The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-10-16
SC0TCH-IRISHP REsBYTER|ANS
Interesting Address Delivered by Rev. }. M. Dallas al
the Unwilling of a Tablet to Their rlemory at
Ole GreenviIle Church, Sunday, Oct. 9, 1912.

W. ~
the southwest counties of Scotland.
From their mountains and valleys
they could look across the Irish sea,
and sec the green hills Of Ireland
shining through the mistS like gems.
Little did many Of them think that
these same hil!sides were to be the
future homes OF their children for
many generations.
Those Scottish men and women
were artisans and small farmers.
They led simple, austere lives, finding
it hard work to win their bread from
the wet and untruitful soil. Their
homes were poor cottages, built OF
stone and matched with straw or
heather, while their implements of
%husbandry were OF the most prlml-
tive kind. They had to pay big rents
to the lords who owned the land, and
when the harvests turned out badly
they were often brought to he verge
OF starvation.
They were Puritans Of the stern
est type. Their sufferings a MADE
them so. No people had SACRIFICED
more than they had done in the aus
of civil and religious liberty. They
were denied the right TO worship in
their churches, their homes had been
burned to the ground, they were hunt
ed like wild beasts from valley to
valley, when they attempted to meet
and worship God according to their
conscience. They were Protestants pc
fore the Reformation. Although the
old Culdee church seemingly had dis
appeared from Scotland for three
hundred years, and the Roman Cath
Ollie church had full control OF the
nation, yet in the hearts and lives OF
those people the ancient church OF
their native land found a refuge. Inc
love OF the precious Word, her simple
rites, her Unborn love OF the rights of
man, were interviewer in the woof
and fiber of their character. Do you
wonder that they counted not their
lives dear that were sacrificed In such
q cause? What strong conviction
they must have had to endure with
such heroic fortitude the awful SUI
ferings of that period in Scottish
history, called the killing Time"
rather than surrender their Presby-
terrain principles. The bloody Claw
erhouse and his wild dragons utter
" failed in their mission OF making
them conform to a church they did
not love. Not even when thousands OF
them had become martyrs for their
faith, would they desert the blue flag
of their church. Christ's crown and
covenant were Of more value to them
than the favor of kings.
No church on earth has a grander
roll Of saints on her calendar than
..s yITlo, %Lo,, loSt thnir nofiva lonH
to seek a new home in Ireland they
carried their religious convictions
with them. They have been living
there now in the province OF Ulster
for three hundred years, a nation
within a nation, still Scotch to the
core and as devoted and loyal to the
Presbyterian church as they were
while living in the misty romantic
glens of old Scotia. In some things,
however, there had been a change in
their character. Their residence in
Ireland has not been M Of continued
peace. They have suffered much and
have often been oppressed by the ma
tive Irish who have always looked
upon them as intruders. This environ
ment has produced a type Of men we
call S~cotch-Irish. They have caught
something Of the warm hearted witty
nature Of the natives while retaining
in an intense degree the strong virile
patient character of the Scot. These
characteristics have made them a
mighty force in the world, and we
have felt it here in America. At least
five of our presidents have been
Scotch-Irish, and the month Of No
rember may bring US another.
1t was the Most High and Mighty
Prince James, styled King Of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, Defend
er of the Faith, that conceived the
idea that your fathers might prove a
blessing to his turbulent provinces of
Ulster if he could only induce them
to settle there. Historians tell us that
this prince was far from being the
mighty prince that he was described
on the fly leaves of our old Bibles.
He was called by one of them the
"wisest fool in Christendom," and
was a queer mixture of weakness and
learning. Although brought up under
the influence Of the Presbyterian
church, he had no love for our Com
munion, declaring that our system of
government twas too democratic and
very ~antagonistic to his kingly digni-
ties. He said that without bishops
there could be no king. therefore
called our church Gods silly peo-
pie" when he would have forced bish-
ops upon our fathers, against their
convictions and without their con-
sent. He, however, had wisdom
enough to know that his Scottish sub
jects were even in those days the
best farmers in the world, and just
the kind Of men to transform the wild
lands of Ulster into productive farms
and prove a buffer state to the natives
who were in a continual state of re-
bellion against his authority. Offering
them new and cheaply rented land he
induced many of your fathers to leave
Scotland and found new homes in
Ireland in 1911. The emigration thus
started has one on more or less even
to the present day. Between the date
Of the first migration and the battle
Of the Boyne it was estimated that no
less thar fifty thousand Scottish fam
lilies had settled in Ulster. They have
by their thrift and industry trans
formed the widest and bleakest part
of Ireland into a land of smiling
farms, and have founded and fostered
an industrial city called Belfast, that
is the pride Of Irishmen Of all creeds
and conditions.
1t is oven two hundred years siRce
the attention OF your ancestors ives
directed to the Carolinas as a suit
nh1n nN1ntrH ~ oatt1n fp foxy In