The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-06-02

d nurse OF strong men,.
-Four men in the early history of
this republic stand out as representa-
tive Scotsmen. One is DR.. Wither-
spoon, who had, though by his pro-
fession man of peace, a full meas
ure of the strength Of will and the
combative spirit as we'll as the mental
grasp that belonged to such persons
as Andrew Melville, and to the diyines
who led the Glasgow assembly of
1888. Another was Patrick Henry q
Scotch Irishman about him in his fiery
rhetoric. and with fighting spirit
which was Irish as we'll as Scotch.
The two others were even greater.
One was James Wilson, a man of
wide knowledge and capacious mind,
penetrating and solid thinker. with
grasp Of facts and of principles
which placed him in the front rank of
the political thinkers and constitu-
tional lawyers of that great epoch.
ITO no one man are the excellences
Of your Federal Constitution more
due than to this recent immigrant
from Scotland, who so soon showed
his devotion to his new country. And
the fourth was Alexander Hamilton.
whose name Is too great to need any
tribute Of praise from us today. Tanto
nomini nullum par eu.ogium. Since
that time many eminent men have
been given TO the service of your
country by that same stock. The list
Ia long one, even If I do not include
in 1t that of one worthy who has been
claimed as an ornament of the
Scotch-American race. Capt. Kidd,
the well-known-or. shall I say. tho
notorious ?-pirate.
I'm the list there are four presi-
dents, whose names and lineage are
undeniably Scottish, without counting
other presidents Scotch on the moth
'er's side. There is the greatest of
your chief Justices. John Marshall, in
whose intellect 1t does not seem fam
ciful to discover that Scottish origin
which appears also in his name. But
perhaps the most typical Scot in
character and gifts among your
statesmen is John Caldwell Calhoun.
He applied to politics a thoroughly
Calvinistic theology that formed the
logical precision and stringent SYM
metry OF Scottish ecclesiastics, or
whether they took to the Calvinistic
theology because 1t so exactly suited
their natural bent and taste. might be
curious subject of inquiry. He was
a close reasoner, an inflexible logician,
who carried out his principles with a
consistency which strank from no
consequences. and he had a stern dig
nj, 2 which we'll befltted his intellec-
tual parentage.
Calhoun and Jackson are almost
the last of the men cfaracteristicaIly
Scotch and Scotch-Irish. who hgured d
prominently In your political life.
There have continued to be eminent
men Of letters, though no conspicuous
poet. for Edgar Allan Poe. though of
Irish extraction, was not Scotch
Lrishman. There have been famous
inventors. like Robert Fulton"
Rev. Jere witherspoon. d. D.. Of
Richmond, Va, offered the invoca-
tion. and Rev. David Walter Woods.
Of Gettysburg. Pa, said the benedic-
ton formally concluding the exerici-
ses. Both clergymen are descendants
of the noted divine.
The statue Is mounted on a marble
pedestal. upon the front of which is
written In bronze letters: John With
erspoon, 1922. Scotland; 1894. Prince
ton." On one side Is inscribed "Pres-
byterian minister" and on the other
"Signer Of the Declaration Of Inde-
pendence."
On the back of the pedestal Is a
bronze plate bearing the following
quotation from the famous speech OF
Witherspoon:
For my part, Of property / have
some, Of reputation more. That rep.
utation Is staked, that property Is
pledged on the issue Of this contest
and although these gray hairs mus,
soon descend into the sepulcher,
would infinitely rather that they de.
scend thither by the hand of the exc
cutioner than desert at this crisis the
cause Of my country"