In 1887, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon entitled, “The Covenanter.” In it he described a portrait hanging in his bedroom depicting a Covenanter sitting in a field, sword by his side, Bible open. “Evidently he smelleth the battle afar off, and is preparing for it by drinking in some mighty promise,” Spurgeon said. “As you look into the old man’s face you can almost hear him saying to himself, ‘For the crown of Christ and the covenant, I would gladly lay down my life this day.’”
The Scottish and Scots-Irish Heritage
Spurgeon’s portrait of the Bible-reading warrior — the Covenanter — conveys the character of the Scottish and Scots-Irish believers who brought the Presbyterian faith to America. There are many moving stories from the Reformation: the first martyr, Patrick Hamilton at St. Andrews; John Knox standing with his broadsword next to soon-to-be-martyred George Wishart; the Solemn League and Covenant at the start of the English Civil War; the “killing times,” when Covenanters were destroyed for refusing to yield to the religious dictates of the King of England; Francis Makemie’s victorious legal battle that granted toleration to Presbyterian preachers in the English colonies. The heroic courage of these warriors of faith has roots going back centuries to their ancient ancestors who forced Rome to give up on the conquest of Scotland, and to build Hadrian’s Wall instead.
The defense of religious liberty marked the Scottish immigrants to the New World, as it did all of the Calvinistic immigrants to the New World. The various Reformed churches had known religious persecution, often at great cost. Congregationalists, Huguenots, and Presbyterians sought to defend the precious gift of liberty that they enjoyed in the colonies, knowing that it had been purchased by the blood of their forefathers.
It is no wonder, then, that the American War of Independence earned an epithet from King George III, “a Presbyterian Rebellion.” Similarly, an assessment attributed to Parliamentarian Horace Walpole humorously asserts, “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian Parson,” referring to John Witherspoon, the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence.
A striking report of the Scots-Irish support for American independence comes from George Washington. Ulster writer W.F. Marshall reported that Washington declared, “If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scotch-Irish [or Ulster Scots] of my native Virginia.”
Captain Johann Heinrichs, a Hessian in British service in the colonies, said in 1778, “Call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than an Irish Scotch Presbyterian rebellion.”
An Estimate of Presbyterian Numbers in the Revolutionary War
Presbyterians were at the forefront of the American movement toward independence. A case can be made that a forerunner of the American Declaration of Independence was the Mecklenburg Declaration, which was signed at the courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 20, 1775, after leaders there learned of the battles at Lexington and Concord. Of the 27 prominent citizens who signed the document and declared independence from Britain, about two-thirds were descendants from Ulters-Scot Presbyterians.
When the battle at Kings Mountain occurred on October 7, 1780, the American soldiers were predominantly Scots-Irish. Five of their colonels were Presbyterian elders.
Presbyterians had a significant presence at the Continental Congress, too. Twelve of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence had connections with Presbyterian churches.
While no precise records were kept, scholars estimate that there were between 230 and 300 battles, skirmishes, and raids during the Revolutionary War, with over 200 taking place in South Carolina.
The cost of the war for independence was great for all Americans, but it was particularly costly for Presbyterians. It is estimated that half of the soldiers in the American Army were from Presbyterian congregations. So, if the total casualties were approximately 25,000, half of those would have been Presbyterians. And similarly, of the 25,000 who were wounded and survived, 12,500 would have been Presbyterians.
There were 218 known chaplains in the Revolutionary Army. From this list are well-known leaders such as James Caldwell and George Duffield, who are considered below. Princeton graduate and Presbyterian pastor Chaplain Israel Evans played a key role at Valley Forge. His painting graces the Army’s Chief of Chaplains’ Office in the Pentagon.
Presbyterians Shared Colonial Concerns for Religious Liberty
Deep concern for religious liberty led Presbyterians, both soldiers and ministers, to take up arms to defend their freedoms. New England’s Samuel Adams, second cousin to the more famous John Adams, was the Puritan and Congregationalist American intellect who shaped the colonial mind for independence. His writings resonated deeply with American Presbyterians. This “sparkplug of the Revolution,” through his Committees of Correspondence, disseminated central concerns of American liberty to colonial leadership.
Boston’s Committees of Correspondence directly engaged Presbyterian leaders as their messages to the South passed through the middle colonies, where Presbyterians were strongest. They connected Congregationalists with Presbyterian leaders like Witherspoon of Princeton and William Livingston, a Presbyterian lawyer and future governor of New Jersey. Because of Witherspoon and Livingston’s influence, Philadelphia followed Boston in closing the importation of taxed British tea.
Presbyterian scholar and elder Charles Thomson was a strategic leader of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Committees of Correspondence. He was so effective in organizing support for the American cause that he was nicknamed “the Sam Adams of Philadelphia.” His advocacy of boycotts, organization of protests, and helping to advance discussions of constitutional issues helped to launch the First Continental Congress, of which he became the secretary.
Parliament and King George III answered the Boston Tea Party with the Coercive Acts that closed the Boston Harbor in May 1774. Adams proclaimed that this action was “designed for every other colony.” These letters from Boston reached the Newark and Elizabethtown Committees of Correspondence which were largely composed of Presbyterian elders and ministers. Presbyterian minister James Caldwell and his ministerial colleagues read from their pulpits the political grievances emanating from Boston.
Adams’ foundational writing, “The Rights of the Colonists,” was adopted by Boston on November 20, 1772. An essential element of this document was the concern for Christian liberty. Adams writes, “2d The Rights of the Colonists as Christians – These may be best understood by reading – and carefully studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and head of the Christian Church: which are to be found closely written and promulgated in the New Testament –
“By the Act of the British Parliament commonly called the Toleration Act, every subject in England Except Papists &c was restored to, and re-established in, his natural right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. And by the Charter of this Province it is granted ordained and established (that it is declared as an original right) that there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God, …. Justice Blackstone holds that this recognition was justly obtained of King John sword in hand: and peradventure it must be one day sword in hand again rescued and preserved from total destruction and oblivion.”
Among the many grievances specified by Adams was an ongoing British challenge to the foundational right of religious liberty. Adams’ theme of preserving religious liberty awakened Presbyterians to the possibility that they could lose their newly acquired American freedoms. This was a concern that was impossible for American Presbyterians to ignore.
Presbyterian Pastoral Counsel
As open hostilities began, the need arose for spiritual guidance for the American Presbyterian churches. So, on May 22, 1775, just a month after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Synod of New York and Philadelphia issued a pastoral letter to its churches. “At a time when public affairs wear so threatening an aspect,” the presbytery leaders wrote, they believed “that they could not discharge their duty to the numerous congregations under their care, without addressing them at this important crisis.”
Their message called for “unfeigned repentance” and “for pressing all of every rank, seriously to consider the things that belong to their eternal peace” as “a lasting and bloody contest must be expected.”
The Synod’s counsel called for young soldiers to prepare their souls for eternity: “Fly also for forgiveness to the atoning blood of the great Redeemer—the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel….”
The presbytery’s earnest counsel warned of an eternity without Christ:
“There is nothing more awful to think of, than that those whose trade is war should be despisers of the name of the Lord of Hosts, and that they should expose themselves to the imminent danger, of being immediately sent from cursing and cruelty on the earth, to the blaspheming rage and despairing horror of the infernal pit. Let therefore, everyone, who from generosity of spirit, or benevolence of heart, offers himself as a champion in his country’s cause, be persuaded to reverence the name, and walk in the fear of the Prince of the Kings of the earth, and then he may, with the most unshaken firmness, expect the issue either in victory or death.”
The Synod further urged six important principles for the churches:
“First, in carrying on this important struggle, let every opportunity be taken to express your attachment and respect to our sovereign King George.” With the Declaration of Independence, this concern was no longer possible.
“Secondly, be careful to maintain the union which at present subsists through all the colonies.
“Thirdly, we do earnestly exhort and beseech the societies under our care to be strict and vigilant in their private government, and to watch over the morals of their several members.
“Fourthly, we cannot but recommend, and urge in the warmest manner, a regard to order and the public peace….
“Fifthly, we think of importance, at this time to recommend to all of every rank, but especially to those who may be called to action, a spirit of humanity and mercy.
“Lastly, we would recommend to all the Societies under our care not to content themselves with attending devoutly on general fasts, but to continue habitually in the exercise of Pray to have frequent occasional voluntary meetings for solemn intercession with God on the important trial.”
Presbyterian Sacrifices During the War
As the Synod rightly anticipated, there was great suffering for all the colonists, including Presbyterian patriots. Caldwell led Presbyterians from his pulpit and soldiers on the battlefield. He has been described as the “Fighting Chaplain,” “Soldier Parson,” and the “Rebel Reverend.”
He was born in Virginia, the seventh son of Scots-Irish settlers who descended from Huguenots who had fled from France to Scotland in the 16th century to escape persecution and find religious liberty. A Princeton graduate, he was ordained in 1760 and installed in 1762 as minister of First Presbyterian Church, Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
An ardent American patriot, he preached the importance of freedom, which led him to become a military chaplain. But he chose not only to minister to soldiers, but to take up arms with them, serving as Quartermaster. Given that provisions were meager, this was an arduous task.
The war was costly for the Caldwell family. Caldwell’s house and church were burned by the British. Later at the conclusion of the Battle of Connecticut Farms, a British sympathizer shot Caldwell’s wife, Hannah, through a window, killing her in front of their children. Yet less than three weeks later, Caldwell fought in the Battle of Springfield.
Caldwell demonstrated his resourceful leadership when British forces pressed in on Washington’s encampment at Morristown. The Americans held the line, but began to run out of wadding, the paper essential for wrapping gunpowder for muskets.
Recognizing the critical need, Caldwell raced to the nearby Presbyterian church, took a stack of Isaac Watts hymnals, and brought them to the soldiers. As they tore out pages for wading, Caldwell shouted: “Give ‘em Watts, boys! Put Watts into ‘em!” At the end of the war, Caldwell was tragically killed by an American guard. He represents those Presbyterians who gave their lives for the cause of liberty.
Caldwell’s account helps to explain why Presbyterian churches became targets of British warfare. South Carolina saw a great deal of military action during the American Revolution, and their successful resistance to the British military action led British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton to unleash hostilities that many view as war crimes. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that he burned churches, and especially Presbyterian churches.
Historical records indicate that many churches were burned during the Redcoat’s destructive forays through the Carolinas. Tarleton’s memoirs contain a reference to a Colonel Rawdon, stating, “When Rawdon left the settlement (the Waxhaws) the church had been burned because all Presbyterian churches are shops of sedition.”
It is also documented that, apparently angered by the continuous success of raids led by South Carolina’s Frances Marion — a Huguenot descendant popularly known as the “Swamp Fox” — British officer James Wemyess proceeded on a 70-mile path of destruction through the Lowcountry, during which he “burned many Presbyterian churches.”
An example is the Old Sheldon Church in South Carolina.
Witherspoon felt the pain of war in his family and as president of the College of New Jersey in Princeton. Witherspoon lost his 25-year-old son James in the battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777. The Princetonian President was compelled to flee his charge at Princeton to escape capture when the British took control of the town. The college was ransacked, with Princeton’s library books being used for fires, while majestic Nassau Hall was used for a horse stable and as barracks for soldiers. Witherspoon’s personal papers were destroyed, yet he persevered through it all, serving the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1782.
Presbyterian Educators’ Impact on Leaders in the American Revolution
Francis Alison was a Presbyterian minister who taught at the New London Academy and the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania). Several of his students became prominent in the American Revolution, including three signers of the Declaration: Thomas McKean, George Read, and James Smith.
Thomas McKean became a significant leader in the public square. Born in a Presbyterian Scots-Irish family, he joined the “Country Party” in Delaware, a group identified with Irish Presbyterianism. McKean became a lawyer and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He served as colonel in the Pennsylvania militia.
As a Delaware representative to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1783, he brought Delaware’s support for independence. His political leadership included serving as president of Delaware (1777), chief justice of Pennsylvania (1777-1799), and second governor of Pennsylvania (1799-1808). He was buried at the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.
Two other significant students of Alison were Thomson, mentioned above, and John Dickinson. Thomson was the only secretary in the entire history of the Continental Congress, serving from 1774 to 1789. His and President John Hancock’s names were the only ones on the Declaration when first published on July 4, until the Congressional delegates officially signed it a month later.
Thomson was not only a Presbyterian elder but also a Classics scholar. He translated the complete Septuagint into English. As clerk of the Continental Congress, he gave the final form to the Great Seal of the United States. Thomson’s knowledge of classical literature enabled him to offer quotations from classical sources that have become mottoes that Americans still read today on the dollar bill: E pluribus unum (“out of many one”), novus ordo seclorum (“new order of the ages”), and annuit coeptis (“He has smiled on our undertakings.”).
Dickinson became the famous “penman of the Revolution.” Dickinson was widely known for his “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” Although Alison was a Presbyterian, he served as the family tutor of young Dickinson, who was from the Quaker tradition.
Another remarkable Presbyterian leader was George Duffield. Duffield was a pro-independence pastor who served as a Pennsylvania militia chaplain and as co-chaplain of the Continental Congress, along with Anglican minister William White. Duffield was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He attended Newark Academy and studied at Princeton.
In 1759, he was ordained. After serving various congregations, in 1771 he was called to Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, now known as Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.
His sermons in favor of American independence brought the contempt of King George III, and a royal bounty was placed on his head. His “Thanksgiving Sermon on Peace,” dated December 11, 1783, honored God as the “Great Author of Liberty,” and rehearsed significant events in the history of the Revolutionary War. John Adams often heard him preach and called Duffield “my parish priest.” Adams also spoke of Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church as “the war office”.
Duffield also played a key role in what has been called “Congress’ Bible.” When Quaker printer Robert Aitken in 1782 published the first complete English Bible printed in North America—while the war was still being waged—he presented it to Congress for review.
Congressional Chaplains White and Duffield gave a report on the “great accuracy” of Aitken’s work. Subsequently, Congress passed this resolution on September 12, 1782: “The United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion …, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. and hereby authorize him to publish this Recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.”
That motion would have been recorded by Thomson. Hence Duffield helped Americans to have a Bible published in America, recommended by Congress, reviewed by him, and recorded by a Presbyterian secretary of Congress.
Conclusion
The legacy of American Presbyterian statesmen in the era of American independence and the birth of the nation through the Revolutionary War era is represented by these many elders and members who served the Lord of Lords in the church, in the corridors of public life, and on the blood-stained battlefields of war. It appears King George III was on to something when he called the American War for Independence a “Presbyterian Rebellion” and for others to say, “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson.”
At any rate, let us say, “Happy 250th Anniversary to America,” the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a nation deeply shaped by patriotic Presbyterian statesmen, soldiers, leaders, and educators.
Peter Lillback is president emeritus and president’s professor of church history and public theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.