Presbyterians and the Revolution

We shall find that the first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. - George Bancroft (1800-1891), historian and author The heroic devotion of these men, who, for the sake of principle, so calmly offered their breasts to the deadly leaden hail, stirs with a fresh impulse the patriotic virtues within us and lifts our manhood higher in our esteem. Anew there passes across our field of vision that grand procession of sages and statesmen and military heroes, and we thank God of nations for a generation of men so fitted for the exigencies of such a day and hour. The Continental Congress assembles and only one thing is clear: their inflexible determination not to submit to the tyrannies of the British king and his Parliament. At first, chaos reigns, but then through the will of God, order and organization and then victory result. Nearly all of the religious denominations helped weal this nation. The Presbyterians rendered services in abundance for the cause of freedom. This book is their story in the struggle to establish an independent nation.