Paul McElhinney: Ulster-Scots loom large in pantheon on US Presidents and political greats

From very early on, the Ulster-Scots or Scotch-Irish became deeply embedded in the fabric of what eventually became the United States. The first migrations from Ulster to that part of America commenced in the early 17th century and gathered pace in the late 17th and 18th centuries.

Given this strong presence, it was no surprise that their descendants were to play a major part in the government and politics of the evolving United States.

Twenty of the 46 Presidents of the US had family links with Ulster, a little under 50 percent of the total. By any standards, that is an impressive showing. In recent times, this list includes Barack Obama (on his mother’s side), the two George Bush’s, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. More recently, while Donald Trump’s mother was Scottish by birth, she was not Scotch-Irish specifically.

In the more distant past, many famous US Presidents with Scotch- Irish roots stand out. Andrew Jackson, nicknamed ‘Old Hickory’ and the hero of the Battle of New Orleans of 1812, was born in South Carolina in 1767, two years after his parents emigrated from near Carrickfergus. Jackson was the 7th President of the US between 1829 and 1837. His parents initially settled in South Carolina in 1765 but as a young man, he eventually moved to Tennessee (another great centre of Ulster-Scots migration) where he established his reputation as a military and political figure.

It has been noted how shortly after the Battle of the Boyne, Jackson’s ancestors left Scotland to settle in Ulster after which the family emigrated to America. Jackson’s renowned distaste for aristocracies and political privilege was said to have had its anti-establishment roots in his Ulster Presbyterian heritage.

Of the 20 with Scotch-Irish connections, a few stand out.

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President and Vice-President to Abraham Lincoln up to the time of Lincoln’s assassination, had family roots in Larne. Johnson’s grandfather emigrated from Ulster in 1750 and settled in South Carolina. After the Civil War, Johnson’s presidency was not too successful. He became the first president to be impeached before the Senate, sharing that stain of dishonour with Bill Clinton and Donald Trump subsequently.

Immediately following Johnson was Ulysses Grant, Union hero of the Civil War. His family roots were in Dergenagh in County Tyrone where his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson lived. Grant was President from 1869 to 1877 in a revered American tradition of appointing former generals as political leaders. The latter years of his administration were rocked by political and financial scandal, somewhat tarnishing his stellar military reputation, but he was seen as an effective and determined leader. A year after the end of his administration in 1878, he returned to Ulster and visited his old family homestead in Tyrone.

The first US President to have been assassinated, William McKinley, was of Scotch-Irish origin, his ancestors having emigrated from near Ballymoney. McKinley served as President from 1897 to 1901 when he received an assassin’s bullet.

He came from the state of Ohio and was said to have had particularly strong attachment to his Ulster roots.

Following McKinley was the great Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt served two terms as President, from 1901-1909 as a Republican. He ran for President on a third occasion unsuccessfully for a new third political party. Proud of his Ulster roots on his mother’s side, he is said to have praised Irish Presbyterians as a ‘bold and hardy race’. Roosevelt’s maternal ancestors came from Glenoe in Co. Antrim.

One of the most outstanding US Presidents with Scotch-Irish roots was Woodrow Wilson who served as President from 1913 to 1921. Before becoming President, Wilson had a stellar academic career, becoming president of Princeton University in New Jersey. His Presidency was notable for US entry into the First World War in 1917 and for the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.

He was the grandson of a printer from Dergalt in County Tyrone. In recent times, Wilson’s reputation has been somewhat tarnished by reported ambivalence over slavery and the holding certain racist opinions, although this has to be balanced against his many positive achievements. A popular heritage centre commemorating Wilson now stands in that part of Tyrone from where his grandfather emigrated.

Added to this impressive list is a large number of vice-presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, judges and cabinet members.

Other famous political names of recent times with Ulster-Scots roots include Al Gore who was Vice-President to President Bill Clinton between 1993 and 2001 and Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford’s Vice-President from 1974 to 1977. In total, there have been eight Vice-Presidents with Scotch-Irish roots.

The number of senators and congressmen with such connections and roots abound. Among the most famous in recent times have been Senators John McCain, Mitch McConnell as well as Senator Lindsay Graham, all Republicans.

The influential role of Speaker of the House of Representatives has been held by two prominent figures with Scotch-Irish roots. The famous figure, Sam Rayburn of Texas held the position in the 1940s to the 1960s and Newt Gingrich of Georgia held it from the mid to late 1990s. Twelve Supreme Court judges and countless members of successive Presidential Cabinets similarly had such roots, reflecting the deep embeddedness of the Scotch-Irish within US society.

Great military figures also feature among the Ulster-Scots diaspora in the US. From the Civil War, generals George McClellan, Thomas McDowell, Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jeb Stuart all had Scotch-Irish roots. Generals Douglas MacArthur and George Patton of Second World War fame were later examples.

Famed frontiersmen and heroes of the Wild West, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson and Wyatt Earp all had such ancestral backgrounds.

In the worlds of literature, sport and entertainment, the list includes William Faulkner, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Tom Wolfe. Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Warren Beatty, Justin Bieber, Johnny Cash, Judy Garland, Mel Gibson, Burt Lancaster, Brad Pitt, Arnold Palmer, Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds, James Stewart and John Wayne are all from that stable – an impressive tally.

Across a wide range of activity, therefore, those of a Scotch-Irish heritage have played prominent roles despite the fact that these roots have often gone unstated.

Of the more than 40 million people in the United States claiming Irish heritage, it is estimated that more than half are Scotch-Irish.

Paul McElhinney, a lecturer, writer and former official in the Department of the Taoiseach, has written many articles in Irish and international journals and is the author of ‘Lion of the RAF’, a biography of Air Marshal Sir George Beamish.