The Scotch-Irish in America. ' by Samuel, Swett Green
32 American Antiquarian Society. [April, THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN AMERICA. ' BY SAMUEL, SWETT GREEN. A TRIBUTE is due from the Puritan to the Scotch-Irishman,"-' and it is becoming in this Society, which has its headquar- ters in the heart of New England, to render that tribute. The story of the Scotsmen who swarmed across the nar- row body of water which separates Scotland from Ireland, in the seventeenth century, and who came to America in the eighteenth century, in large numbers, is of perennial inter- est. For hundreds of years before the beginning of the seventeenth centurj' the Scot had been going forth con- tinually over Europe in search of adventure and gain. A!IS a rule, says one who knows him \yell, " he turned his steps where fighting was to be had, and the pay for killing was reasonably good." ^ The English wars had made his coun- trymen poor, but they had also made them a nation of soldiers. Remember the "Scotch Archers" and the "Scotch (juardsmen " of France, and the delightful story of Quentin Durward, by Sir Walter Scott. Call to mind the " Scots Brigade," which dealt such hard blows in the contest in Holland with the splendid Spanish infantry which Parma and Spinola led, and recall the pikemen of the great Gustavus. The Scots were in the vanguard of many 'For iickiiowledgments regarding the sources of information contained in this paper, not made in footnotes, read the Bibliographical note at its end. ¡' 2 The Seotch-líiáh, as I understand the meaning of the lerm, are Scotchmen who emigrated to Ireland and such descendants of these emigrants as had not through intermarriage with the Irish proper, or others, lost their Scotch char- acteristics.
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