On Smith's attitude to the Scottish Highlanders and to the 1745 rebellion   
see the Lectures on Jurisprudence:  
  
'In the year 1745 four or 5 thousand naked unarmed Highlanders took   
possession of the improved parts of this country without any opposition   
from the unwarlike inhabitants. They penetrated into England and alarmed   
the whole nation, and had they not been opposed by a standing army they   
would have seized the throne with little difficulty. 200 years ago such an   
attempt would have rouzed the spirit of the nation. Our ancestors were   
brave and warlike, their minds were not enervated by cultivating arts and   
commerce, and they were already with spirit and vigor to resist the most   
formidable foe.' (LJ(b) Glasgow ed. pp. 540-1)  
  
Here he clearly identifies himself with 'the nation' who would have   
resisted the savage Highlanders if they had not become unwarlike as a   
result of the development of commerce.  
  
Tony Brewer