WHY AMERICA WAS BORN FIGHTING? - (America's Scots-Irish heritage, never dominated; "true grit,"!)

MOUNTAIN STATES LEGAL.ORG ^ | NOVEMBER 1, 2004 | WILLIAM PERRY PENDLEY

[CHARLITE]

In the Appalachian Mountains, writes James Webb in Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, “American flags are frequent, on the trucks and in the yards and on the porches. America got bombed and mountain people don’t forget, even if it happened in New York and Washington, because when it comes to fighting wars, mountain people have always been among the first to go.”

In chronicling the Scots-Irish, Webb writes of the people who made him and, he argues persuasively, America what both are today. It is a close call on which benefited the most from that lineage. Webb is a top graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the most highly decorated Marine officer of the Vietnam War, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, a former Secretary of the Navy, author of six best selling novels, including the preeminent Vietnam tale, Fields of Fire, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, and author of the screenplay for Paramount Pictures’ Rules of Engagement. America is, in the words of Scots-Irish Ronald Reagan, “a beacon…for all who must have freedom,” “the last best hope of man on earth,” and, with Scots-Irish like Sergeant Alvin York leading the way, the defender of that freedom.

Who are these Scots-Irish who “shaped America” and why is Webb’s book the first to give what Tom Wolfe calls “the all-but-invisible ethnic group that … created the core beliefs of democracy American-style” the attention it deserves? Webb writes that 27 million Americans are descendants of the 250,000 to 400,000 Scots-Irish who left Ireland during the eighteenth century and “whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlement of England’s Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland.” They settled the mountainous regions of today’s Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Within decades, they had spread to southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; northern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In another generation, they were the dominant culture in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. After the Civil War, they helped settle the Rocky Mountains and the Far West.

Scots-Irish culture, which Webb maintains is dominant among America’s working class, is one of “values-based combativeness, an insistent egalitarianism, and a refusal to be dominated from above, no matter what the cost.” Webb explains why the Scots-Irish “history has been allowed to melt into obscurity.” First, given their individuality and years of arrival, the Scots-Irish did not wish to be defined by their ethic identity. Second, “most literate observers” categorize Scots-Irish with settlers of New England and Virginia. Third, literary and academic types “lump the Scots-Irish in with the Irish themselves.”

In a politically correct world there are more reasons Scots-Irish are invisible. Because of the land they settled they are blamed for the Trouble in Ireland and for taking land from the Indians. Though few owned slaves, they are tarred with the brush of slavery, and, because they fought for the South, “they were the ‘racist’ soldiers of the Nazi-like Confederacy.” Plus, theirs is “a culture founded on guns” and “they are the very heartbeat of fundamentalist Christianity, which itself is largely derived from the harsh demands of Scottish Calvinism.”

Webb celebrates a culture that “shaped the emotional fabric of the nation, defined America’s unique form of populist democracy, created a distinctively American musical style, and, through the power of its insistence on personal honor and adamant individualism, has become the definition of ‘American’ that others gravitate toward….” Yet he does more.

Webb explains the divide, which began during the Vietnam War “along cultural and class lines,” between the political radicals and the “traditionalists who were fighting the war” and feared America was being destroyed. That battle continues today; it is a battle from which those of whom Webb writes will not shirk: “We were born fighting. And if the cause is right, we will never retreat.”

[CHARLITE]

"Scots-Irish culture, which Webb maintains is dominant among America’s working class, is one of “values-based combativeness, an insistent egalitarianism, and a refusal to be dominated from above, no matter what the cost.”

[Hardastarboard]

“values-based combativeness, an insistent egalitarianism, and a refusal to be dominated from above, no matter what the cost.”

Yep. I resemble that remark.

[mlmr]

I read it. Fascinating book.

[redhead]

Same here. I've always been known as a scrapper, even at my age. LOL!

[A.A. Cunningham]

the most highly decorated Marine officer of the Vietnam War

Wonder where the author got that information. While Webb was indeed one of the most highly decorated Marine Corps platoon leaders of the war I believe John Ripley, of the Bridge at Dong Ha fame, earned more decorations in Vietnam.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My grandpa referred to his stock as Scotch-Irish.

[kimosabe31]

Great post Charlite.

[linkinpunk]

Scots-Irish bump.

[porkchops 4 mahound]

"Scots-Irish culture, which Webb maintains is dominant among America’s working class, is one of “values-based combativeness, an insistent egalitarianism, and a refusal to be dominated from above, no matter what the cost.”

He's talking about my Father, and his Father, and...

"No Kings but Jesus!", is what the old men used to say.

Some of them weren't that sure of Jesus.

Just truth.

[CHARLITE]

Me, too. My father was half English and half Scots-Irish. The paternal English line went back to the Jamestown settlement, before 1700. His mother's people were the Scots-Irish. They all came from the N.C. mountains, but by the time he was born, they had come down to Fayetteville.

I never knew a more proud, independent, patriotic American.......and, as all Scots-Irish people are (including myself!), he was admirably rugged, despite the application of learning. The rugged temperament is always in evidence with "my people!"

Thanks for all of your comments!

Long live American Scots-Irish!

Char :)

[exnavychick]

LOL! I'm only part Scots-Irish, and that describes me to a tee. Makes me wonder what I'd be like if I were 100%! :)

[lunarbicep]

bttt

[MARK4]

The most decorated Marine in Vietnam was First Sergeant Shannon Brasher.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Alvin York a Scotch-Irish? My great grandmother was a York and I've killed some time tracing the roots on the family tree and from what I've seen, the Tennessee Yorks came from England, not Scotland or Ireland. The Scotch-Irish have done a lot to settle and defend the country, but I don't think Sgt. York was one of them.

I like James Webb, but in reality I'm not sure that it really matters. The only ethnic group that matters now is AMERICAN.

[CHARLITE]

"The only ethnic group that matters now is AMERICAN."

However, I now have a HUGE problem with Muslim Americans. If you read their "guide book" (called the Koran), you see clearly that allegiance to that chimera named "Allah," created by an illiterate brigand 1,400 years ago (Muhammed), comes first, last and always.

Since they are taught from babyhood that Islam and "Allah" come first, how can they be true, patriotic Americans?...........let alone part of an "ethnic group" that is American?!

They aren't even allowed to associate with non-Muslims, and their marriages are always arranged with other Muslims, so genetically, they will never assimilate, and I dare say not socially or culturally, either.

Char

[Lady Jag]

Yep. I resemble that remark.

I second that resemblance!

[Lady Jag]

1/2 Scot, 1/4 Irish, 1/4 English
& you can't take me down.

[johnb838]

My understanding is that in England, nobody messes with a Scotsman face-to-face. The bloody English may have been able to keep them down militarily, but one-on-one nobody messes wi' a Scotsman, he' clean your clock for ye.

[hedgetrimmer]

Thanks for posting.

[aculeus]

I got this as a Christmas gift and read it here in Virginia's Scots-Irish belt.

A great book.

[CHARLITE]

"My understanding is that in England, nobody messes with a Scotsman face-to-face."

Perhaps the Brits should consider assembling a couple of battalions of Scots to take care of the entrenched British Muslim terrorists.

Char :)

[johnb838]

I believe I remember during Iraqi Freedom there was a situation where a battalion, or maybe smaller, maybe a company or two of Black Watch Scotsmen were pinned down by the Iraqis and they ran out of ammunition. The muzzies thought they had them nailed.

What did the Scotties do? THEY FIXED BAYONETS AND CHARGED THEM WITH COLD STEEL!!!!!! I'd never been so proud to be a dumpy little Burns (not my patronym). They broke out too inflicting serious damage on the enemy. We were all cheering big time here. Those were heady days.

[John Filson]

Perhaps the Brits should consider assembling a couple of battalions of Scots to take care of the entrenched British Muslim terrorists.

Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil...

Just an example, meaning: Sons of the hounds, come here and get flesh.

[djf]

After Edward had William Wallace drawn and quartered, it enraged the Scots so bad they basically kicked butt almost all the way to London. And Robert the Bruce was rightfully crowned king.

But the Scots gave him a firm warning.


To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.

Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner.

The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles -- by calling, though second or third in rank -- the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.

The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.

But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.

Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose Vice-Regent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves.

This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom.

But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.

To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, csating our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought.

May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.

Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.

[Mustng959]

Bookmark for further reading
Signed: a southeastern US born, Irish descendant, American military veteran.

[Fred Nerks]

Here's an example of what the imam tells them in Australia.
I believe those who go to a mosque will never assimilate:


"The likeness of Islam and Kuffar is like that o f fresh clear spring water and water brought up from the bottom of a suburban sewer. If even a drop of the filthy water enters the clear water, the clarity diminishes. Likewise it only takes a drop of the filth of disbelief to contaminate Islam in the West. If we have it within our means we should therefore consider moving to a Muslim lan d whereby we can at least live amongst our brethren and within an Islamic society free from the contamination of the disbelievers.



By Br. Amir Abdullah"

Read more...http://www.frontpagemag.com/GoPostal/commentdetail.asp?ID=12226&commentID=260388

[CHARLITE]

" If we have it within our means we should therefore consider moving to a Muslim lan d whereby we can at least live amongst our brethren and within an Islamic society free from the contamination of the disbelievers."

Fine with me. Before long, we will come to the realization in the west, including Australia, that we have to repatriate every single one of these scum to their countries of origin. Period!

Thanks for the comment, Fred!

Char :)