I am convinced that some authors do not understand what they actually say in their books.
Hard Neighbors by Colin Galloway (Oxford Press, 2024) is an example of that.
I am a sucker for any book on the history of the Scotch-Irish immigrants to America so I bought Hard Neighbors; I read it; and I enjoyed it. I recommend it. It is a worthwhile addition to your understanding of early America.
As I read it, a thought gradually formed in my mind. For members of a group (any group), pride in the group and a willingness to promote and defend the group is necessary for the survival of the group. This is true across groups of all kinds. Basketball leagues, golf groups, knitting circles, book clubs, churches, ethnic groups; they all require that the group members have some pride in the group and they require that the group promote or defend the group.
Promoting and defending can be mild or extreme. Promoting ranges from posting on social media that the league is forming and welcoming teams all the way up to international efforts to popularize and promote a group. Promotion is necessary because all groups need new members and almost all groups must recruit from outside the group.
Defense can range from a simple explanation to your wife as to why you want to play in the golf league this year – it is healthy and it gets me outdoors for some wholesome exercise all the way up to the ultimate defense of warfare. The principle holds true at all levels. If members of the group are not willing to defend the group, then the group will cease to exist.
In the book, Galloway recounts how Scotch-Irish settlers moved into the edges of Indian occupied lands. They sometimes moved there freely. Often, they were induced or coerced into moving there by land speculators or by governments. Government wanted them there to serve as a buffer against the Indians. Galloway also points out, accurately, that the Indians did the same. Powerful Indian tribes induced or coerced less powerful tribes to move into areas where they served as buffers against the intruding Scotch-Irish.
The movement of Scotch-Irish settlers occurred again and again pushing the boundaries of the settlers further out. This was not an accident. As explained in the book, it was government policy. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson; in fact, all the early presidents used the settlement of immigrants as a tool to expand their boundaries.
Pushing ever southward and westward, the Scotch-Irish settled the land, served as a buffer, and grew the American territory.
On page 355, Galloway has a quote from Thomas Jefferson that sums up the policy.
Thomas Jefferson knew better how these things worked. Referring to Spanish attempts to attract American settlers to Florida, he wrote George Washington in April 1791, “I wish a hundred thousand of our inhabitants would accept the invitation. It will be the means of delivering to us peaceably what may otherwise cost a war.”
Jefferson knew that the group identity of the settlers was strong enough (pride and a willingness to defend the group) that eventually the settled land would become American rather than Spanish. In the actual event, the Spanish were not able to recruit enough settlers to do themselves in and Jackson eventually settled the matter with a military campaign.
We should note “peaceably what may otherwise cost us a war” is peaceable only from the vantage point of his Virginia plantation. Life for the groups doing the settling was anything but peaceable.
The quote makes a couple of remarkable points. A strong group identity can become a usable tool for the realization of governmental policy. Governmental policy is completely callous as to the suffering caused by such policies. This is two of our most beloved founding fathers favorably discussing acquiring land by settlement and they were certainly fully aware of the violence that accompanied such efforts.
The core attribute that made this expansionary tactic work was the willingness of the Scotch-Irish settlers to defend their group. When the settlers moved in, there was a reaction from the occupying Indians and it was always eventually violent. The current occupants (the Indians) and the aspiring occupants (the Scotch-Irish) fought wars that we would today characterize as genocidal. The wars, which were often local, were brutal on both sides. Both sides were indeed “hard neighbors.”
We are repelled by such tactics today but it is the luxury of our long Pax Americana that allows us to be repelled.
At this point, dear reader, you may wonder why I am going to such length to make what might seem like an obvious point and you may wonder why it is important today.
Today as it has always been everywhere, groups in America (and all around the world) that take pride in themselves and promote/defend the group are growing. Groups that do not do those two things are atrophying.
Some groups (both state and non-state groups large and small) are employing the very tactic that Jefferson discussed with Washington. They send groups of settlers here to the United States hoping to acquire “peaceably what may otherwise cost a war.”
Back to my original point, I do not think that Galloway intended to make the point that group survival depends on group pride and group defenses. Albeit maybe unwittingly, he did. It does and it always will. Whether is a golf league, a book club, or the Spanish reclaiming their territory from the Moors, groups do not survive unless they are willing to defend their group and the resources claimed by their group. It always has been that way and it always will be.
This article is on X ( @keith_rutledge ) and on my Substack (keithrutledge.substack.com).
I write about shooting, guns, and tactical competitions - and whatever else interests me - like Scotch-Irish heritage. Read my book “Understanding the AR-15 and AR-10” – available on Amazon at Understanding the AR-15 and AR-10