June is the usual month for the convening of Presbyterian assemblies, but the jewel in the crown of Presbyterian reforms, replacing bishops with lengthy committee meetings, seems less impressive today than it did in 1560 when the Scots held their first General Assembly. In fact, the June assemblies have genuine significance for the history of the Americans, which can be seen in two national holidays separated by forty-eight hours. Canada went first on July 1 with Canada Day. America followed with the Fourth of July. Those dates owe something to Presbyterianism’s reformist outlook, which in turn says something about the Presbyterian role in consolidating the government of North America.

Presbyterians were at the forefront of supporting the events that these holidays honor—Canada’s formation in 1867 as a Dominion (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick) and America’s assertion of independence. Were these Protestants more influential than Congregationalists in the United States or Anglicans in Canada? An answer is beyond the scope of this essay, but Presbyterian support was clearly crucial.

The case of Presbyterians in the United States is easier because of the familiar trope that the American Revolution was a “Presbyterian rebellion.” King George III used that phrase to complain about both Presbyterians and revolution, but it was a widely accepted way to make sense of American independence. George III was echoing James VI/I who had declared roughly 170 years prior, “No bishop, no king,” in response to Presbyterian efforts to reform the Church of Scotland. It was a recognition that Presbyterian church government, by challenging the rule of bishops, led inevitably to the repudiation of the monarchy. Presbyterians’ long history of complaining (from at least 1560 to 1690) partly explains the British interpretation of the American Revolution as a Presbyterian rebellion. James Webb, former US secretary of the Navy, summarized this perception as late as 2004 when he wrote in his book, Born Fighting, that Presbyterian Ulster Scots’ “refusal to be intimidated from above” was in the “Scots-Irish DNA.”

That description actually fails to capture the work of Presbyterian clerics in the American Founding. John Witherspoon, a Scottish Presbyterian who came to America in 1768 to lead the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), was a political moderate who saw political independence as a means to preserve the advantages colonists already enjoyed. Some Scots brought to the colonies convictions forged by the likes of John Knox or Samuel Rutherford. Witherspoon’s politics ran instead in grooves cut by Scottish philosophers like Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid. Read More»

D. G. Hart | “How Scottish Dissent Built American Liberty” | Law & Liberty | August 7, 2026

RESOURCES

• Subscribe to The Heidelblog!
• Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
• Browse the Heidelshop!
• The Heidelblog Resource Page
• Heidelmedia Resources
• The Ecumenical Creeds
• The Reformed Confessions
• The Heidelberg Catechism
• The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Press, 2025)
• Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
• Why I Am A Christian
• What Must A Christian Believe?
• Heidelblog Contributors
• Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Post authored by:

• Heidelblog

  

  The Heidelblog has been in publication since 2007. It is devoted to recovering the Reformed confession and to helping others discover Reformed theology, piety, and practice.

  More by Heidelblog ›