Scots-Irish Immigrants in America

By Nancy Beardsley
The late Johnny Cash was a preeminent 1 symbol of country music in America. He was also Scots-Irish, a product of the Southern rural culture where that music was born.

James Webb says "country music came out of this culture, and yet it's a uniquely American phenomenon right now."

That's just one of many ways the Scots-Irish shaped America writer James Webb in his book "Born Fighting". Their ranks also include the frontiersman Davy Crockett, actor John Wayne, General George S. Patton, writer Mark Twain and Presidents Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. James Webb is Scots-Irish himself, and he wrote "Born Fighting" partly out of pride in his heritage. "And I also kept thinking about the way that particularly new immigrant groups over the past 25 or 30 years tend to think that white America is a monolith, that there are not all of these stratifications in it. And I basically said, I want this culture to take its place in American history for the contributions that it's made."

Not to be confused with the English or the Irish Catholics, America's Scots-Irish immigrants were descended 2 from the Celtic tribes of Scotland. They came to the New World by the hundreds of thousands starting in the 1700s, many by way of Northern Ireland. They became one of the dominant 3 groups in the Appalachian Mountains of the American southeast, then fanned out across the country:

"It's always been a restless, keep moving culture, which worked against them in terms of ownership and passing things on to their families, but If you want someone to go out and settle wilderness 4, this is the culture you want to call on." said Mr. Webb.

And while they've intermarried with other groups, James Webb says the Scots-Irish can still be distinguished 5 by core traits that helped define working-class America. "Many of them are very religious, and the core of the Christian 6 right actually comes out of the culture. And yet on the other hand, it's rebellious 7, it's hedonistic. It's famed for moonshine (liquor brewed 8 illegally). A lot of the great whiskey came out of the Appalachian Mountains, and that's how NASCAR racing 9 evolved. The moonshine runners were famed for the way they could take those mountain roads, and they put it into a different format 10."

The Scots-Irish have also been fierce fighters, their military skills forged in Scotland by centuries of struggle with England. One of their great heroes was the thirteenth century Scotsman William Wallace, portrayed 11 by Mel Gibson in the movie Braveheart. James Webb says "He was able to rally the common people to his side when the English king wanted to conquer the country. And he epitomizes the character the Scots-Irish brought with them to here."

Scots-Irish immigrants accounted for at least one third of the troops in the American Revolutionary War, Mr. Webb believes their history in Scotland made them not only combative 12, but committed to populist democracy. "They had a sort of fundamentalist Christianity that came in and threw out the structure of the Catholic Church. They replaced it with a form of populist religion, with elected representatives in their church structure. And this unique combination created an extreme individualism and a notion that no individual had an obligation to obey a government edict if it violated his sense of morality or ethics 13."

James Webb says Andrew Jackson exemplified those values, winning the Presidency 14 in 1828 with a platform that emphasized patriotism 15 and the dignity of the common man. He's a leader revered 16 by Democrats 17. More than a century later, the author believes an icon 18 of the Republican Party reaffirmed that tradition. President Ronald Reagan took office celebrating the power of individuals to help themselves. Mr. Reagan famously said "government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem!"

Mr. Webb says "I think Reagan was probably the most Jacksonian President since Andrew Jackson. They both had the ability, I think, to motivate the average American, to show them they were valued and as a result to do things that people thought might have been impossible."

James Webb says the Scots-Irish remain an important political force in the United States. Many are among the swing voters in Ohio and other states so critical in recent Presidential elections. He calls them the molten core of the America spirit, a rebellious people who still defy definition, even as they continue to help define America.

For focus, I'm Nancy Beardsley.

注释：
preeminent 卓越的
rural 田园的
uniquely 独特地
phenomenon 现象
frontiersman 边远居民
monolith 独块巨石
stratification 阶层的形成
descend 遗传
hedonistic 快乐主义的
moonshine 私酿烈酒
portray 描绘
combative 好战的
populist democracy 大众型民主