Among the first of the
thirteen original States two-thirds were of either Scottish or
Ulster-Scottish origin. Of the men who have filled the great office of
President of the United States, eleven out of the whole twenty-five
come under the same category. About half the Secretaries of the
Treasury of the Government of the United States have been of Scottish
descent, and nearly a third of the Secretaries of State.
But it is perhaps in the intangible things that go to the making of
national character that the Scottish contribution to the making of
America has been most notable. In 1801, the population of the whole of
Scotland was but little over a million and a half, and behind that
there were at least eight centuries of national history. Behind that,
too, were all the long generations of toil and strife in which the
Scottish character was being molded into the forms that Scott and
Burns made immortal. It is a character full of curious contrasts, with
its strong predilection for theology and metaphysics on one side, and
for poetry and romance on the other. Hard, dry and practical in its
attitude to the ordinary affairs of life, it is apt to catch fire from
a sudden enthusiasm, as if volatility were its dominant note and
instability its only fixed attribute. And so it has come about that
side by side with tomes of Calvinistic divinity, there has been
transmitted to Scotsmen an equally characteristic product of the mind
of their race--a body of folksong, of ballad poetry, of legend and of
story in that quaint and copious Doric speech which makes so direct an
appeal to the hearts of men whether they are to the manner born or
not.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25