"If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish of my native Virginia"
Or
"If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to British tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger."
These ironically different wordings are supposed to be the direct quote of George Washington about the Scotch Irish or Scots Irish.
This famous quote in any form is in fact complete myth. George Washington never said did say this about any scots Irish or scotch Irish.
There is no text of the time to show this quote ever existed or probably existed. No surprise because this supposed quote is invention by 19th Century bigot types in America who needed to invent a history to try and show them as a distinct race from the more recent and desperately poor Irish immigrants.We know this for fact because Scotch Irish or Scots Irish as a term, was simply not popular to be expressed in Washington's War time, few to zero would of had a clue as to who exactly he was supposed to be referencing.
People from any part of Ireland (regardless of their religion or as often atheism) in America in George Washington's day were known as Irish, they referred to themselves as Irish.
There is only one quote referencing Ireland by George Washington that can be found in reported text of the day and it refers to the Irish people of Ireland.
Another rarely known fact is, contrary to popular history most of the Immigrants from Ireland in the 17th century and before, were actually from the Southern ports, not Ulster. Most Immigrants from Ireland to America in the 17th C were regular native Irish, mostly Catholic but often as in Ireland not exactly devout of any religion.
The sectarian nature of the British ruling class in America encouraged or threatened these Irish to forget their roots.
