Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical, Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers. by William Henry Foote (1846)

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PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENTS IN N. CAROLINA.

the previous thrilling events. Could the leaders of the people that formed the population of which we speak, for one generation in Ireland, and for two in America that immediately succeeded the first large emigration—and in both lands, for that time, the real leaders were godly men—could these now rise from the graves to which they went down, some in peace, some in the sorrow of hope, and could they speak the language of earth, they would sing a Psalm of David louder than Merrill at the gallows—louder than they ever sang at a communion season, or revival, in Ireland or in Carolina—the beautiful sixty-sixth: "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard; which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved us; and thou hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net, thou layedst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire, and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my vows; which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble." And would not their posterity in and around the grand Alleghanies shout with a voice of thunder and a heart of love,—"The Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Alleluia! Amen!"

For about two centuries and a half this race of people have had one set of moral, religious, and political principles, working out the noblest frame-work of society; obedience to the just exercise of law; independence of spirit; a sense of moral obligations; strict attendance on the worship of Almighty God; the choice of their own religious teachers; with the inextinguishable desire to exercise the same privilege with regard to their civil rulers, believing that magistrates govern by the consent of the people, and by their choice. These principles, brought from Ireland, bore the same legitimate fruit in Carolina as in Ulster Province, whose boundaries travellers say can be recognized by the peace and plenty that reign within. Men will not be able fully to understand Carolina till they have opened the treasures of history, and drawn forth some few particulars respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish, and become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution—during that painful struggle—and the succeeding years of prosperity; and Carolina will be respected as she is known.