to frame a constitution he displayed great knowledge of legal questions and urged the abolition of religious tests.  In June, 1776, he was elected to the Continental Congress, and in the course of the debates he displayed little patience with those who urged half measures.  When John Dickinson of Pennsylvania said the country was not ripe for independence, Witherspoon broke in upon the speaker exclaiming, “Not ripe, Sir!  In my judgment we are not only ripe, but rotting.  Almost every colony has dropped from its parent stem and your own province needs no more sunshine to mature it.”  He further declared that he would rather be hanged than desert his country’s cause.  One of his sons was killed at the battle of Germantown.

SCOTS IN THE PRESIDENCY

Of the twenty-nine Presidents of the United States five (Monroe, Grant, Hayes, Roosevelt, and Wilson) are of Scottish descent, and four (omitting Jackson who has been also claimed as Scottish by some writers) are of Ulster Scot descent, namely, Polk, Buchanan, Arthur, and McKinley.  Jackson may possibly have been of Ulster Scot descent as his father belonged to Carrickfergus while his, mother’s maiden name, Elizabeth Hutchins, or Hutchinson, is Scottish.  She came of a family of linen weavers.  Benjamin Harrison might also have been included as he had some Scottish (Gordon) blood.  His wife, Caroline Scott Harrison, was of Scottish descent.

James Monroe, fifth President, was descended from Andrew Monroe, who emigrated from Scotland in the middle of the seventeenth century.  President Grant was a descendant of Matthew Grant, who came from Scotland to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630.  George Hayes, ancestor of Rutherford B. Hayes, nineteenth President, was a Scot who settled in Windsor prior to 1680.  Theodore Roosevelt was Dutch on his father’s side and Scottish on his mother’s.  His mother was descended from James Bulloch, born in Scotland about 1701, who emigrated to Charleston, c. 1728, and founded a family which became prominent in the annals of Georgia.  Woodrow Wilson’s paternal grandfather, James Wilson, came from county Down in 1807.  His mother, Janet (or Jessie) Woodrow, was a daughter of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, a native of Paisley, Scotland.  James Knox Polk, eleventh President, was a great-great-grandson of Robert Polk or Pollok, who came from Ayrshire through Ulster.  Many kinsmen of President Polk have distinguished themselves in the annals of this country.  James Buchanan, fifteenth President, was of Ulster Scot parentage.  Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first President, was the son of a Belfast minister of Scottish descent.  William McKinley, twenty-fifth President, was descended from David McKinley, an Ulster Scot, born about 1730, and his wife, Rachel Stewart.  The surname McKinley in Ireland occurs only in Ulster Scot territory.

SCOTS AS VICE-PRESIDENTS