From History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, page 45:
Character—Recent Investigations Which Grace a
Revolutionary Lineage Back to 373 A. D.
The Scotch-Irish blood in America has been a strong influence in the molding of our national character. In Virginia, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and along the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, the firmness, the courage and thrift and love of liberty of the ancient clans have been engrafted into American character for many generations. Recent investigations in Scotland and Ireland plainly show that among the founders of the American Republic were sons of the strongest strains of blood in the world.