26 Presidents of the United States were of Scotch-Irish descent.

Hundreds, possibly a few thousand, Houstons were established in the Colonies by 1776 and supported the Revolution with their fortunes, their honor and their lives. Their forefathers had fought English oppression in Scotland and Ireland through six centuries, usually suffering a noble, if bitter, defeat. This time the victory was theirs and with it the liberty for which they had striven from generation to generation.

The 500 Scotch-Irish communities strung through the Colonies had a uniform system of worship in a church with a representative form of government. Nearly all of the Presbyterians of the Colonies were combined in one synod which held annual meetings. This situation in itself was a germ of national union. One distinguished American historian writes:

"The first public voice in America for dissolving all connections with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians."

Alexander Huston of Philadelphia participated in what historians have called the first important step toward the separation of the American Colonies from the mother country. This was eleven years before the outbreak of war. On March 24, 1764, a committee of ministers and laymen circulated a document calling for "a plan to unite the Presbyterian Churches." Some considered this paper as more political than ecclesiastical in its purpose. It led to meetings at which all the Colonies were represented and discussed continental affairs. The name of Alexander Huston was the second on the list of signers of this historic document.

The Houstons supplied a considerable number of able ministers for the Presbyterian Church in the Colonies just as they had done in Scotland and Ireland. To mention only a few from the records which have come down to us: Joseph Houston was licensed in 1724 and served in Maryland and New York. Rev. John Houston was installed at Bradford, Mass., in 1757. He was sent to Ryegate and Barnet in 1786. Alexander Huston’s licensure was recorded in the Lewes, Del., Presbytery in 1763. The ordination of Rev. Samuel Houston, who had fought as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, took place in the Presbytery of Hanover, Va., in 1786, on the eve of promulgation of the Constitution of the United States.

In the period of political turmoil and conflict which was