be certain of anything. Just now I hear the Baggage Waggons are all coming over the Ferry, it so flutters me I must again break off, but if anything of consequence occurs between this and bed time I will try and insert it. I hope the letter to Betsy on Wednesday came to hand, yours mentioned by Miss Betsy in her last I know nothing of.

General Washington and all his army are come over of this side and marched up to the Falls, expecting the English will cross at the Sweedes Ford. Our fate no doubt will be determined in a very short time,-I hope for the best tho' my fears are great. Our love and regards attend you and Betsy and with compliments to Mr. Young,-assuring you that through all the changes and chances of this poor mortal fluctuating state, nothing I hope will so draw off my attention as to prevent me from devoting some little portion of time for the satisfaction of a friend which by every opportunity you may depend on.

God bless you, Adieu.

FIRST CONGRESS OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN

AMERICA.1

BY FREDERICK D. STONE.

Through the influence of Mr. Thomas T. Wright, a citizen of Florida, and others interested in the subject, there was a meeting of representative descendants of ScotchIrish settlers in America, held in May, 1889, at the city of Columbia, Tennessee. The object of the gathering was the formation of a society for the collection and preservation of material relating to the history of the Scotch-Irish in this country, with a view of setting forth the magnificent achievements of that hardy and energetic race that has stamped the record of its influence on the settlement of our country, the formation of our institutions, and the development of our resources. For these ends a society was formed, and through its members sketches of the families represented and of the race in general, together with interesting relics connected with its history, will be collected and deposited in Princeton College until the society has a permanent home of its own for their preservation.

The proceedings of this meeting have been published. The first part of the volume contains a number of letters received by the committee, the minutes of the Congress, and some of the remarks that were called forth. The second part contains the opening address, delivered by ExGovernor Proctor Knott, of Kentucky: "What the ScotchIrish have done for Education," by Dr. Macloskie, of Princeton; "Scotch-Irish Characteristics," by Rev. John Hall, of New York; "The Scotch-Irish of the South," by the Hon.

The Scotch-Irish in America. Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Congress at Columbia, Tenn., May 8-11, 1889. Published by order of the Scotch-Irish Society of America. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.,

William Wirt Henry, of Virginia; "The Scotch-Irish of Tennessee," by Rev. D. C. Kelly, D.D.; "Scotch-Irish Achievements," by Colonel A. K. McClure, of Philadelphia; an address by Hon. Benton McMillin; "John Knox in Independence Hall," by the Rev. John S. MacIntosh; and "Scotch-Irish Settlers in South Carolina, and their Descendants in Maury County, Tennessee," by the Hon. W. S. Fleming.

Making due allowance for the exhilarating circumstances which called forth these addresses and the surroundings of their delivery, there remains much that is interesting in them, and some facts that will be useful in tracing the history of the Scotch-Irish in America. After reading the volume with care, however, we feel the force of Colonel McClure's wish, that some other than a Scotch-Irishman should write the history of the Declaration of Independence. "The Scotch-Irish cannot write it," he said, "because in writing they would make themselves immortal." The same, we fear, would be the case should one of their number attempt to write a history of the race in this country. With such a magnificent subject he would have to be a man of steel to prevent the blood of his ancestors from carrying him away from his historic moorings and blinding him to the fact that other than Scotch-Irish influences were at work in the settlement and development of the country.

A good deal of surprise was expressed at the Congress that a history of the Scotch-Irish had never been attempted; but we do not have to seek far for the reason. There is ample material from which to speak in a general way of their origin and of their existence in Ireland, but when we come to their emigration to America, excepting the causes which led to it, it is meagre in the extreme. Coming from one part of Great Britain to another, no record has been preserved of their arrivals as would have been the case had they been of alien origin; and all we know is that while a large majority came to Pennsylvania, others settled in Virginia and the Carolinas. The country along the Atlantic coast was then comparatively thickly settled, and the Scotch

Irish took up their abodes on the outskirts of civilization. This was not because the Quakers sent them there, as has been asserted, to protect their own settlements from the Indians, or because the Scotch-Irish did not wish to live near the Quakers, who were continually finding fault with them, but for the same reason that now takes the emigrants to the West,-i.e., because there good land is cheap, and large families can be supported at a small expense. They took with them their religion and their schools, and those in Pennsylvania extended their settlements across the mountains and down the valley into Maryland and Virginia. There they met with their brethren from Virginia and Carolina, and penetrated into the country now included in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. Excepting in a general way the records of this emigration are difficult to trace, and are only found by examining old deeds, wills, and in family tradition.

It must also be remembered that in no way, in the same sense of the word, did the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians settle a colony as the Puritans settled Massachusetts, the Quakers Pennsylvania, the Catholics Maryland, or the Episcopalians Virginia. They belonged to a later wave of emigration than any of the above, and when they arrived on this side of the Atlantic, governments were firmly established. The consequence is that there are no early governmental records that can be quoted as giving expression to their views. Besides this, the worldly condition of many of the emigrants was not such as would permit them to take an active part in political affairs, as the elective franchise was then limited by a property qualification, and some of those who might have claimed the right to vote were too deeply engaged in providing for their families to take an active part in politics. It was not, therefore, until they gained a foothold, and by their thrift, energy, and enterprise made their settlements important, that they exercised any influence in colonial affairs. When this point was gained they brought into public life an element directly antagonistic to the established order of things, and no one can deny that they were

instrumental in bringing about the War for Independence, which they loyally supported. What the result of their influence would have been in Kentucky and Tennessee, where they were pioneer settlers, had it not been for the Revolution, we can only surmise. After that, civil and religious liberty were such cardinal principles of government, that it is not safe to attribute them to any one class. The material for the history of the Scotch-Irish in this country we fear has been largely destroyed. Some portion of it may yet exist in private letters, in church records, and in the diaries that some of their ministers wrote while travelling from one settlement to another. Much can also be accomplished by preparing memoirs, as full of original material as possible, of early settlers in various parts of the country, and this, we trust, will be one of the chief efforts of the ScotchIrish Society.