Has Scotland Taken Over the Presidency?

What do almost all the Presidents of the United States have in common? Almost all of them have their roots in one tiny portion of the earth, Ulster, Ireland. According to my calculations, at least thirty-five of the forty-two presidents are of Scots-Irish descent, that’s over eighty percent. (Scots-Irish are Scottish immigrants who settled in Northern Ireland).

The first five presidents of the Twentieth century came from this one small area of the earth. From Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the century to Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge, they were all Ulster-Scots.

Herbert Hoover interrupted the streak, becoming the first German president elected, followed by FDR who was Dutch (historically very close to the Ulster-Scots- remember William the Orange?).

Give ‘em hell Harry Truman was pure Scots-Irish. Dwight Eisenhower’s dad was German, but he was Scots-Irish on his mom’s side. Kennedy was Irish (which doesn’t count). JFK’s abbreviated presidency was followed by the Scots-Irish Lyndon Johnson. Nixon was full blooded Scots-Irish. Jimmy Carter was the last non Scots-Irish coming from England. From Ronald Reagan to George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, we’ve had a succession of presidents with ties to Ulster.

The Bush family is well known for their Scottish roots. The “W” stands for Walker, and the Walker clan goes way back. As a kid, George W. would go to Scotland in the summer and play with Tony Blair, another Scotsman. The Bush’s are very proud of their Scottish heritage.

The Nineteenth century is even more shocking. Every President after Lincoln to the turn of the century was originally from Northern Ireland. They were all Scottish! The facts are clear, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley were all Scots-Irish. That means from Lincoln to Hoover there were 63 years in a row of Scots-Irish Presidents!

Abraham Lincoln? He’s a mystery. Most think he’s from England, but there’s lots of disputes about his background. Some say he was illegitimate. He always downplayed his family’s history and never really told anyone.

Most of the Indian-fighting Presidents were Scots-Irish, many born in Orange County,
Virginia. You had James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachary Taylor and James Buchanan, they were all Scots-Irish. It appears that only Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, and Franklin Pierce weren’t.

It’s interesting to know that the presidential anthem, “Hail to the Chief”, is based upon the Scottish idea of giving absolute power to the clan’s chief. It was selected by Julia Tyler, wife of President John Tyler, to give him a sense of authority. The idea of giving absolute authority to the president is a uniquely Scottish one.

If not for George Washington’s selflessness, the Scottish-Americans in Virginia would have installed an absolute ruler in the style of a Scottish clan chief. The plantation owners of Virginia liked the idea of a single supreme leader and a strong executive branch, but this sounded too much like a king to Washington and he strongly rejected it. Washington, of course, was a former Tory military man of English stock.

John Adams was the first President with Scots-Irish blood. As a Northerner, he was able to work with the Southern plantation owners and forge a union between the disparate interests of North and South. After Adams came a succession of Virginia plantation Presidents lstarting with Thomas Jefferson, another man of Scottish ancestry.

It’s curious that so few know that most of our presidents come from such a tiny portion of the earth. I don’t suppose it would go over very well with the American people. The presidency has been described as a domain for old white men, when in reality, it is the domain of old white Scottish men.

Aaron Dahl

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