ALEX Salmond yesterday invoked the words of Thomas Jefferson when he told a US audience that Scotland had the right to self-governance.
In a Scotland Week speech at the University of Virginia, the First Minister used the founding father's work to promote a referendum on independence for Scotland.
In his second keynote speech of the week he said: "Scotland, sooner rather than late
r, is entitled to have the right to choose our constitutional future.
"That is a guiding principle for the debate on Scotland's future – a national conversation involving all the people of Scotland.
"And it is the words of Thomas Jefferson that will inspire us: 'We are a people capable of self-government, and worthy of it'."
Speaking at the university in Charlottesville, which was founded by Jefferson in 1819, he said: "Tartan Day was inaugurated ten years ago because the Senate recognised the influence of Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath on America's Declaration of Independence.
"However, the connecting theme is not just clarion calls for liberty and independence, but the recognition of the sovereignty of the people first suggested in European history in the Arbroath Declaration and taken to its logical conclusion by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
"I call on politicians on all sides of the debate to recognise the sovereignty of the people.
"This is the basis on which the United States first asserted its right to self-government. And it is the guiding principle for the debate on Scotland's future – a national conversation involving all the people of Scotland."
He added: "When the people of Scotland consider their place in the world and debate our constitutional future, the proper means to exercise this sovereignty is through a referendum.
"Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'every nation has a right to govern itself internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own will'."
A delegation of Scottish ministers are in the US to mark Tartan Day and Scotland Week, which was known as Tartan Week prior to a rebranding exercise aimed at making the event more meaningful to Americans.
Before making his speech yesterday, Mr Salmond visited the home of Jefferson – Monticello, the only residence in the US on the United Nations World Heritage List – where he presented a copy of the Declaration of Arbroath to Dr Tim Garson, the provost of the University of Virginia.
Today, the First Minister is due to make his third and final keynote speech of the week when he addresses the National Geographic Society in Washington on energy.
Mr Salmond is also due to attend a Tartan Day reception at Capitol Hill in Washington DC.
The First Minster will then host the Tartan Day tenth anniversary dinner at the Library of Congress with Linda Fabiani, the culture minister .
Miss Fabiani will tour the Smithsonian Centre and attend the Scottish Business Networking reception at the Carnegie Institute.
Meanwhile, Jim Mather, the enterprise minister, will take part in a number of business meetings in Houston.
