distinctly seen. A Presbyterian loyalist was a thing unheard of."
Parker, the historian, quotes a writer who says: "When the sages of
America came to settle the forms of our government, they did but copy
into every constitution the simple elements of representative
republicanism, as found in the Presbyterian system. It is a matter of
history that cannot be denied, that Presbyterianism as found in the
Bible and the standards of the several Presbyterian churches, gave
character to our free institutions." Ranke, the German historian,
declared that "Calvin was the founder of the American Government;" and
Gulian C. Verplanck of New York, in a public address, traced the
origin of our Declaration of Independence to the National Covenant of
Scotland. Chief Justice Tilghman (1756-1827) stated that the framers
of the Constitution of the United States were through the agency of
Dr. Witherspoon much indebted to the standards of the Presbyterian
Church of Scotland in molding that instrument.




SCOTS AS SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE


Of the fifty-six Signers of the Declaration of Independence, no less
than nine can be claimed as directly or indirectly of Scottish origin.
Edward Rutledge (1749-1800), the youngest Signer, was a son of Dr.
John Rutledge who emigrated from Ulster to South Carolina in 1735. The
Rutledges were a small Border clan in Roxburghshire. William Hooper
(1742-1790), was the son of a Scottish minister, who was born near
Kelso and died in Boston in 1767. Hooper early displayed marked
literary ability and entered Harvard University when fifteen years of