Happy Tartan Day

...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Today is the 688th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, the first declaration of independence, and a seminal document in the history of Western law and culture.  Ironically, of course, Scotland is now under English rule, as the thrones of both kingdoms are now united.  Ironically, it was the King of Scotland who brought about that condition, eschewing his cold, backward homeland for the vastly wealthier England to the south.  James I of England and VI of Scotland continued, however, to speak with his distinctive burr.

In 1998, the US Senate instituted Tartan Day to celebrate the contributions of Scottish-Americans to American history and society: 9 of the 13 governors of the original states which entered the Union were Scottish-Americans, as were half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, including its author, Jefferson.  35 Supreme Court Justices in our history were Scottish-American, 10% of al Nobel prize winners were of Scottish descent, and 3/4 of all of our presidents were of Scottish descent.  Presidents Washington, G.H.W Bush, and G.W. Bush (all three were Georges!) are decended, as am I, from the Scottish royal family.  

Those claiming Scottish descent in the US number around 4.8 million, or 1.5% of the population. The contribution which we have made to our national identity, however, is greatly disproportionate to our numbers.  These contributions touch on all arenas of our shared national life, and there is no aspect of our society which does not have upon it the stamp made by Scottish descendants.

As a nineteenth generation Scottish-American, whose first Scottish forebears came to Massachusetts in 1650 and settled in Salem, I'm proud to embrace a culture from which I have been separated by almost 400 years, and almost twenty generations.  I find in myself, in my father and sisters, an aspect of our mindset and approach to life which I identify as strongly Scottish-American, and I revel that that identity had not been lost over so much time and separation from the land of our ancestors' birth.

So, make sure you take time this week to thanks all of your Scottish-American friends, and to appreciate the contributions they and their forebears have made to our society.  And toasting them over a dram of single malt is a great way to how that appreciation!