Date
7-22-2025
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)
Chair
John Devanny
Keywords
Scots Irish, Frontier, Violence, Paxton Boys Rebellion, Regulator Movement, American Revolution, Whiskey Rebellion, First Party System, War of 1812, American System, Missouri Compromise, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Felix Grundy
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Huffaker, Kacey Mae King, "Peaceably if We Can, Forcibly if We Must”: The Scots Irish and Early American Politics" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7245.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7245
Abstract
The saga of the Scots Irish is a story of generational movement. They moved from a barren existence in the Scottish Lowlands to the plantations of Ulster in Northern Ireland. They moved from economic, religious, and political oppression in Northern Ireland to the American colonies seeking land and opportunity. When they arrived in the American colonies, they found land and opportunity on the frontier. Life on the frontier pushed them to the periphery of society. Living on the fringes of society isolated them from the political and economic centers of colonial life. Vulnerable and disregarded, Scots Irish settlers refused to be pigeonholed. Once again, they moved; however, their movement was remarkably different compared to previous movements. Rather than moving physically, they moved politically. They advocated for their rights, they petitioned the government for redress, they provided for their own defense, and employed violence to achieve their aims. When the use of violent upheaval failed to yield the results attained prior to the creation of the government established by the United States Constitution, they moved in a different direction to achieve political recognition. Energetic, politically ambitious, and singularly able young men from Scots Irish communities scattered along the Southern and Western frontiers were elected to Congress and infused their cultural characteristics into their work and the values of their society into their political aims. The development of a Scots Irish ethnic political identity eventually led to the transformation of the first party system with the fusion of Republican and Federalist policies after the War of 1812, thus pushing Congress toward becoming a more a responsive, proactive branch of government dedicated to the promotion of national economic development, a strong national defense, and territorial expansion.
