It is always a difficult to measure the critical nature of the days in which one lives. There is of course, a sense in which every generation should feel itself to be crucial to posterity. For truly, it only takes one generation’s unfaithfulness to undermine the future of a people and a culture. It seems we are living in a particularly momentous juncture in our people’s history.

The future of the Scotch Irish depends upon how we the people respond to the challenges of the hour. We will focus upon the thirty year period immediately preceding the War for Independence, and up to the 1798 Rebellion in Ulster.

Though there are dissimilarities, there are very many similarities between our own day and those periods which ought to be noted.

During this period the British were treating the Scotch Irish Presbyterians in the USA and Ulster appallingly, for an example Presbyterians citizens of Ulster were not automatically free to worship God in whatever way they desired.

The Biblicism of Ulster Presbyterians meant that they took most seriously scriptural concern for social and political justice. When oppressive, despotic British and Irish governments denied them civil and religious liberty, liberal Presbyterians in late 18th century Ulster began to clamour for constitutional reform of their British parliament. Political questions, they contended, were ultimately moral and religious concerns and Presbyterians saw it as their duty to create a just society; the state needs be 'born again'.

By the archaic Test Act (1704), Presbyterians were barred from holding public office- unless they took the communion sacrament according to Church of Ireland rites. James Hope recalled the injustice: "The people were excluded from any say in the framing of the laws by which they were governed. The higher ranks usurped this right as well as many other rights, by force, by fraud and by lies. It was by force that the poor were subdued and dispossessed of their land and by fiction that the titles of the spoilers were established". That they felt so disenfranchised was particularly bitter for Ulster Presbyterians whose forefathers had suffered and died for the Crown at the Siege of Londonderry, Enniskillen and the Battle of the Boyne.

The Episcopal Church of Ireland, being the officially approved Established church (of landlords and aristocracy) forced Presbyterians and other Dissenters by law to financially support the Church of Ireland, through payment of tithes; this provoked deep resentment. Ulster Presbyterians deeply resented being obliged to submit to, support and obey the Episcopalian church interests of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy.

Punitive restrictions by the English government cramped the industrial and commercial potential of Protestant Ulster, thereby promoting growth in Britain. Landlords inflated the landholding rentals of Presbyterian tenant farmers in order to subdivide and re-let the land to Catholic tenants. This oppressive system of government led to the formation of the 'Hearts of Steel', the 18th century equivalent of a Protestant terrorist group. Their aim was to terrorize landlords and their agents who imposed high rents and fines. Support for the 'Steel Boys' was not total but their leaders won the respect of many amongst the mainly Presbyterian Scots-Irish. The combination of a new political thinking and oppression would soon give rise to yet another bloody chapter in the history of the Scots-Irish.

For both political and economic reasons then , some 200,000 Presbyterians quit Ulster and embarked on the long, hazardous crossing of the North Atlantic to the colonial New World. But contact was maintained with their kinfolk back in Ulster.

This lead to Ulster being further politicized when emigrants wrote home of British unfairness in the treatment of the Scotch Irish American colonists. These Scotch Irish dominated the population of the Middle and Southern Colonies of the USA. Because of there support for Ulster and a will to be free, the British destroyed more than fifty Presbyterian churches and defaced many others.

In The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, W. P. Breed points out, "To the privations, hardships and cruelties of the war the Presbyterians were pre-eminently exposed. In them the very essence of rebellion was supposed to be concentrated, and by the wanton plundering and excesses of the marauding parties they suffered severely.

200,000 Protestants left Ulster during the disastrous period 1725-1768. Another thirty thousand came during the years 1771-1773. When the Revolution broke out, there were approximately 500,000 'Scotch-Irish' in America, one-sixth of the total population of the USA.

They were now staunchly anti-British due to the treatment of Protestants in Ulster and in the USA and this was to prove invaluable to the military efforts against the British but also would be massively influential in the form and structure of the new government.

When the colonial forces assigned to defend Boston arrived in that city, they were shocked to find what the British had done: "The Old Presbyterian South Church had been desecrated, wantonly and calculatedly. ‘Gentleman Johnny’ Burgoyne ( British Army) had turned it into a riding academy for the cavalry of his regiment! ‘The pulpit and all the pews had been taken away and burned for fuel, and many hundred loads of dirt and gravel were carted in and spread upon the floor.

The south door was closed, and a bar was fixed, over which the cavalry were taught to leap their horses at full speed. A grog shop was erected in the gallery . Also just as in Ulster many Presbyterian ministers lost their homes and property.

When rebellion against the British broke out in the American colonies, Ulster Presbyterians naturally sympathized with their relatives. The Crown's Lord Lieutenant in Ireland received countless petitions from Ulster Presbyterians that the American Scotch Irish settlers should be treated with greater consideration.

Presbyterian emigrants from Ulster were to the fore in the American war of independence. The first copy of the Declaration of Independence to be printed outside of North America appeared in the pages of the 'Belfast Newsletter'. Ulster learned much from their American brethren about how politics could be radically shaped. "Presbyterians supported the cause of independence; and indeed the American revolution was but the application of the principles of the Reformation to civil government." (History of the United States of America from the Discovery of the Continent, vol. VI, p.271)

The entire idea of the covenant and the concept of the right of resistance to tyranny were most important in the fight for independence.

There were around 30,000 German mercenaries used by England in the fighting, one of them wrote home as follows,

"Call this war . . . by whatever name you may, only call it not an American Rebellion, it is nothing more or less than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion." (Quoted in Mark Noll, Christians in the American Revolution, pp. 51,52)

Below is the first section of

The

Declaration

of

Independence

In

CONGRESS,

July 4,

1776

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

During the American War of Independence, the British navy was sorely stretched and unable, at times, to defend the coasts of Britain and Ireland. With the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland (for the American war), the defense of Ireland fell on private, volunteer corps.

This produced an opportunity for the Irish Parliament to seek a degree of independence, which it achieved under Grattan in 1782. However a growing number of figures in Scots-Irish society felt that true independence was now necessary. 'Volunteer' companies, (the first of which was created in Belfast in 1778), were carefully organized, well disciplined and equipped, with musket and cannon. Presbyterians joined the Volunteers in large numbers.

By the 1780s, there were some 80,000 Volunteers. After the American war, the Volunteers concentrated more on politics rather than military security. They complained about oppressive laws and sought legislative reform of the Irish parliament. In the 1790s, Scotch Irish Protestants and Catholics took fresh hope and inspiration from the promise of French support. Many admired as Revolutionary France's principles of 'Equality, Fraternity & Liberty'. The fall of the Bastille was celebrated in Belfast as symbolizing an overthrow of the old, repressive and unjust order.

From 1793, France was at war with England, Britain now deployed some "dirty tactics" they could ill afford a seething, pro-French, Irish state and an army of Scotch Irish Presbyterians at her back.

The 1790s saw thousands of Presbyterians swear allegiance to a political brotherhood which had been established in Belfast in October 1791: the Society of United Irishmen. The original aim was an avowedly non-sectarian, middle-class aspiration for both radical reform of the Irish Parliament. Almost from the start, however, internal contradictions within the movement threatened its cohesiveness. United Irish and Scotch Irish idealists saw nothing but good in their simple desire to obtain their democratic 'rights of man': improvement of living standards or conferring on every man an equal right to vote, no matter their class or religion.

The Establishment - upper-class Anglo-Irish and British landowners - however, saw this as a serious threat to their control of local political power. The British remained unsympathetic to calls for reform of the parliament and harassed suspected sympathizer's, which intensified resentment.

By 1795, anticipating that peaceful, legal methods might not win constitutional reform, the Irish and Scotch Irish "United Irishmen" in Ulster began acquiring arms. Not all of Ulster's Presbyterians supported the United Irishmen: whereas some dared to hope for Liberty and progress, many feared social and constitutional chaos. A significant split appeared among the Ulster Presbyterians: should Catholic emancipation be immediate or gradual? Many were of the opinion that such justice was patently necessary and deserved by all Catholic citizens.

For about 40% of the Presbyterian community in Ulster emancipation could be condoned as long-term gradualism, but to grant such citizenship too soon might destabilize society, leading to a renewal of sectarian targeting of vulnerable Presbyterians as 'settlers' (as had happened in 1641 and 1690). Many Presbyterians began to distance themselves from the increasingly radical movement.

In 1792 (and again in 1793) the government undermined Catholic support for the United Irish through the enactment of catholic relief acts. This, together with the overwhelming numbers of Presbyterians in Mid-Antrim, meant that those who rebelled at Antrim in 1798 were almost exclusively of the Presbyterian religion.

As the Society tried to spread their philosophy mistrust continued to reign in counties such as Armagh and Tyrone. Indeed as the Society spread a sectarian incident in Co. Armagh between the Catholic Irish 'Defenders' and the Protestant 'Peep O'Day Boys' would lead to the founding of the 'Orange Order'

When four Irish newspapers reprinted all of Tom Paine's revolutionary book 'Rights Of Man', Ulster's Presbyterians read avidly (and it was proclaimed as 'The Bible of Belfast'). Some 40,000 copies of the book sold in Ulster.

With the success of revolution in America, Paine encouraged expectations of similar success in imminent European uprisings against reactionary governments. Wishing freedom and happiness to all nations, Paine prompted: "It is not difficult to believe that the spring is begun". However, Paine's follow-up book - 'The Age Of Reason' - trivialized Christian scripture, which disillusioned many Ulster Presbyterians.

As time went on, Presbyterian unease about the aims of the United Irishmen grew. There was particular weariness with the 'French dimension'. At first, they had supported the French Revolution as a constitutional revolution (cf. 1688 in Britain). However, as French aggression mounted - execution of Louis 16 and Marie Antoinette, a declaration of war between France and Britain, the growing Reign of Terror and mass executions - disillusioned Presbyterians in Ulster worried that sedition in Ireland could only lead to disaster; more moderates deserted Ulster's United Irishmen.

In Dublin Castle, British government officials determined that they would not be caught in the 1790s as they had been during their American war. So they set about securing the military defense of Ireland with a counterrevolutionary campaign, this also involved propaganda which was designed to turn the Ulsterman into a British citizen who would be more British than the British themselves,amongst other things they set about educating then as such this still prevails even today."A point not lost here is the fact that the Protestant children of Ulster who attend State school's today are to this day taught little or nothing of their Scotch Irish history or culture, the education system instead focusing on English History.

As well as providing regular army regiments, fencible regiments were set up to provide a (mainly Catholic) Home defense reserve (e.g..Monaghan Militia). Professional soldiers trained townsfolk loyal to the Crown. These counterrevolutionary yeomanry corps were financed and equipped by the government to secure local control.

They were encouraged to harass (and disarm) the Presbyterians. That the yeomanry enrolled members of the Orange movement , increased Catholic support for the Defenders movement and encouraged their alliance with the United Irishmen.

In 1796, an Insurrection Act, together with the Arms and Gunpowder Bill, frustrated political ambitions of the Scotch Irish still further. The British plan now was to drive a wedge between the Catholic population and rebellious Scotch Irish Dissenters, the government were fairly successful in dissipating Catholic discontent by offering or promising significant relief measures (eg. The catholic relief acts, 1792, '93). Paid informers were officially infiltrated throughout the organization of the United Irishmen; a constant destabilizing factor for the movement.

Wherever disloyal communities Scotch Irish and Irish were identified, the government resorted to ugly coercion: troops were billeted on the area, homes were ransacked and arms sequestrated, young men were arrested, interrogated, often tortured and shot. Confidence among rank and file supporters of the United Irish was further undermined.

Indeed, some landlords were quite appalled at what was happening: in the House of Lords (Westminster parliament), Lord Moira described how "Scotch Irish men have been half-hanged and then brought to life in order - by fear of having the punishment repeated - to induce them to confess the crimes of which they had been accused".

In May, 1794, the government suppressed the United Irish, driving it underground. In Belfast, the northern movement was restructured along revolutionary lines by its (Presbyterian) leaders: Neilson, Russell, Robert Simms, William Simms, Teeling and Henry Joy McCracken.

In Belfast, there radical journal - The Northern Star - was closed down by the military. In Belfast, on 16 September 1796, government troops seized many prominent leaders. The previous day, they had targeted one particular activist: Antrim town citizen, William Orr. Orr's fate "brutal execution" did much to stem the dissipation of Northern Presbyterians' enthusiasm for United Irish ideals.

General Lake's disarming of the north during 1797 and imposition of martial law ensured that only the most radical Presbyterians would 'Turnout' at Antrim in 1798.

This event in the history of the Scots-Irish would now set the basis of Protestant thinking in Ulster for the next two hundred years. Any thoughts independence for Ulster would be seen to consider failure and more importantly the downfall of Protestantism.

However for a brief period the Scotch Irish had shown a rare glimpse of the possibilities in Ulster and in their aspirations, they were amongst the most democratic and non-sectarian political leaders Ireland has ever seen. The Scotch Irish lost to British myth, tyranny and propaganda a hope of having a country to call there own, a country which after hundred's of years and countless generations deserves to be just that, a country for their own Northern Ireland.

There was then a need for good and Godly leadership to point the way by word and deed, by instruction and example. So it is today. The present leaders and candidates for public office in Northern Irelands Castle Buildings, Dublin and Westminster provide tragic testimony to the loss of leadership for the Scotch Irish as a people in Ulster. May be its time today's Scotch Irish man looked back into the depths of History to what there forefather's did in the United States of America and in Ulster.

Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Scotch-Irish or Scottish and the document itself was styled, in some cases word-for-word, after the Arbroath Declaration of Independence of 1320 which accompanied the ascent of Robert the Bruce to the throne of Scotland. Other parts of the U. S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were styled, again word-for-word in places, after Scotland's National Covenant of 1638.

The Arbroath Declaration reads in part "...it is not for glory we fight, for riches or for honors, but for freedom alone, which no good man loses but with his life."

Nowhere else on earth at that time or for that matter, in human history, were documents of this magnitude in the expression of human freedom being drawn up and fought to the death for. To deny the Scottish and Scotch-Irish influence in the freedom of mankind is to deny history.

The Scotch Irish won Freedom, justice and equality in the USA, they much deserve the same in Ulster today.