Border Ruffian

"Pike," the border-ruffian transplanted to a California "ranch," -- not a ruffian, as he says, but a barbarian. ❋ Various (N/A)

Missouri took, under the direction of the pro-slavery leaders that filled every department of the State government, the 'border-ruffian' forays, the pillage of the government arsenal at Liberty, the embargo of the Missouri river, and the robbing and mobbing of peaceful emigrants from the free States, the violence at the polls, and the fraudulent voting that corrupted all the franchises of that afflicted territory, do sufficiently attest. ❋ Various (N/A)

Captain John Brown's party all through the border-ruffian troubles. ❋ Laura S. Haviland (N/A)

Brown proposed that I should attend the fair and take his brother's sharp-shooter, that the captain carried through the border-ruffian conflict in Kansas, and during his movement at Harper's Ferry. ❋ Laura S. Haviland (N/A)

The claims made for John Brown are that he was the savior of Kansas to freedom, that he inspired the organized armed resistance to border-ruffian aggression, and was its master spirit and guide. ❋ John Allan (1914)

The border-ruffian Democracy of Indiana, however, appear to be jealous and suspicious of every ❋ Unknown (1883)

I procured lodging with a widow Johnson and her son, who was with Captain John Brown's party all through the border-ruffian troubles. ❋ Haviland, Laura S (1881)

The hard riding, hard drinking, blustering Missourian, who carries bowie-knife and revolver -- the type of those adventurous knights who used to amuse themselves by crusading into Kansas, and committing "border-ruffian" outrages, is rarely to be seen; and when one of them finds himself by accident in the roaring, trafficking town, he feels so uncomfortably out of place that he immediately turns his horse's head toward the open country again. ❋ Unknown (1875)

At once commenced that long and terrible struggle between the friends of Free-Soil and the friends of Slavery, for the possession of Kansas, which convulsed the whole Country for years, and moistened the soil of that Territory with streams of blood, shed in numerous "border-ruffian" conflicts. ❋ John Alexander Logan (1856)

It is only in those rare instances where the crime is mitigated by circumstances over which the slaveholder has had no control, or where he himself, convinced of the impropriety, the folly and the wickedness of the institution, is anxious to abolish it, that we can sincerely apply to him the sacred appellation in question -- an appellation which we would no sooner think of applying to a pro-slavery slaveholder, or any other pro-slavery man, than we would think of applying it to a border-ruffian, a thief or a murderer. ❋ Unknown (1857)

"the not unpicturesque garb of a border-ruffian," helped a dazed but very pretty young woman on to the rear platform of the Pullman car attached to the east-bound overland express at Ogden. ❋ Harry Leon Wilson (1903)

The border ruffians [clashed] with [police] yesterday as they started a full-scale [riot]. ❋ Strange Blue Dude (2017)

Border Ruffians are a [riotous] [bunch] of [idiots]! ❋ Angriest Mouse Of Schnaasberg (2017)