The Scotch Element in the American People

WHEN we seek information concerning the origin of the people of the United States, we quickly find that the questions of to-day did not suggest themselves to our forefathers. If the good folk of old had only foreseen our quests, they would have provided a great deal in the way of statistics about immigration, so that we might have known whence came the hosts who sought refuge in America, and something of their conditions when they came. As it is, we are left with only bits of general information where we desire accurate data. Yet even the fragmentary truths which can be gathered enable us to know much that is of interest as to the share for good or ill that the various European peoples have had in the upbuilding of our nation. In the case of the Scotch the outlines of the story are clearer than in that of any other of the immigrants. Scotchmen leave a broad and enduring wake in the sea of life; whether they be Lowlanders or Highlanders, we can by names and qualities trace their stock even where, by the strange neglect of traditions so common among the illiterate people of this country. the families have lost all memory of their origin.

Before undertaking to follow the path of the Scotch in America, the reader should clear his mind of certain common misjudgments concerning the folk as they are here, or rather in their own country. It is usually assumed that these people are of essentially one origin: this view is a mistake ; the evidence goes to show that the Lowland population is in large measure derived from the Scandinavians, who in the time of the excursions of the Norsemen occupied the fertile tracts south of the mountains, the neighboring districts of Durham and Yorkshire, as well as the more southern parts of eastern British shore. With this blood of the Dane and Celt was combined that of the more southern peoples of Britain ; so that for a thousand years or more this Lowland district has been the seat of a mixed people, composed of varied stocks, all powerful. An addition of ability appears to have come to it in the refugees who fled from the tyranny of the Norman invaders of England.

On the north, in general, but imperfectly separated from the Lowlands, in the characteristic Highlands of Scotland, the more purely Celtic people long held themselves apart from the civilization of this southern country, which interested them only as a field of forays. The obdurate resistance of these people to the war power of Rome, and England as well, as representing the influences of civilization, has perhaps never been equaled by any other race which has shown a capacity for high culture. With their admirable qualities of body and mind they have shown a curious insensibility to the changes which have affected their neighbors. They held by the Stuart line and by the Roman Church, bearing most valiantly all the sore burdens which their loyalty brought upon them. It may be said that the Highland Scotch are the latest to be modernized of all the peoples of Europe who have taken a large share in its affairs.

There is a common notion that the Highlander is the characteristic Scotchman ; that from his part of the realm have come the literature and the quality of men which have given such deserved fame to Scotland. This is far from being true ; it is from the mixed blood of the Lowlands that has come nearly all the genius and talent in literature, statecraft, science, and war that has so distinguished the Scotch people. The Highlander remains the braw, sturdy, altogether admirable man of the ruder employments, but if he had held the land south to the Tweed, Scotland would have been denied the first place among the communities of equal numbers in the modern world, which, measured by the accomplishments of its children, we have to assign to it.

The quality which, for the inquiry we now have in view, is most interesting in the Lowlander is his singular capacity for rising in the world. The accident of birth has little determining value in his history. Youths from the peasant households quickly become free to the palaces ; education of the higher sort is common in a way unknown in other countries. In fact, the essential American condition of social elasticity exists in southern Scotland quite as much as in our own land. This condition is perhaps due, in both countries, to the considerable admixture of what we may term high-grade blood, to ancestral strains from families of quality and social experience occurring even in families of the poorer sort. The history of the population of the Lowlands, so far as it is known to the writer, appears to support this conjecture.

To whatever may be due the remarkable capacity of the Lowlander to win his way upward, this characteristic makes him the best possible man to go abroad in the world, for it indicates a rare association of qualities, in which laboriousness and adaptability, the two prime needs for successful immigration, play an important part. It is perhaps to this same capacity for independent and well-directed action that we may ascribe the noteworthy fact that the Lowland Scotch have been little disposed to found colonies, but have usually preferred to steer forth alone, seeking their own wherever they might find it. In this regard they seem to differ from the Highlanders, who are less content to merge their lives with the masses of men, and are less skillful in so doing.

The result of this independence of action among Scotchmen, especially among the Lowlanders, makes it difficult to trace them in this country. We can say that here and there, along the Atlantic coast in particular, we have English, French, German, Swedish, and other settlements: we can trace from them migrations of the descendants of the original settlers westward for it may be a thousand miles from the parent station. Not so with the Scotch : excepting the settlement, mostly of Highlanders, in Nova Scotia, of which special mention will be made soon, there is nothing that can be called a Scotch colony on the Atlantic coast. This absolute independence in their migrations seems peculiar to the Scotch.

Like all other general statements, the last needs a measure of qualification. There have been sundry instances in which large numbers of Scotch have come at about the same time to occupy certain parts of this country; the most distinct colony is that of Nova Scotia, or rather Cape Breton, which was originally an independent province. This settlement, which came late in the history of our colonies, being founded after the deposition of the French, was made up almost altogether of Catholic Gaels, the characteristic Highlanders. To this day it remains in quality and in faith what is perhaps the largest and purest body of Scotch Gaels outside of their native country, where the traveler on unfrequented roads may journey the furthest without finding any one to speak English. The obdurate conservatism which has so long held them back in the mother country belongs to them still : they hold to the old faith of Rome and to the songs of their people. I remember an all-night ride in a wagon with half a dozen of these unchanged Caterans, who mixed their whiskey with a ceaseless crooning of songs in their native tongue, and also their oppressive but fruitless desire to bring the stranger into their primitive fun. They have the singular endurance of alcohol which characterizes their kindred over the sea, as is shown by the fact that they are never too drunk to be clever. One evening I was puzzled to find all the men who were on the road exceedingly drunk, too much so to give any account of the occasion for the festivity. At last, selecting one of the revelers, who was on horseback, I addressed him as Tam O’Shanter, — a compliment which he fully appreciated in his toper’s merry way, — and asked the reason for his own state and that of his neighbors. “ What will ye gie me an I till ? ” said Tam. “ What do ye ask ?" “ A drink o’ whiskey.” “ Agreed,” said the questioner. “ Gie me the drink first.” When he had emptied the small flask, “ It ’s nae muckle,” said he sadly, looking at the little vessel as if the pay were inadequate, but he gave the due. “ Din ye ken this is confession day ? and doom a mon who will not get drunk when he has confessed.” For all their retardation and love of drink, the population of Cape Breton is one of the finest in America. It is enough to make any one who has ever recruited a command feel a touch of sadness to see these shapely fellows, so admirably built to be soldiers, going to waste in the ordinary dull uses of civilization.

So far as can be determined by the aspect of the people, — which, be it said, is not very far, — the Scotch of the Nova Scotia peninsula differ from those of the island district in that they are more generally derived from the Lowlands; in fact, as we go west from the Gut of Canso the Gaelic manner and face gradually disappear, until in the meridian of Halifax and progressively further westward the people of southern British origin appear to be as numerous as those of Scottish descent.

It is curious to note that in certain ways the relations of New Scotland and New England reproduce in a more limited field of action those of the mother countries to each other ; in each case, the more southern land offers enlarged opportunities to the talent of its poorer and thriftier neighbors of the north. New England is very fortunate in the immigrants it has received from Nova Scotia. These people are mostly from the peninsular district; so far as I have been able to learn, few come from Cape Breton. Although long upon American soil, these people are characteristically Scotch; even their brogue has departed little from that of the mother country. While the New Englander affects something of the contempt for the “ Bluenose “ that the southern Britisher expresses for the “ Sawny,” he knows, as does the southern Englishman, that the stranger is altogether as good a man as himself ; withal he likes him, and welcomes him to a share in his life more cordially than he does any other foreigner. This is a high tribute, for of all the people of this country the Yankee is the least tolerant of outlanders.

As the Nova Scotians are a strong and prolific people, there is reason to expect — indeed, we may say to hope — that in the future the tide of emigration from their country will become of much importance to the New England district. The draft which the western parts of the United States are making, and are likely to make for some generations to come, upon the original population of the States east of the Hudson River renders it improbable that the original stock of New England will retain the mastery of it. For a while it seemed likely that the Canadian French, prolific as they are, and accustomed to deal with a stubborn soil, would fall heir to the land. There is now reason to believe that the movement of this obdurately foreign element of our American people is to be mainly to the westward, following what may be termed the law of the displacement of our population, and that the same law of movement may bring the people of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to fill the vacant places which the Yankees have left for more attractive fields. This issue we can view with much satisfaction, for the essential qualities of the New England folk are most likely to be perpetuated by emigrants from the maritime provinces. They inherit the same courage of the sea that goes with the viking blood. More than any other American people, they possess the combination of qualities which fits men to meet the trials which await those who have to deal at once with a stubborn earth and with a boisterous ocean. So far, but one stock, that derived from the Scandinavian peninsula, has proved itself able, under such conditions, to rise to a high state. Among the many evils which are likely to arise from a continuance of an insensate hostility towards our kindred English, we shall have to reckon on the arrest of this natural movement of the people from the colonies about the mouth of the St. Lawrence into the New England district.

In Canada, the descendants of the Scottish immigrants are everywhere a conspicuous element in the population ; there more than elsewhere in America the Lowlanders have kept on the frontier, doing the good work of pioneers. In part, their position as borderers has been due to the fact that the Hudson Bay Company, which for a long time held the wilderness of the Dominion, was accustomed to select its factors and other servants largely from the Scotch. Those people to a considerable extent intermarried with the Indians, and their descendants, whether of pure or of mixed blood, seem likely to shape the societies which are to develop in the hyperborean realm lying in the great central valley of the continent, — a region which, though endowed with a fertile soil and rich in mineral resources, needs Scandinavian strength for its development.

From the maritime provinces southward along the Atlantic coast we have to journey far before we find any distinct body of people who are of Scottish blood. To New England, in the early days, the Scotch came but seldom, and apparently in no organized movement. The reason for this is not clear ; it might have been presumed that the likeness of religious aims would have attracted at least the Calvinistic Lowlanders. The colonists of this region, however, were well known to be rather indisposed to tolerate even slight differences of religious opinion. To this humor we may perhaps attribute the fact that the largest and most characteristic settlements of Scotch made within the limits of the United States were established in the region south of the Potomac, in the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. The movements which brought this immigration took place in the eighteenth century ; they appear to have been due mainly to the disturbances which attended the long struggle between the Stuart dynasty and the English people that led to a century of disorder in northern Britain and in Ireland.

To the southern district came excellent samples of the two varieties of Scotch. In large part the Lowland element settled in the region north of the James River, while the Gaelic folk betook themselves mainly to the elevated table - land district of North Carolina which lies between the coastal plain and the southern Appalachians. To the lastnamed region, after the battle of Culloden, came a considerable number of Highlanders, including the famous Flora McDonald, who is said to have sheltered the Pretender under her petticoats when he was in danger of capture. Only a part of these settlers took firm root in the country ; many of them, with the curious perversity of loyalty which so often characterizes the Celtic peoples, refused to cast in their lot with the colonies in the time of the Revolution, and returned to their native country. Those who remained long kept together, retaining their language and habits; it is said that the Gaelic speech and even some of the churches survived until the time of our civil war. Here and there, in the central and western parts of North Carolina, the observant traveler can still note little communities where the aspect and the speech of the people denote their Highland blood. In general, however, it has become mixed with that of the Scotch of the Lowlands and of southern Britain, to form one of the sturdiest elements of our American population.

In Virginia as elsewhere, it is the Lowland Scotch and the Scotch-Irish who have left their mark upon the population and upon the history of the country. The immigrants generally found their place on the western borders of the colonized areas in the Piedmont district and beyond the Blue Ridge. In these fields they were exposed to the Indians and their French allies. Thus placed, their habit of war was not likely to disappear. There are no statistics which serve to show the number of the Scotch immigrants in colonial times. That they came in considerable numbers is indicated by the abundance of the Lowland family names, and by the fact that many Calvinist churches were founded, some of which have remained to this generation. A friend who knows this part of the country well told me that he had attended one of these covenanter churches, and here had heard a hymn with the antiDarwinian lines: —

The Scotch traditions are still to be traced in the characteristic fanatical adhesion to the Jewish method of observing the weekly holyday which still prevails in many of the mountain valleys of southwestern Virginia. A bit of personal experience will show the persistence of this custom. Some years ago it became necessary for me to leave a camp on the Kentucky line before dawn, on a summer morning, for a long horseback journey. I reckoned on a breakfast for myself and my horse at the first house where I should choose to seek refreshment ; but the reckoning was without the host. Again and again I was turned from the doors of good people, who sternly yet sorrowfully told me that I was a Sabbath-breaker, and must go my way unfed. At last, in the afternoon, while there were many miles before me, my horse began to fail, so that I had to dismount and lead him. Coming to a ferry, I begged the ferryman for indulgence. After much debate he agreed that the “ critter ” should not suffer ; in fact, after a while he confessed that as for himself, he did not much believe in this “ tie-up Sunday.” It may be noted that ferrymen, like shoemakers, are an advanced lot of people ; their occupation gives them time for thought. To my suggestion that he might bring me some food from the house, he said that he “ dassent do it,” but that I might try to argue it out with his wife, though it was a poor chance. After a long absence he asked me into the dwelling, where, in the kitchen and very near the door, sat the stern-faced dame, evidently prepared to give judgment against me. It was a situation which called for skillful pleading ; so with my prelude “ beginning doubtfully and far away,” I managed to make it clear that my journey was one of some necessity, and not a mere perverse violation of the law. Then, at the right time, a tolerably apt quotation from Scripture, as a counter to the sermon I was receiving with due humility, brought the judge to the conclusion that the criminal should receive an allowance of bread and milk. This point gained, the way to the well-stocked larder opened, it proved easy, with other selections from the good book, to secure a succession of courses, each forthcoming as a reward for some bit of ancient lore. It is pleasant memory, this, of a hard-featured backwoods saint making her successive expeditions to the pantry, while the hungry fellow was searching the closets of his memory for the wherewithal to pay the price of his meal.¹

When, in the latter part of the last century, the time arrived for the great movement of the Virginia and North Carolina people into the valley of the Ohio, the first emigrants came from the border folk and those who had been engaged in the Revolutionary War. At that time the Scotch families had been long enough on the soil to have reared their children, and even their children’s children. Adventurous people, with a well-affirmed proclivity for war as well as for gain, they freely joined the westward movement. Those of Scottish blood who went to Kentucky were clearly much fewer in number than their comrades of southern British extraction, but, after the manner of leaven, they did much to lift and shape the vast state-making work in the Western realm. The effect of this element in the Ohio Valley, and especially in Kentucky, is most traceable, it seems to me, in the excellent business quality of the people, — that combination of enthusiasm and discretion which at once moves men to extended enterprises and makes them deliberate in action. The spirit of the canny Scot may be traced in every stage of history in the Western commonwealth, from the time when it was seeking its independence of Virginia, through the long and complicated negotiations for admission into the Federal Union, its struggles with the ills of wildcat money, the moral and political trials of the civil war, down to its last decisive action, when, but a few months ago, it pronounced against the debasement of the monetary standards, and smote the gubernatorial candidate of the Democratic party for his failure to abide on the platform on which he was pledged to stand. In all these matters of large politics the people have shown a gravity of understanding which, as compared with other like-placed communities, is exceptional. It may indeed be termed unique. Problems which other States have treated with thoughtless passion they have dealt with in a practical business manner which indicates the existence of some unusual elements. As these qualities are what we know to belong with the largeminded Lowland Scotch nature, it seems not too much to attribute their manifestations to the considerable element of that blood which is known to exist in the commonwealth.

Those who are well acquainted with Kentucky, and who also know Scotland, are apt to remark the frequent likeness of the physical form and the mental quality of the people of the two communities. In each we find plentiful examples of the braw men, — rude-featured giants of the old Scandinavian mould; outgiving in speech in a way that may deceive the unwary into the notion that they are easily seen through, though they are really more hidden than the silent men of other races. In a certain measure this likeness extends to the quality of the voices. An ear attentive to the varied intonations of our people can find traces of the Scotch burr in pronunciation which is so marked a feature among the people of Scotland. I may note the fact that, although I am no sharer in the Scottish blood, and never have been brought into very close relation with any native of Scotland, the impression left by my early life in Kentucky to this day leads people to take me for a Scotchman. Repeatedly it has happened that chance acquaintances of Scotch birth have unhesitatingly addressed me as a fellow-countryman. Before I had ever set foot in the “ land o’ cakes,”one of these fellows, a betting man, offered to wager a hundred pounds that I was a native of that country.

There is a curious difficulty in tracing the distribution of the Scotch, or at least of the Lowland people, which arises from the readiness with which they distribute themselves over any land, — indeed, we may say over the wide world, — and the celerity with which they mingle in the social and business life of the places wherein they cast their lot. In the case of the Irish, the Italians, and the people of some other nationalities which send us large numbers of recruits, the immigrants follow certain beaten paths of westward going; they gather into clanlike aggregations which show how much they depend for support on their original environments. The southern Scotchman, however, shows his larger nature by his capacity to submit himself to any environment and to reconcile himself therewith.

This disseminative capacity of a people is perhaps the best gauge of their fitness to be adopted into our commonwealth. Where it is slight the process of adoption may be very slow, as in the case of the Pennsylvanian Germans, who have not become well diffused at the end of near two centuries’ residence in this country. Where it is great we may have the quick blending which marks the movements of the Lowland Scotch. The government statistics appear to show that, in a general but very indicative way, the disseminative motive is related to the education of the folk. The evident tendency of the illiterate immigrants is to fall into the sinks of the larger cities of the seaboard, while those who can read and write move on into the interior. In a word, as the understanding is broadened, the desire of the man to seek rather than blindly to accept a lot is enlarged. It is due, probably, to the better education of the Lowland Scotchman, as well as to his larger share of constructive imagination, that he has shown a readiness to take the world for his province.

It has often been remarked that wherever you find a Scotchman he is likely to be at the top. Even drunkenness, the besetting sin of his and other strong peoples, does not seem to reduce him to the abject condition to which it brings milder folk. His ascendency is manifest in every field of action, but it is best indicated in business enterprises of large sort. It would be interesting to trace the influence of Scotchmen in the greater commercial undertakings of the New World, but it cannot be done here. It is well, however, to remember that the admirable Darien scheme of William Paterson, which two hundred years ago, but for the supine conduct of the British government, might have given the control of the isthmus to our race, was chartered by the Scotch Parliament, and with a singular enthusiasm promoted by the Scottish people. That wonderful man, Paterson, from a lowly station rose to a position which enabled him to found the Bank of England, accumulate a great fortune, lose his wealth in the greatest speculation of the age (unless that of his countryman, George Law, be given precedence), rise from his ruin and almost from the grave, gain the confidence of his king, and, at his most untimely death, be in a fair way to succeed in the imperial scheme. Packman, preacher, buccaneer, pioneer, a poet in projects, with a genius for shaping them for use, Paterson should have developed in Chicago or South Africa, where the men of his race and quality find in this day their appointed fields. Those who have noted American business life, and have been curious enough to look a bit into the origin of the men who are its guiding spirits, have had occasion to remark how often their names and aspects denote their Scotch descent. As has already been said, this fact is in no wise peculiar to America; it is world-wide in its generality. It would be most interesting to ascertain what were the circumstances of origin and nurture which have served to shape the capacities of these people. To those who are concerned in the great experiment of folk-making which is going on in our country the question is one of exceeding interest. Without overmuch confidence in the results of inquiries as to what goes to the making of men we may essay one answer.

It is well to note, in the first place, that, imperfect as is our knowledge as to the origin of the Lowland Scotch, it is yet evident that the people are of very mixed blood. Upon an indigenous population, probably of Celtic stock, there has been engrafted a body of Scandinavian folk of a kind selected by circumstances for their strength. To this hybrid stock have been added contributions from time to time of southern English who have sought refuge from the religious and political disorders of past centuries. The long and intimate relations between Scotland and France, which are marked in the vocabulary of the firstnamed country, doubtless led to a considerable importation of Gaelic blood; and the endless wanderings of the soldiers of fortune in war and trade may have brought about a like though lesser resort to Scotland of people from many other European countries. Thus, before the modern quality of the Lowlander began to make its great mark in history, conditions favored the gathering into his country of a varied lot of men, who, by the circumstances of their coming, were probably subjected to a considerable measure of selection. Celt, Northman, Saxon, French, and whatever else, were there, united by an intense local life into which there entered a wide range of political, religious, and social loves and hatreds, in a neat little pot of a state that could be conveniently kept boiling by the crackling of abundant thorns.

Add to the other conditions of the Lowlander an early devised and very effective system of public education, — unequaled unless it may be by that of Iceland, — which opened to every likely lad the ways into the broad world, and we have the assemblage of conditions which, so far as we can discern, brought forth this admirable variety of man. If Scotland had been a wide realm instead of a little cradle-place for a race, it would probably have become dominant in Great Britain, if not in northern Europe. With a very small area of tillable soil, the people have had to send forth unending swarms to win chances in other fields. In a way the eastern part of the United States repeats the conditions for the nurture of men which exist in Scotland. During the generations down to the beginning of this century there was here a like mingling of races, with a free though less tumultuous life to bring them into association ; less of strife and of personal loyalty, but enough, perhaps, for the quickening of wits which comes therefrom ; education has had a like place. The result is that, all things considered, the average American of the older States is in his general quality more nearly like the Scotch than like the people of southern England, though the latter are his closer kinsmen. The facts are clearly in favor of the view that the best the world can afford in the way of human product is obtained by mixing the blood of strong, related, but varied peoples.

It is interesting, from this point of view, to compare the mixed race of Scotland with the relatively pure-blooded children of Judea. Those two stocks are clearly the ablest that come into competition in this country, if not in the world at large. They are both very successful in almost all callings ; they ring alike well to all the tests we apply. Yet it seems to me evident that the Scotch are distinctively the stronger men. Even in commerce they are prepotent. Going through the streets of Edinburgh, I found no Jew names on the signs. Making an excuse to talk with an old bookseller, I asked him to explain the lack. His answer was, “ Jews do not do well in Scotland, and if they go to Aberdeen they get cheated.” So, too, in those parts of this country where the Scotch and their descendants abound the Hebrew people are absent or seldom found. In higher politics, the Scotch are likewise successful with us in a degree not attained by the Semitic folk.

A comparison of the Irish in this country with the Scotch — here again the Lowlanders — has been ably made by the writer of the paper which treats of the Irish in American Life.² There remain, however, some matters of contrast, which it was not in his purpose to touch upon, that may find a place here. It is an important point that the Celtic Irish are an unmixed race, perhaps the purest blooded in western Europe ; their geographic isolation having kept them from the intermixture due to the Germanic and other migrations. Along with the Highlanders, the Celtic Irish have dwelt in substantially the same physical conditions as the Lowland Scotch. Like as are these two bodies of Celts to each other, their unlikeness to their neighbors of southern Scotland cannot well be exaggerated. Measured by results, it may be said that the mixed Lowlander succeeds just where the Irishman fails, and fails where he succeeds. As far as civilized men may be so, they are the antipodes of each other, both in their virtues and in their vices. The pure Celt has, to those who know how to take him, the value and charm which belong to a rather primitive man of a high order. The rich fund of simple human nature; the keen, uncalculating sympathy, with its attendant sportive wit; the immediate joy in living, at its best in the moment, with a scant sense of the morrow ; and an honesty that makes him the least furtive of men, are combined with a remnant of the old manslaying brutality which greatly inclines him to violent deeds. For all his admirable qualities, the Irishman fails to fit into the complex of our civilization, apparently for the reason that his talents are too little inwoven with the capacities which go to make up the modern successful man. On the other hand, the Lowland Scot has his original quality, whatever that may have been, — presumably it was Celtic, overlaid by motives of thrift and forelooking, — qualified by a body of impulses which exactly fit the machinery of our civilization and enable him to command all its great engines. He is a much less likable fellow than his primitive neighbor, for the reason that he rarely appeals in so direct a way to the ancient and common body of understandings. His wit and humor — for all said to the contrary, he has a large share of each — are rarely of the fresh, sympathetic character, but relate to a deeper insight; they are apt to be sardonic. The touchstone of his capacity is his business power, that capacity which is the product of civilization, and in a rough way the best gauge of its development ; in this characteristic the Scotchman is clearly the first of his kind. In his ability to win success he has the leading place among men. Against these elements of strength we have only to set the vices of strong men : as a whole the Scotch have the reputation of being addicted to drink, and of being less continent than their neighbors. These qualifications are but general, though they seem to be supported not only by public opinion, but by statistics as well.³

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.