular lectures. They direct 
 the minds of the hearers into new channels of 
 thought and investigation. As a factor in the de- 
 velopment of modern civilization the vast influence 
 of the pulpit can never be overestimated. 
 
 N"o one can understand the history of our country 
 who does not study the history of the church. 
 The pulpit lias been in modern times one of the 
 greatest instrumentalities, perhaps the greatest, in 
 ridding the world of tyranny and oppression, both 
 of body and mind. It first proclaimed the right ot 
 freedom of conscience. This by an easy step led to 
 freedom of speech and freedom of political action. 
 These are all related and flow from the same source. 
 In these days, when so many scholars affect free- 
 thinking, it may be well also to bear testimony to the 
 beneficent influence, even as a moral agenej', of the 
 Christian religion in civilizing the world. Eeligion, 
 in this sense, is civilization in its highest form. 
 Education has done much in this direction, but 
 it educates the head and not the heart. Educa- 
 tion alone rarely makes men better. It sometimes 
 20 
 
242 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 makes them worse. It furnishes greater power 
 for evil. When men feel themselves absolved 
 from all moral anJ religious restraints, they are 
 apt to become demons. The scanctitj of all law 
 must rest on conscience and an enlightened public 
 sense. Strike out all religious ideas, beliefs and 
 creeds, from among the most advanced people on 
 the globe, and they would at once turn back to- 
 ward barbaric ideas and practices. Take away 
 the security given by religion to the sacredness of 
 home, the honor of women, the inviolability of 
 property, and the repose of society, and soon law 
 would become as impotent as mere gossamer. 
 France, in her mad intoxication during the Revo- 
 lution, abolished religion and the Sabbath, and 
 rivers of blood flowed through the streets of her 
 capitol. The magistrates of Rome understood the 
 necessity of religion to restrain the wild passions 
 of men. Gibbon, speaking of the ditFerent forms of 
 worship of their deities, says: "They were all 
 considered by the people as equally true, by the 
 philosophers as equally false, and by the magis- 
 trates as equally useful." 
 
 The author of the Prince of India puts into the 
 mouth of one of his characters these words: " The 
 stud}' of greatest interest is religion. I have trav- 
 eled the world over, I mean the inhabited parts. 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 243 
 
 and in its broad extent there is not a people with- 
 out worship of some kind. Wherefore my asser- 
 tion that beyond the arts, above the sciences, above 
 commerce, above any or all other human con- 
 cernments, religion is the superlative interest. It 
 alone is divine. The study of it is worship. 
 Knowledge of it is knowledge of God.* 
 
 Froude, the great historian, in one of his ad- 
 dresses, said : " Science only deals with generals, 
 but religion goes to the heart of the individual ; 
 and so I feel that on this basis religion is im- 
 pregnable against all the assaults of science. You 
 may take my word for it that all that is grand, 
 sublime, of benefit to the race, has come out of 
 faith, and not out of skepticism. One lesson, and 
 one only, history may be said to repeat with dis- 
 tinctness — that the world is built somehow on 
 moral foundations, that in the long run it is well 
 with the good, in the long run it is ill with the 
 wicked." 
 
 In this connection the world can never sufii- 
 cientl}' honor and revere the names and memories 
 of Luther, Calvin, Knox and Roger Williams. At 
 a later day, John Wesley taught the same great 
 truths, upon which the fabric of our free institutions 
 was founded by our fathers, and now so securely 
 
 * Prince of India, Vol. I, 119. 
 
244 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 reposes in majestic grandeur.* Let the world honor 
 these great men, as benefactors of their race, for 
 what they so grandly achieved in making civil 
 and religious liberty possible for men. 
 
 But let the world forever remember that these 
 earlier great reformers opened and paved the way 
 for the work of Wesley and Methodism, by secur- 
 ing freedom of worship and freedom of conscience. 
 13ut for them this work would have been impos- 
 sible. Let those who would criticize Presbyterian- 
 ism on account of its rigid and austere theology 
 remember that to this great sect, in its various 
 forms, more than to any other human agency, 
 is due our political and religious liberty. Let 
 them remember that Presbyterianism came to the 
 
 "••■" John Wesley, on getting the tiding of the battles of Lexing- 
 ton and Concord, tboiiglit that " silence on his part would be a 
 sin against God, against his country and against his own soul," 
 and he wrote severally to Dartmouth and Lord North, saying: 
 
 " Jn spite of all my long-rooted prejudices, I can not avoid 
 thinking these an oppressed people asking fornothing more than 
 their legal rights, and that in the most modest and inoffensive 
 manner that the nature of the thing will allow. Is it common 
 sense to use force against the Americans? They are strong; 
 they are valiant ; they are one and all enthusiasts — enthusiasts 
 for liberty — calm, deliberate enthusiasts. They are terribly 
 united ; they think they are contending for their wives, chil- 
 dren and liberty." Presbyterians and the Revolution, 17. 
 
PKESBYTERIAKS AMD OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 245 
 
 Middle Colouies and to the South, in the persons 
 of tlie Huguenots and the early Covenanter set- 
 tlers, first filling the country with schools and 
 churches, and with the cry for freedom and a free 
 religion. The Puritans, the Pilgrims, the Cove- 
 nanters and the Baptists did the same great work 
 for education and for freedom in New England. 
 
 It can be affirmed as a truth, that during the 
 last half of the eighteentli and the first quarter of 
 the nineteenth century, the Presbyterians did more 
 for the cause of classical education in the old 
 South than all the other denominations combined. 
 Since the period I have named, other sects, and 
 notably the Methodists, the Baptists and the Epis- 
 copalians, have also been doing a noble \Aork in 
 this direction. 
 
 Viewing Presbyterianism, or Calvinism, from 
 an earlier period, we see that the fruit which it 
 bore in the Colonies was the natural product of 
 the seed sown in Europe. 
 
 "Calvinism," says Mr. Bancroft, "is gradual 
 Kepublicanism." Froude calls " Calvinism the 
 Creed of Republics." 
 
 " It was to Geneva," writes Mr. Villiers (quoted 
 by Smythe), " that all the proscribed exiles, who 
 were driven from England by the intolerance of 
 Mary, came to get intoxicated with repuhlicanism, 
 
246 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 and from this focus they brought back with them 
 those Principles of Republicanism which annoyed 
 Elizabetfi, perplexed and resisted James, and 
 brought Charles to the deserved death of a 
 traitor." * 
 
 " Not merely in their representative assemblies," 
 writes Hallam, of tlie preachers of Knox's school, 
 " but in theijr pulpits they perpetually remonstrated, 
 in no guarded language, against the misgovern- 
 ment of the court and even the personal indiscre- 
 tions of the king." f 
 
 Of the Scottish preachers Maeaulay writes: 
 " They inherited the republican opinions of Knox." 
 
 Carlisle says : " Protestanism was a revolt against 
 spiritual sovereignties, popes, and much else; Pres- 
 byterianism carried out the revolt against earthly 
 sovereignties." % 
 
 King James said that "a Scot's Presbj'tery" 
 agreed "as well with monarchy as God and the 
 devil." II 
 
 Bancroft said : " The political character of Cal- 
 vinism," with one consent and with instinctive 
 judgment, the monarchs of that day feared as re- 
 publicanism, and Charles I declared it " a religion 
 unfit for a gentleman," etc. 
 
 * Presbyteriauism and the Revolution, 25. 
 t Id. 26. \ Id. 34. II Id. 37. 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 247 
 
 " Show me," said Charles, " any precedent wliere 
 presbyterial government and regal power were to- 
 gether without perpetual rebellious. It can not be 
 otherwise, for the ground of their doctrine is anti- 
 monarchial." * 
 
 "Calvinism was revolutionary," writes Bancroft. 
 "By the side of the eternal mountains, the peren- 
 nial snows, and arrowy rivers of Switzerland, it es- 
 tablished a government without a king. It was 
 powerful in France. It entered Holland, infusing 
 an industrious nation with heroic enthusiasm. It 
 penetrated Scotland, and nerved its rugged but 
 hearty euvoy to resist the flatterers of Queen Mary. 
 It infused itself into England, and placed its plebeian 
 sympathies in strong resistance to the courtly hie- 
 rarchy. Inviting every man to read the Bible, and 
 teaching as a divine revelation the natural equality 
 of man, it claimed freedom of utterance. It in- 
 spired its converts to cross the Atlantic and sail 
 away from the traditions of the church, from hered- 
 itary power, from the sovereignty of earthly kings, 
 and from all dominion but that of the Bible, and 
 such as arose from natural reason and equity." f 
 
 Motleysays: " Holland, England, and America 
 owe their liberties to Calvinists." Ranke, the great 
 German historian, as well as D'Aubigne, say: 
 * Presbyterianism and the Revolution, 28. tid. 
 
^48 COVEiNANTfia, CAVALIER AND POKtTAU. 
 
 " Calvin was the true founder of the American 
 government." Hume, Macaulay, Buckle, Froude, 
 and Lecky all affirm that it was the stern, unflinch- 
 ing; courasre of the Calvanistic Puritan that won 
 the priceless heritage of English liberty." * 
 
 Rufus Choate, speaking of the Calvinists, said: 
 "In the reign of Mary (of England) a thousand 
 artisans fled from the stake at home to the happier 
 States of Continental Protestantism. Of these, 
 great numbers, I know not how many, came to 
 Geneva. ... I ascribe to that five years in 
 Geneva an influence which has changed the history 
 of the world. I seem to myself to trace to it, as an 
 influence on the English character, a new theology, 
 new polities, another tone of character, the open- 
 ing of another era of time and liberty. I seem to 
 mj'self to trace to it the great Civil War in En- 
 gland, the Eepublican Constitution framed in the 
 cabin of the Mayflower, the divinity (theology) of 
 Jonathan Edwards, the battle of Bunker Hill, the 
 Independence of America." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle said of John Knox : 
 "That which John Knox did for his nation, I 
 say, we may really call a resurrection as from 
 death. . . . The people began to live; they 
 
 ■'■" Address of J. H. Bryson, D. D., before Scotch-Irish Con- 
 gress, Vol. II, 101. 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 249 
 
 needed, first of all, to do that, at what cost soever. 
 . . . He is the one Scotchman to whom his 
 country and the whole world owe a debt." 
 
 Mr- Motley, speaking of the influence of Calvin- 
 ism in the Netherlands, says : 
 
 "It would certainly be unjust and futile to de- 
 tract from the vast debt that Republic owed to the 
 Genevan Church. The Reformation had entered 
 the Netherlands by the Walloon gate (that is, 
 through the Calvinists). The earliest and most 
 eloquent preachers, the most impassioned converts, 
 the sublimest martyrs, had lived, preached, fought, 
 suffered and died with the precepts of Calvin in 
 their hearts. The five which had consumed the 
 last vestige of royal and saceredotal despotism 
 throughout the independent republic, had been 
 lighted by the hands of Calvinists. Throughout 
 the blood-stained soil of France, too, the men who 
 were fighting the same great battle as were the 
 Netherlands against Philip II, and the Inquisition, 
 the valiant Cavaliers of Dauphiny and Provence, 
 knelt on the ground before the battle, smote their 
 iron breasts with their mailed hands, uttered a 
 Calvinistic prayer, sang a psalm of Marot, and 
 then charged upon the Guise or upon the Joyeuse 
 under the white plume of the Bearnese. . . . 
 To the Calvinists more than any other class of 
 
250 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 men, the political liberties of England, Holland 
 and America are due." 
 
 Mr. Buckle, not a Calvinist, but often very bitter 
 against that sect, said in his history : 
 
 "In their pulpits, in their Presbyteries, and in 
 their General Assemblies, they encouraged a demo- 
 cratic and insubordinate tone, which eventually 
 produced the happiest results by keeping alive, at 
 a critical moment, the spirit of liberty. . . . 
 Much they did which excites our strongest aver- 
 sion. . . . 
 
 " (But) what the nobles and the crown had put 
 in peril, that did the clergy save. . . . They 
 were the guardians of Scotch freedom, and they 
 stood to their post; where danger was, they were 
 foremost. By their sermons, by their conduct, 
 both public and private, by the proceedings of 
 their Assemblies, by their bold and frequent attack 
 upon persons, without regard to their rank, nay, 
 even by the very insolence with which they treated 
 their superiors, they stirred up the minds of men, 
 woke them from their lethargy, formed them to 
 habits of discussion, and excited that inquisitive 
 and democratic spirit which is the only effectual 
 guarantee the people can ever possess against the 
 tyranny of those who are set over them. This was 
 the work of the Scotch clergy, and all hail to them 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 251 
 
 who did it. To those men, England und Scotland 
 owe a debt they can never repay." 
 
 Again Mr. Bancroft said of Calvin: 
 
 " He that will not honor the memory and re- 
 spect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of 
 the origin of American Independence . . . 
 The light of his genius shattered the work of dark- 
 ness, which superstition had held for centuries 
 before the brow of religion." 
 
 These extracts reflect the voice of history. 
 
 The wonderful record and deeds of Presbyteri- 
 anism in behalf of mankind, can never cease to call 
 forth the enthusiastic praise of every lover af 
 liberty. English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, 
 Huguenot, Swiss and Colonial Presbyterianism, 
 in all its various forms, with the never-failing aid 
 of the humble Baptists, gave freedom to the world. 
 It was the great reforming power of modern times. 
 Its mission was to emancipate, enlighten, regen- 
 erate, educate and elevate the human race; to 
 make it freer and better. It taught the iiumblest 
 citizen to feel that before God and the law, he was 
 the equal of every other man. It shattered and 
 shivered the blind and hoary-headed falsehood of 
 the " divine right of kings," and the sacredness of 
 their persons, and forever exploded and annihilated 
 the slavish dogma of " passive obedience and non- 
 
252 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PDKITAN. 
 
 resistance" to arbitrary power. It broke the 
 shackles of priestly superstition from the minds 
 and consciences of men, and the iron fetters from 
 their bodies. It made man as well as religion free. 
 
 And on this continent, the great reforming 
 forces, the Covenanter, the Puritan, the Pilgrim, 
 the Baptist, the Huguenot, the Dutch, — all of the 
 Calvinistic family, — but always in the van, the 
 Covenanter gave to the world the example of a 
 " State without a king, and a church without a 
 bishop." Whenever this sturdy Covenanter en- 
 tered the wilderness, in Colonial days, he carried 
 with him the Bible, the axe, and a gun, with a 
 blazing torch in his right hand. And thus I would 
 paint him, or chisel him in marble. I would 
 represent him as St. Paul is painted by some of 
 the earlier artists — as earnest, rugged, severe in 
 aspect, with knit brow and pressed lips, with 
 forward step and eye, and his face glowing with 
 the light of faith and hope. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, I bear cheerful tes- 
 timony, as all history does, to the steadfast devo- 
 tion in all countries and in all places, of the Bap- 
 tists to the cause of religious and political freedom. 
 I also give the most sincere and enthusiastic praise 
 to the Methodists for their wonderful work in the 
 reformation of the world, and for their own ad- 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 253 
 
 vancement and progress in the cause of education. 
 At tlie same time, I can not overlook the fact that 
 the Presbyterians, above all other denominations, 
 have been pre-eminently illustrious in the great 
 cause of human rights, and in asserting and main- 
 taining every-where on this continent, in every 
 possible manner, the sacred right of the people to 
 the enjoyment of a free conscience, a free religion 
 and a free State. In moral living, they demand 
 purity and exalted integrity; in the Christian life, 
 self-denial, sacrifice and consecration. The highest 
 and the most e.xalting principles of justice, honor, 
 charity, rectitude and purity of life, from the 
 earliest times, have been inculcated both in the 
 home and in the pulpit. The fruit of the severe, 
 rigid and uncompromising teachings of the Cove- 
 nanter fathers — those stern. Godly men of the 
 early days of the Republic — can be seen, after the 
 lapse of a hundred years, in every community in 
 which they held sway. They can be seen in the 
 obedient observance of the Sabbath, as a holy daj^, 
 in the strictness of family government, in the 
 gravity and sobriety of the lives of the people, and 
 in a reverent respect for all things sacred. 
 
 The record of Presbyterianism in the South is 
 one of which that church may well be proud. In 
 every great movement and work of the age, for 
 
254 COVENANTER, CAVALIER AND PURITAN. 
 
 advancing the condition and the happiness of man- 
 kind, for lifting men up to a higher plane of living, 
 for ameliorating suffering and misery, in the great 
 works of charity and love, and in promoting a 
 Christian morality and a pure religion, that church 
 has always been foremost. And though it is out- 
 numbered by three other churches, yet in main- 
 taining a pure and spotless religion, in all the 
 great works of reform, charity and education, and 
 ill the great missionary work of evangelizing the 
 world, it can securely challenge a friendly com- 
 parison with the records of any other sect or 
 church in the United States. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abingdon, Va., 54. 
 
 Adair, John, C9. 
 
 Adams, John, on Bishops in the Col- 
 onies, 45; quoted on popular liberty 
 in Massachusets, 84; referred to, 
 205; on independence, 86; estimate 
 of number of Tories, 101; John 
 and Samuel, 133; Charles Francis, 
 quoted, 189, 190, 191, 195, 198, 201, 203, 
 205. 
 
 Alexanders mentioned, 130. 
 
 AUeghanics. the. 78. 
 
 American Colonies, 32. 
 
 Augusta Co., Va., memorial from, 51. 
 
 Bacon, Nathaniel's rebellion, 126; ed- 
 ucated gentleman, drew his sword 
 in defense of ancient rights, 140. 
 
 Bancroft on Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
 rians, 42 
 
 Bancroft, quoted as to Quakers, 184. 
 
 Baptists, 105, 121; in the pillory, 185; 
 in the Revolution, 237; number of, 
 238; in education, 239; number of 
 ministers, 240. 
 
 Baptist Church, noble record of, 23C; 
 referred to, 252. 
 
 Battle of Boyne. 28. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, on education, 
 121, 127. 
 
 Bethel Church, a sec«nd League and 
 Covenant signed, 138. 
 
 " Bishops' War," 23. 
 
 Blairs mentioned, 130. 
 
 Boston, people empty tea into the 
 bay, 84; port of, closed, 84; its char- 
 ter revised, 84; heroic conduct of 
 the citizens, 84; Virginia, Mary- 
 land, and New York send supplies 
 to Boston, 85; brave words of Chris- 
 topher Gadsden, 85. 
 
 Book of Discipline, of Canons and 
 Liturgies, 18. 
 
 Boone, Daniel, 7. 
 
 Breckenridges mentioned, 130. 
 
 British policy as to Western sett^le- 
 ments, 76; Indian allies, 76. 
 
 Bruce. Philip Alexander, quoted. 146. 
 
 Bryant's History, quoted, 113, 203. 
 
 Brvson, J. H., referred to and quoted, 
 248. 
 
 Buckle, referred to, 248. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, quoted on the love 
 of liberiy in the Southern Colo- 
 nies, 147. 
 
 Burke, John, quoted, 125. 
 
 Caldwell, J. W., mentioned in pref- 
 ace. 
 
 Calhoun, Patrick, quoted on the Cov- 
 enanters, 152. 
 
 Calvin, John, mentioned, 243; the 
 true founder of the American gov- 
 ernment. 247; Bancroft on, 251. 
 
 Calvinism in Massachusetts, 187; its 
 effect, 1S7; in the Netherlands, in 
 Ulster, in England, in the Dutch 
 Colony of New York, and in other 
 Colonies, 198; defined by Bancroft, 
 245; defined by Fronde, 245; de- 
 scribed bv Viliiers, 245; Bancroft 
 on, 246, 247; Motley on, 247; Charles 
 I on, 246. 247; Choate, Rufus. on, 
 248; Motley on influence of, in 
 Netherlands, 249. 
 
 (3alvinistic faith, 11. 
 
 Calvinistic Puritans of England, 248. 
 
 Campbell, David, on early settlers on 
 the Holston. 162. 
 
 Campbell, Douglas, quoted, 31, 32, 33, 
 39. 139. 157, 182,204; Colonel Artliur, 
 mentioned, 54, 114; Colonel Will- 
 iam, mentioned, 54, 68, 69, 114. 
 
 Carr, Peter, note, 141. 
 
 Catholic priesthood, 11. 
 
 Cavaliers of Virginia hold back, .52; 
 enthusiastic love of England, 86; 
 love of the PZnglish Church, 86; 
 were the petted children of royalty, 
 86; slow to break away from their 
 mother, 86; some never did, 86; 
 others fought bravely for inde- 
 pendence, 87; not the men who 
 started the Revolution, 87; men- 
 tioned, 105; and Puritans, 117; in 
 Virginia, 118, 119. 120; of the tide- 
 water country, 127; hospitality, 149; 
 since the Revolution, 150; their in- 
 fluence on the thought of the- 
 South, 167. 
 
 Channing, William EUerv, 222. 
 
 Charles I, 19,21. 
 
 Charles 11, 19. 23. 
 
 Christian, Colonel, 54, 57. ■ 
 
 (255) 
 
256 
 
 IM)EX. 
 
 Chri»'tian ministry, usefulness of, 2^10. 
 
 Chronicle, Major, 71. 
 
 ('hiirch polity of Soollanrl, 17. 
 
 Church of England, 18, 19: clergv of, 
 19. 
 
 Chnrch, the king head of, 20. 
 
 Cliurch encourages education, 38. 
 
 Clarke, Colonel, 68. 
 
 Clarke, General George Rogers, bril- 
 liant expedition. 7m. 
 
 Cliivurhouse's persecutions, 24, 
 
 Clrtv. Henrv. 210. 
 
 Clfveland, Colonel, 68. 
 
 ('olonial charters, 32. 
 
 Continental Congress. -18. 
 
 Constitution of United States, forma- 
 tion of, 74; Covenanters' part in, 74. 
 
 Common people in Scothind. 11,56, 
 57; join the Reformation, 11; strip 
 the monasteries of images, 11. 
 
 Coinwallls, General, 73, 74. 
 
 Covenanters, League and Covenant. 
 22; signing it. 24 ; banished, 26; 
 many settle in Ireland, 26; prosper- 
 ous there, 27; tlieir habits, 27; de- 
 termine to leave Ireland, 28; influ- 
 ence on the thought of the world, 
 29; not Englishmen, 88; always at 
 war with England, 88; accepted 
 ihe Reformation, 38; denied the 
 right to exercise their religion, 88; 
 heartless atrocities perpetrated on 
 them and broken faitli, 88; flee to 
 the Colonies. 88; they hate En- 
 gland, 90; regarded as responsible 
 for the War of -Independence, 90; 
 in Pennsylvania, they pu<ih the 
 Quakers aside, 9ii; in Virginia, 
 overawe the aristocrats, 90; in 
 North Carolina, in ^onth Carolina, 
 91 ; wrongs recent, 89; old wrongs— 
 memorv of Claverhonse. of Both- 
 well Bridge, 89; of Highland sol- 
 diers—of the old Crtstle of Edin- 
 burgh, 89; influence in bringing 
 on the Revolution, 90; immigration 
 of, facts given, 94. 9o; In New York. 
 96; in New .Jersey, Delaware, Penn- 
 sylvania, North' and South Caro- 
 lina. Kentucky, Georgia, and Ten- 
 nessee, 96. 97; Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi. I^onisiana, Florida, Arkan- 
 sas, settled by them, 98; Texas and 
 Missouri iilso, 98; more than one- 
 half of fihting population of the 
 South, 103; as soldiers, 103; fur- 
 nished a majority of men to the 
 army south of New York, 103; set- 
 tle in the South, 106; and Puritans 
 compared, 108, 109, 110; scattered 
 every-whcre in 1775, 118; their 
 thoughts and opinions in Virginia, 
 118; entering Virginia— spreading 
 westward— building houses— mak- 
 
 ing a Stale, 128; characteristics of, 
 128; they build churches and start 
 scliools. 129; influence in the re- 
 forms in Virginia, 139: Campbell 
 quoted on, 139: influence in making 
 Virginia what it was, 149; superior 
 to the Cavaliers, 150: characteris- 
 tics pointed out, 150; religious lib- 
 erty-toleration, 151; Patrick Cal- 
 houn on, 151; better educated than 
 the Puritans, 155; better than the 
 English, 155; immigrants not chil- 
 dren of ignorance, 156; their edu- 
 cation in Ireland, 156; their work 
 in the Colonies. 156; in North Car- 
 olina, 157; in South Carolina, 158; 
 in Georgia, 159; in Tennessee and 
 Kentucky, 159; in New Hampshire, 
 1j9; Campbell, David, on, 162; not 
 paupers, 162; in East Tennessee, 
 164; in Southern States scattered, 
 165; causes of decline of education, 
 165. 166; influence of, on the thought 
 and institutions of the South and 
 West. 167; forgotten and overlooked 
 —reason of, 160; left their impress 
 on the Southern mind, 172; made 
 the Southern Stares. 172; great 
 names of, 173; in the North-west, 
 174; influence on Southern society, 
 17.); conservatism in religion, 176; 
 reactiouiiry influence of, on En- 
 gland, 182;' drove out the Church 
 of Enghind, 183; and Puritans 
 briefly compared, 183; denounced 
 a union of Church and State, 184; 
 no religious tests, 184; in Massa- 
 chusetts, 201; colonv in Ulster, 201; 
 influence in the South. 204. 206; 
 contrasted with Puritans, 212, 213, 
 214. 215, 216; difficulties, hardships, 
 dis idvaiilageS of, 216. 217,218; built 
 up civilization in South and West, 
 218; have not built up a splendid 
 literature- reasons of, 221; they 
 still reappear in the South, 22.i, 226; 
 molded the institutions of the 
 South, 228; blood of. in all Churcli- 
 es, 231, 232; term no longer means a 
 sect, but a race, 230, 231 ; of Western 
 Pennsylvania ready for the Revo- 
 lution," 46; of New York, 46; every- 
 where active, 51: sustain Patrick 
 Henry, 52. .S7; term used instead of 
 Scotch-Irish— reason therefor, 41; 
 Scotch-Irish and Scotch Presbyte- 
 rians included, 41; their agency in 
 bringing on the Revolution, 42; au- 
 thorities quoted, 43, 44; ministers 
 in the colonies, 38; ministers all 
 educated, 38; ministers establish 
 schools, 38; ministers become 
 teachers, 38; schools that became 
 colleges. 39; fighting on the iron- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 257 
 
 tiers, 75: far-reaching importnnce 
 
 of. 75, SO. 
 Craighead, Rev. Dr., 38, 
 Cumberland settlements, 78. 
 Cummiiigs, Rev. Charles. 53. 
 
 Delaware College, 39. 
 
 Doak, Rev. Samuel, invokes a divine 
 
 ble«sing on solditTs. 70. 
 Draper's King's Mountain and its 
 
 heroes, 67. 
 Dublin. 37. 
 Dutch, referred to, 252, 
 
 Edinburgh, 34. 
 
 Edmonson, 54. 
 
 Education in the Colonies, 7,1, 38, 
 155; higher in Scotland than in 
 England. 155; in Ireland, 156. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan. 222. 
 
 Egle, Henry, M.D., 219. 
 
 Emancipation in the South and West, 
 207, 208, 2(19; in Convention of Xen- 
 nessfe, 210. 
 
 Elizabeth, 15, 19. 
 
 Embree, Eli hn, 208. 
 
 England, 30; Revolution In, 3D. 
 
 English, the, 3-J ; " mainly settled the 
 Colonies, 91; in the Revolution, 
 104; school.*! in Ireland, 36; settle- 
 ments, 37; favored delay and peti- 
 tions as a remedy. 91; people, 108. 
 
 Episcopacy, 19; in the Colonies. 45. 
 
 Episcopal" Church in Ireland, 27; 
 Bishops suspend Presbyterian 
 ministers, 27; Bishops persecute 
 them, 27; Church in the Colonies, 
 62; Church in the Revolution, 63: 
 English nearly all of that Church 
 in the South, 91; clergy in the Rev- 
 olution, 59, 60. 
 
 Episcopalians in Virginia, patriotic, 
 but reluctant to break away from 
 their mother Church, 87. 
 
 Everett, Alexander H., quoted, 58; 
 governor, 210. 
 
 Ferguson, Colonel, 68. 
 Fincastle Co., Va., action of, 58. 
 French army driven out of Scotland. 
 
 12. 
 Froude on religion, 243. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 209, 210. 
 
 Geneva, 32. 
 
 Georgia, 107. 
 
 Germans, 105. 
 
 Gibbon, on usefulness of a religion, 
 242. 
 
 Glasgow, 34. 
 
 Graham, Rev. William, quoted, 132. 
 
 Greeneville College, Tennessee, 39. 
 
 Grey Friars Churchyard, 23; weather- 
 beaten stone in, 24, note. 
 
 riambright,''Co]one], 68. 
 
 Hamerton, quoted. 34. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 74; De Talley- 
 rand's opinion of, 75. 
 
 Hampdcn-Sydiiey College, 39. 
 
 Haywood, historian, mentioned, 168. 
 
 Henry VIU, 8. 
 
 Henry, Elizabeth, 54. 
 
 Henry, Patrick. leads in the Revolu- 
 tion, 52, 87; Everett, Alexander IT., 
 quoted as to, 53; Jefferson on, 52; 
 exclaims. " we must fight," 87; 
 mentioned, 119; defense of Baptist 
 ministers, 120; early habits, 330; 
 studios law, 130; takes his seat in 
 House of Burgesses, 130; his reso- 
 lutions in that body, 131; his speech 
 —opposition to resolutions by old 
 leaders, 132; exciting scenes, 132; 
 mentioned, 143, 144; John, father 
 of P!itri<-k, 130. 
 
 Highland soldiers— their outrages, 
 24; note also. 
 
 Highlanders in North Carolina un- 
 der Donald McDonald, 101. 
 
 Holland, 32. 
 
 Huguenots, 105, 245, 252. 
 
 "Ian McClaren," note, 35. 
 Illinois, legislature of, in 1834, 219. 
 Independents. 30, 181, 188, 
 Ingersoll, Judge H. H., mentioned in 
 
 preface. 
 Intolerance in 1750 in Massachusetts 
 
 and Connecticut, 121. 
 Itinerant teachers, 38. 
 Ireland, 26; lands of nobles confis- 
 
 catpd by James I, 26; planted a 
 
 Scotch and an English colony on 
 
 them, 26. 
 Irish settlements, 37. 
 
 James I, 19, 21. 26, 36, 201. 
 
 James II, 19, 26. 
 
 Jefferson College, 39. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, quoted as to in- 
 dependence, 87; mentioned, 118, 
 119: a vonng law student listening 
 to Patrick Henry, 133; becomes a 
 reformer in the legishiture, 134; 
 why he was such, 134; a philanthro- 
 pist, 136; learned from the Cove- 
 nanter.*!, 135; his inconsistency in 
 his writings, 139: dislike of the 
 Presbyterians, 140; a free-thinker, 
 141; Ins letter to Peter Carr, 141; 
 mentioned, 143. 
 
 Kenton, 77. 
 
 King's Moiintain, battle of, 67, 1|4; 
 importance of, 73; battle fought by 
 (Jovenanters, 67; remarks on, 71; 
 Jefferson on, 74. 
 
258 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Knox, John, 12, 13, 14, 243; returns 
 home, 12; heads the Reformation, 
 12; his character, 18; establishes 
 schools, 33, 50; his declaration, 119; 
 Carlyle on, 248. 
 
 Lacy, Colonel, 68. 
 
 Landlords in Ireland— their exac- 
 tions, 28. 
 
 Laud, 25. 
 
 l>eeky, quoted, 34, 24S. 
 
 Liberty Hull, started, 129; becomes 
 Washington College, 129. 
 
 Logan, James, mentioned, 77, 1C6. 
 
 Tjondonderry, 28. 
 
 Loudon Hill, 25. 
 
 Lowlanders, 25. 
 
 Lnndy, Benjamin. 208. 
 
 Luther, mentioned, 243. 
 
 Macanlay, quoted, 32, 34; on the 
 Scottish preachers. 246. 
 
 Madison, James. 74, 119; quoted, 121; 
 mentioned, 143. 
 
 Mjiry of Guise, 11. 
 
 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. 11, 14, 15. 
 
 Mary of England, 19. 
 
 Mnson, George, mentioned, 118; a re- 
 former, 134. 
 
 Massachusetts, treated as an alien 
 by England, 85; reluctant to break 
 from England, 85; tender tics for, 
 85; ideas all English, 85; soldiers in 
 Revolution. Ill; reasons for, 113, 
 U4, 115; splendid record in the 
 war, 116; narrow and fanaticnl in 
 religion, 186: the Church, the State, 
 186; cruel law quoted, 192; cruel 
 order quoted, 193; women whipped. 
 193; punishment of Quakers, I9-I; 
 leader of advanced thought— claim 
 examined, 201; ca^te in, 202, 203; 
 religious intolerance in Constitu- 
 tion, 205; lovable features of, 212; 
 enumerated, 212.213; swing of the 
 pendulum in, 222. 
 
 Matner, (Jotton, picture of. 184. 
 
 Meade, Bishop, quoted, 124, 125. 
 
 Mecklenburg. Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 64; resolutions, 64; note 
 on, 66. 
 
 Melville, Andrew, 33, 36, 50. 
 
 Mendon, Mass., action of, 55. 
 
 Methodism, 244. 
 
 Methodist Church, 234; itinerant sys- 
 tem of, 235; number of, 238; num- 
 ber of ministers, 240. 
 
 Methodists, 105. 
 
 Ministers of the Kirk, 16. 17, 18; re- 
 quired to adhere to book of canons 
 and liturgy, 21; not allowed to cel- 
 ebrate marriage rites in Ulster, 28; 
 of Knox's school, 216; Buckle on, 
 250. 
 
 Mississippi, the western boundary, 
 
 79. 
 Moravian.'', 121. 
 McDowell, Colonel, 68, 69. 
 McDowells mentioned, 130. 
 Mcintosh, Rev. Dr., referred to, 163. 
 McMastcr, quoted, 106. 
 
 National League and Covenant, ori- 
 gin of, 22. 
 
 Navigation Act, 83. 
 
 Netherlands, 30. 
 
 Nobles, the Scottish, 10; stripped of 
 all power, 10. 
 
 oglelhorpe's colony, 107. 
 
 Osborne, Charles. 208. 
 
 Otis, James, Jr., refuses to prosecute 
 for the Crown, 84; his indignant 
 eloquence, S4; mentioned, 133. 
 
 Palfrey, quoted, 192. 
 
 Papacy abolished, 13. 
 
 Parochial schools in Scotland, 36. 
 
 Parton. cjuoted as to clergy in Vir- 
 ginia, 124; as to Quakers, 125. 
 
 Pattons metioned, 130. 
 
 Pennsylvania people overthrow pro- 
 prietary government, 57; Cove- 
 nanters in, 57; Covenanter soldiers 
 from, 59. 
 
 Pentland Hills, battle of, 23. 
 
 Perry. Prof. A. L., quoted, 159. 
 
 Persecutions, 19. 
 
 Peyton. Bailie, on battle of King's 
 Mountain, 72. 
 
 Pilgrims, the, 182,245, 2-52. 
 
 Plowden. quoted as to "Irish immi- 
 grants" in the Revolution, 59. 
 
 Population in 1776— a majority in the 
 South, 92; in Virginia, 93; in the 
 South, 93; in New England, 93; 
 number of, in all the Colonies iu 
 1775, 93; number of, in States in 
 1790, 93; in New England not all 
 Puritans, 93, 9o; Covenanters in the 
 Colonies in 1775, 94; Covenanters 
 one-third of, 96. 
 
 Presbyterianism in Scotland, 21; gave 
 the world political and religious 
 liberty, 245; what it has done for 
 education in the South, 245; Car- 
 Ivle on, 216; record iu the South, 
 253. 
 
 Presbyterian marriages in Ireland, 
 28; '"'children of such bastards," 
 28; ministers, 37; "Junta," 46. 
 
 Presbyterians, 22, 232, 233; a majority 
 of Southern people. 99; number of, 
 in certain States, 238; in education, 
 2;)9; education of ministers, 240; 
 number of, 240; pre-eminently il- 
 lustrious in the cause of human 
 rights, 253. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 259 
 
 Presbytery of Hanover, 47, 129; sends 
 petiti'>ns to legislature asking for 
 religious liberty, 136; of Hanover, 
 quoted, i;^6; again petitions. 137; 
 six times itpetitions, 137; the" Cov- 
 enanter Memorial," quoted, 138. 
 
 Prestons mentioned, 54, 130. 
 
 Princeton College, origin of, 39. 
 
 Prince of India, quoted, 242. 
 
 Pulpit, the, power of, 141. 
 
 "Puritans of the South," 108; and 
 Covenanters comv>ared, 108, 1(J9, 110; 
 and Cavaliers, 117; in Englmid, 30; 
 at Salem. 30; in New England, 82; 
 feelings toward England, 88; their 
 grievances, 88; neiirly free and in- 
 dependent, 83: not oppressed, 83; 
 resist the writs of assistance, f^^; 
 excitement among, 84; originally 
 Calvinists, 92; their injuries funda- 
 mental in character, 1)2; animated 
 by a love for liberty, 92; their splen- 
 did history since 1761, l&O; briefly 
 compared with Covenanters, 183; 
 the Church, tlie State, 186; the 
 Church absolute, 186; the town 
 meetings undemocratic, 187; laws 
 of. quoted. 192: rrnelty to Quakers, 
 194; gloomy record of, "for a century 
 and a half, 198, 199; doubtful if the 
 best educated people iu the Colo- 
 nies, 200; lovable features of, 212, 
 213, 214; their work, 245. 
 
 Quakers, 103, 121; unfriendly to Cov- 
 enanters, 106; in ihe pillory, 135; in 
 the jail, 136; of Pennsylvania, op- 
 pose the Revolution, 56. 
 
 Ramsay, historian of South Carolina, 
 quoted as to the Irish, 59. 
 
 Ramsey, historian of Tennessee, 
 quoted, 69; mentioned, 163. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, 119. 
 
 Rankin, John, 208. 
 
 Reformation, the, 10. 
 
 Regent of Scotland, 11; plots to de- 
 stroy the Protestants, 11; to annex 
 Scotland to France, 11. 
 
 Religious sects, numbers of, 238, 239. 
 
 Robertson, James, 77. 
 
 Robertson, William, mentioned, 130. 
 
 Romish Church, 18. 
 
 Ross, Rev. D. M., quoted, note, 35. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, note, 80; quot- 
 ed. 162. 
 
 Rutledge, John, 74. 
 
 Schools iu Ireland, 36. 
 
 Scotch-Irish, 41, 108; and Covenant- 
 ers—terms explained, 230, 231; in 
 the South, 204. 
 
 Scotch Puritans, their influence in 
 England and Ameriaa, 31. caused 
 overthrow of monarchy, 31. 
 
 Scotch, the best educated people in 
 E-irope, o4. 
 
 Scotland, common people of, 11, 16, 
 17: Catholic priesthood, 11: people 
 join the Reformation, 11; strip the 
 monasteries, 11; Calvinistio faith, 
 10; Church polity, 17; Parliament 
 reconstructs the Church, 12: Kirk, 
 of, 13; scholars, poets, historians 
 of, 26; rebellion in, 32; people rude 
 and ignorant, 33; schools estab- 
 lished, 33; laws as to schools, 36. 
 
 Separatists, 30, 181, 182. 
 
 Sevier, John, 68, 69, 77, 114. 
 
 Sharp, Archbishop, 23. 
 
 Shelby, Isaac, 68, 69, 114; Evan, 77. 
 
 Slavery in the South-west, 207. 
 
 Smith," Charles Lee, quoted, 158. 
 
 "Sons of Liberty," -16. 
 
 South, public sentiment in, 177; pub- 
 thuigs sacred, 178; public respect 
 for religion, 178, 
 
 Sontheru (Jolonies— intense love of 
 liberty — Mr. Burke on the cause, 
 146; penple, characteristics of, 177; 
 women, tribute to, 177. 
 
 Siamp Act, the, 84, 130, 131. 
 
 States, Southern, purity of blood in — 
 groups of, compared— States com- 
 pared, 99, 100. 
 
 Stuarts mentioned. 130. 
 
 Sunbury colony, 107. 
 
 Sutherland, R. R., D.D., mentioned 
 in preface. 
 
 Sycamore Shoals, 69. 
 
 Synod of North Carolina enjoins 
 "the duty of establishing grammar 
 schools, 39. 
 
 Synod of Philadelphia — its influence 
 "in the Revolution, 47, 48. 
 
 Talleyrand's, De, opinion of Hamil- 
 ton, 75, 
 
 Tax on tea. 84. 
 
 Taylor, Malcolm, referred to and 
 quoted, 61. 
 
 Tea emptied into the bay, 84. 
 
 Thompson, George, 209. 
 
 Todd, 77. 
 
 Tories in the Revolution— one-third 
 the population, 101, 111; their pred- 
 atory warfare, 112. 
 
 Treaty of peace of 1783— western 
 boundary, 79. 
 
 Ulster, 27; very prosperous, 37. 
 University of Aberdeen, 36. 
 University of Edinbugh,87. 
 University of Glasgow, 36, 37, 38. 
 University of St. Andrew, 33, 36. 
 
 Virginia, soldiers in the Revolution, 
 HI; early penal code, 120; penalties 
 in religious matters, 120; early in- 
 
260 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 habitants— who they were. 122: 
 many densely ignorant, 123; life in 
 the upper classes, 124; the clergy- 
 men, 124; Bishop Meade on, 124; 
 condition of Old Virginia gloomy, 
 125; cultivation of tobacco, 12ii; 
 lower classes. 126; not a single 
 great; name, 12ti; penal code not al- 
 ways enforced. 127; New Virginia 
 born, 133; Old Virginia passing 
 away, 133; anti-Revolutionary in- 
 habitiHits, traits of, 144; their" loy- 
 alty, 145; their proud spirit, 145; 
 inhabitants independent, 145; Vir- 
 ginians in the Revolution, 146; Es- 
 tablished Church in, 118; immense 
 size of landed estates. 14S; tobacco 
 passes ascnrrency, 14S; indentured 
 servants, 148; splendid hospitnlity 
 on great estates, 149; no longer a 
 Cavalier State, 150; Covenanters 
 the superior ] ace, 150. 
 
 Washington College. Tennessee, 39. 
 Washington College, Virginia, 39. 
 Washington, George, mentioned, 142, 
 143. 
 
 Washington's chaplains, note, 60. 
 
 Wjitauguand Holston settlements, 78. 
 
 Watauga Association— its memorial, 
 161. 
 
 Watson, Dr. John, 35, note. 
 
 Watter.son, Henry, on the Covenant- 
 ers, 170. 
 
 Wesley, John, 243; quoted, note, 244; 
 friend of Colonies, 244. 
 
 White, Prof. Alexander, quoted, 187. 
 
 Whittier, John G., poet, 209. 
 
 William and Mary College. 123. 
 
 William and Mary — law establishing 
 common schools, 34. 
 
 William II. Prince of Orange, 25. 
 
 Williams, Colonel, 68. 
 
 Williams, Roger, 229, 243; the advo- 
 cate of freedom of conscience, 237. 
 
 Wilson, James, 74. 
 
 Wilherspoou, Rev. Dr. John, speech 
 in Continental Congress, 57; men- 
 tioned, 122. 
 
 Winston, Colonel, 68. 
 
 Writs of assistance, 83. 
 
 Wythe, George, mentioned, 118; a re- 
 former, 134.