CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



been banished there by the British government. 

 So they packed up their movable property, and 

 set out across the wide uncharted Atlantic Ocean 

 in an exodus for liberty of industry and liberty 

 of conscience. 



By the year 1776 there were more than 

 500,000 of the Scotch-Irish in this country. 

 They went first across the Alleghanies, into the 

 new lands of western Virginia, Tennessee, Ken- 

 tucky, and Texas. Beyond all question, they 

 were the hardiest and ablest founders of the 

 republic. They dissolved the rule of the Cava- 

 liers in Virginia; and in the little hamlet of 

 Mecklenburg they planned the first defiance of 

 Great Britain and struck the key-note of the 

 Revolution. They gave Washington thirty-nine 

 of his generals, three out of four members of 

 his cabinet, and three out of five judges of the 

 first Supreme Court. 



Of all classes of settlers in the thirteen colo- 

 nies, they were the best prepared and most will- 

 ing for the struggle with England, for the reason 

 that they had begun to fight for liberty two 

 hundred and fifty years before the battle of 



[20] 



