The architect of the American Constitution, James Madison was born in Port Conway. The son of a Virginia planter of English and Scottish ancestry, he had Scottish tutors in his early years and then studied at Princeton under the direction of president Dr John Witherspoon. In 1776, as a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention, Madison was involved in drafting the declaration of rights and the Virginia constitution; he was also closely involved in the drafting of the bill to establish religious freedom. James Madison strongly believed in the people's right to choose government – a conviction reflected in the US Constitution. Elected fourth president of the USA in 1808, he was re-elected in 1812, retiring in 1817.

"If the will of the majority cannot be trusted where there are diversified and conflicting interests, it can be trusted nowhere," wrote James Madison of the American Constitution.

Andrew Jackson, lawyer, soldier and statesman, destined to become the seventh president of the United States of America, was a Major General of the Tennessee militia during the War of 1812 against Britain and in 1815 defeated a British force at New Orleans. A self-made man with little formal education, Jackson was elected president in 1828 following the first ever direct appeal to voters. His election gave rise to the expression "Jacksonian democracy". Re-elected in 1832, he stepped down in 1837, by which time he had achieved the not inconsiderable feat of being even more popular than he had been when first elected.

A later American president with Scottish roots was William McKinley. A distinguished soldier during the Civil War, and a prominent lawyer in the postwar years, McKinley was elected to Congress in 1876 where he made his reputation as a leader of the Republican Party. He retired from Congress in 1890, became Governor of Ohio in 1891 and in 1896 was nominated for president by the Republican National Convention. Winning the election, William McKinley became the twenty-fifth president of the USA, serving two terms before being shot by an anarchist in 1901. When he died six days later, the country went into mourning, testament to his enormous popularity.

Woodrow Wilson, twenty-seventh president of the USA, was born the son of a Presbyterian minister in Virginia in 1856. He commenced his career as an academic, being nominated president of Princeton University when he was 46. Eight years later he was elected Democratic governor of New Jersey, becoming president of the USA two years after that. President Wilson was committed to ideals of peace, self-determination, and prosperity for all. However he was unable to realise his post-World War I vision of, and personal striving towards, establishment of a new world order under the auspices of the League of Nations. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize shortly before he retired in 1921.

The longest-serving president in American history was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who also had some Scottish blood. His four terms in office as thirty-second president spanned one of the most challenging periods of history, including the Great Depression of the 1930s, Pearl Harbor, America's leading role in World War II, and the negotiations for the cessation of hostilities. Roosevelt died in 1945. Under his presidency the United States gained full recognition as a superpower.

Administrative ability and political skills are not the only contributions the Scots have made to the shaping of America. As already seen, Scots military prowess came into its own. During the War of Independence there were numerous important revolutionary leaders of Scottish blood including John Stark, a New Hampshire farmer who had also served in the French and Indian wars, and was promoted to major general in 1783. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, another a prominent patriot general, played a leading role in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. President Washington nominated him commander-in-chief of the US Army in 1792.

John Paul, a Scot of somewhat "mixed" reputation in his homeland, was the first naval officer commissioned by the Continental Congress and is regarded as the founder of the American navy. The son of a landscape gardener in Southerness, a coastal resort on the Solway Firth in the Lowlands of Scotland, John Paul fled Scotland to escape a charge of murder. Adopting the additional surname Jones, he became a respected naval officer in the American revolutionary war. In Scotland, however, he was dubbed a pirate for his attacks on British ships and ports! To Americans, of course, he was and is a hero, and Kirkbean Church in Southerness, Kircudbrightshire boasts a memorial font presented in gratitude by the United States Navy in 1945. In his adopted country, John Paul Jones's body is interred in an elaborate tomb in the US Naval Academy chapel at Annapolis.

The American Civil War again saw soldiers of Scottish extract fighting on opposing sides. They furnished a number of famous generals including the Unionists George Brinton McClellan and Arthur MacArthur and the Confederates Gen. T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson and James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart. The Cross of St. Andrews was adopted for the Confederate flag.

Educated at West Point, McClellan graduated second in his class, going on to distinguish himself in the Mexican War. He was nominated commander-in-chief of the Union army in November 1861, seven months into the Civil War. McClellan is also known for the design of a cavalry saddle – the "McClellan" saddle.

Another graduate of West Point Military Academy, T.J. Jackson demonstrated exceptional qualities in warfare, earning the nickname "Stonewall" in recognition of his brigade's success against Gen. Irvin McDowell's Union army. Meanwhile fellow Confederate "Jeb" Stuart distinguished himself as a brilliant cavalry officer until his death from wounds in 1864.

General Arthur MacArthur was a Union hero who won the Medal of Honor for bravery. He was the father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, famed veteran of WWI, WWII and Korea, and supreme commander in charge of the post-WWII occupation of Japan. In this latter role General Douglas MacArthur transformed Japanese society, promoting a revised constitution which saw the Japanese Cabinet guarantee civil liberties and renounce war. The general was controversially dismissed in 1951 for insubordination.

In making war as in forging peace and pursuing freedom and prosperity, these and other prominent Americans of Scottish descent surely shared the sentiments of Daniel Webster, American secretary of state, when he said in a speech in the Senate on The Compromise Bill of 17 July 1850, "I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American." Daniel Webster, a statesman of Scottish ancestry, was an outstanding orator and one of the most influential advocates of national unity of his time.