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From: Randi Richardson <>
Subject: [INMONROE] Samuel MacCalla Describes Life in South Carolina
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 12:18:26 -0500


"Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in Monroe County, Indiana,' by James Albert
Woodburn. THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS, Vol. 4, No. 8,
published in 1910. This 90-page article pertaining to the development of
the Presbyterian Church in general and, more specifically in Monroe County,
may be viewed in its entirety at the Monroe County Historical Society in
Bloomington, Indiana, after August 1, 2003.

Pp. 453-53 (footnote). NOTE: Samuel McCalla moved from South Carolina and
settled in Monroe County, Indiana, in company with many others including
the Woodburns and Harbisons, and was quite active in the development of the
Presbyterian Church in that county.

-------------------------

Evidence of the anti-nullification spirit among the Scotch-Irish in the
upland region of South Carolina is found in some letters written by Mr.
Samuel MacCalla from Chester county, South Carolina, to Mr. Dorrance
Woodburn, in Indiana, from 1831 to 1834. Mr. MacCalla sent to his friend a
hand-bill which, as he said, "gives a correct idea of our views and
determinations. I could not," he continued, "get a copy of the military
act. We have a committee of vigilance for each company and a central
committee for the regiment. They meet weekly and monthly. The Union
Convention meets next Monday at Greenville. If the 'Nullies' don't go back
we will fight. If they once begin it, it will be short and bloody. You
won't hear of it until it will be over. I command the Rifle Company and,
you may depend, we will clean the coasts of our enemies. We have not only
the best rifles but the best marksmen in the state. We have been triaining
for two years, and they can blow the ball of an otter's eye out at his
other end. You may communicate this information to your friends and you
and them lay your heads together to put in Clay or a man of his politics
for President. I am sick and tired of this wicked old savage now in office."

As this letter was written on March 20, 1834, some time after Jackson's
decisive work against nullifications, it would appear that the attitude of
the "Old Hero" was not properly appreciated by this Unionist of South Carolina.

In an earlier letter, under the date of November 19, 1831, Mr. MacCalla
speaks of slavery and the Southhampton (sic) Insurrection as follows: "The
panic on the guilty slave holders was not trifling. I heard of some that
took their guns and blankets and concealed themselves in deep gullies in
the night to avoid danger, and some stories is (sic) too ridiculous to tell
or be believed; but the scripture was verified where it says, 'The wicked
flee when no man pursueth.'

"These commotions has (sic) a terrible tendency to make more people want to
get away from hard service, for the while military in some places performed
patrol duty for five days and nights in succession. The negroes were
treated with severity and they all knew that the whites were in great
terror. You will, no doubt, hear a great deal about this business. Folks
here are getting more and more anxious to leave this state of sin and
misery. Money is harder to get here than you ever knew it and the price of
labor is lower than in Indiana. Heavy debts and ruin to many families, I
fear, will be the consequence of the present depressed state of business."

Mr. MacCalla reports that some farms sold in his neighborhood in 1831 for
$3.25 per acre, some for $5.25 while he sold his own land in 1834 for $6
per acre. The Harbison farm, in Chester county, sold about that time for
$8 per acre. It was some time before Mr. MacCallas was able to sell his
land as he desired to follow his kith and kin in his household of faith,
who had been moving in families and neighborhoods to Indiana, Ohio and
Illinois. His neighbors had ceased to be of his kind, and he described
them as "singular and outlandish people." In the year of his departure for
Indiana he writes in a critical and depressed spirit of the decline of his
state and community. "The church is all gone down the hill," he
says. "'Our clergy are a set of dull, conceited hashes who fash their
brains in college classes, they gang in stirks and come out asses.' Plain
truth to speak. They know how to make a bow, play the flute, shake you by
the hand, or argue metaphysics, but knows no more about the bible than the
Emperor Nicholas knows about the rights of man.

"The state is still worse, for we were harangued last year about liberty,
free trade and such stuff. Now there is a bold attempt on the very
fundamentals of equal rights. The state authorities claim a right to exact
an oath of primary allegiance to the state and to vacate all commissions at
their pleasure. We are to be made slaves for no offense on our part
because we cannot swallow an alligator tail first."

IN 1834 Mr. MacCallas, with a family of ten children, joined the South
Carolina colony in Indiana. He lived to be more than 90 years of age. He
had four sons who fought against nullifications and secession in the war
for the Union, and better soldiers never enlisted for their country's cause.

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