The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-30
THE BORDER RAID CLAIMS.

HE Inhabitants of the border counties who
suffered by the Rebel raids into Pennsylvania
are pushing their claims for compensation
before the Legislature. The counsel for the
claimants are urging that the State shall
settle with them, and that remuneration shall
then be demanded from the United States.
If these claims are allowed, the State might as
we'll go into bankruptcy at once, for there
will be no end to the demands for compensa-
ton, with interest, that will be made by the
noble cultivators of the soil of the border
counties, who certainly presented anything
but bold front to the Rebel raiders when
they appeared upon the sacred soil of Penn
sylvania. Every farmer who lost as much
as an old pitchfork has his little bill ready, and
expects the State to settle, and the idea that
anything is to be sacrificed for patriotism
appears never to have entered the skulls of
some of the claimants. Some of the indi
viduals who are now demanding that the
State shall reeompense them for their losses
sustained at the hands of the Rebels doubt
less suffered greatly, but the probabilities are
that the ma ajority of the claims against the
State are similar to the following, which are
taken from the files of the Auditor Generals
Office at Harrisburg, and which we commend
tothe thoughtful consideration of our patriotic
readers
Charles Seltzer, McConnellsburg:-
Suit OF clothes (black CLOTH. S35'05
One ham, Is pounds, at Is cents ............. 2'70
One shoulder, IA pounds, 12N cents. ......... 170
Sufferer in township OF Ayr. Fulton county,
in United States service at 40 cents per day s72 90
For loss on said horse by reason OF being
ot Dio6en s gS M
Two blankets taken by Rebels ............... 1000
8a47OO
Sufferer in same township
Hall barrel of mackefel. ..............,...sl0 90
Suhurles''' z0U
Henry Bear, FRANKLIN county,
Two hams about 16 pounds each. .......... 50 90
Soap, butter apple butter, and mackerel. 1900
Use OF horse eight days. ys..................... 3'2O
If the principle that the Government is
bound to pay for all the property damaged or
destroyed by the enemy in time of war is
admitted, there will be no end to the burdens
of taxation; and while the losses suffered by
some of the border claimants are to be de-
plored, we have comparatively little sympathy
for the man who can present bill made up
of such items as ''half barrel of mackerel, -
''sundries, and "new hat" 1t may be con-
sidered as certain that this individual made
more than he lost by selling his goods at the
most extravagant rates to both Rebel and
Union soldiers. The conduct of some of the
inhabitants of the border counties of Pennsyl-
vania during the Rebel raids was not particu-
larly creditable to their patriotism; and many
poor fellow who fought at Antietam and
Gettysburg can remember how he was, on
more than one occasion, obliged to pay ten
cents, and even more, for cup of water be-
fore the inhabitants of the region would fur
nish it to him.
The claims of the border county sufferers
were presented for adjudication to commits
sion appointed by the Governor in 1868.
They numbered over four thousand in the
aggregate, the amounts claimed and allowed
in each county by the commission being as
foIo