Ulster’s American Connection

The United States Of America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its adoption of the Declaration Of Independence today, July 4th, 2026. In the Declaration, delegates from the thirteen (former) colonies set out their reasons for voting to overthrow British rule on July 2nd, noting twenty-seven grievances against the reigning monarch, George III of Great Britain And Ireland. At the time, the American Revolution was ongoing, and the Continental Congress meeting this time in Philadelphia was soon compelled to move to Baltimore, Maryland; the permanent Congress was not established until 1781.

On the right of the board, various symbols of the eventual United States Of America – the Stars And Stripes, the bald eagle, the White House, the Liberty Bell, “E pluribus unum”, the Seal, the Declaration, and a painting of the Committee Of Five that prepared the Declaration – appear next to a trapper or frontiersman who represents the westward expansion of European Americans – including Scotch-Irish (Ulster Sails West) – across the continent.

The Ulster-Scots lineage of seventeen presidents (plus vice-president Andrew Calhoun) is presented along the bottom. (The Ulster-Scots Agency has a pdf.) For James Buchanan and confusion over the quote, “My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage”, see James Buchanan.

On the left, the ‘Blue Plaques’ of various notable figures are superimposed upon a period map: John Wallace Crawford, Francis Makemie, James McGregor, Charles Thomson, John Dunlap, Ezekiel Donnell, James Buchanan, Oliver Pollock, Thomas J ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, Robert Adrain, James Holmes.