The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-21
THE BORDER RAID CLAIMS.
al The Kpenina TsIeoraph.

on the "Berder Raid Claims" as you are pleased
90 stigmatize them, In which you animadvert
with uucalled-for acrimony and bitterness
against the loyalty of the Border people during
she war, and trust you win not refuse to give
the other side hearing.
Your article. like many others In other papers,
is unfair, and calculated to make one-sided and
erroneous impressions on the people outside of
the despoiled district who are unacquainted
with the facts in the case.
It is not my purpose to enter on any exten-
pive defense of the patriotism and loyalty of the
border people. They need none. The records
are their justification and their defense. Not
withstanding all their trials and tribulations-
such as no other section of the Stare endured-they
furnished as much of men and material Tor the
Union army and cause, and did 1t with as much
alacrity, and In every respect sacrificed as much,
as any other section of the State. For these
common sacrifices they ask no compensation,
but It is for the extraordinary sacrifices, and
which were not common to other portions, but
we're over and above all others, that they ask,
and Justly too, to be indemnihed and placed, as
nearly as may be, on equal footing with their
fellow-citizens of the balance of the Common
wealth.
know from personal knowledge that, so far,
at least, as nay own county (Fulton) is con-
cerned-and believe the same is true of other
eounties-the aggregate of the claims presented
is not more than one-half the loss actually and
directly sustained by this people.
The indirect losses of our people by reason of
the disruption and paralyzation of their indus
trial interests during those terrible years of (to
them) blight and decay are far greater than
their direct losses for which they ask partial
indemnity.
Whilst other sections, remote from the border
and exempt from the oft-repeated visitations of
the Rebel thieves and marauders, as Jenkins,
Imboden, Mosby, Stuart, McCausland, and
Others, were realizing from their uninterrupted
and prosperous industries almost fabulous re-
turns, the industries of our people were crippled
and almost destroyed by these invasons. The
people of those sections, removed and secure
from raids and invasions, grew rich out of the
Industries SO largely stimulated by the war,
while the people of this section grew poorer by
reason of their industries being crushed and
broken by the same war. To others it gave
prosperity: to us it gave crippled industry and
devastated homes and fields, and general
paralyzation of all business. 1t will not do to
say that others performed their duty to the
Government more patriotically than we did.
No other section was more barely drained of
able-bodied men, and none sent more soldiers to
the Union army in proportion to the population,
than this raided and invasion cursed section.
Not only did we fill our own quotas in all the
calls for troops, but furnished large numbers of
volunteers for some of the richer counties in the
eastern portion of the State to aid them in filling
their quotas and saving their own men, and be-
sides this, in the earlier part of the war, many
along the border enlisted in Maryland Union
regiments, and some even in Virginia Union
organizations.
We do not claim that we were exempt from
disloyal elements in our midst, but we do assert
that this existed among us to greater degree
than it did in Clearfeld, Lancaster, Philadelphia
city, or any other part of the State, and. more
over, very few, if any, of this class of persons
have presented any claims, because, as a rule,
they were spared spoliation at the hands of the
Rebel marauders, who preferred visiting their
vengeance on the heads of the loyal portion of
the community.
We are well aware that in many instances
persons have included in their claims items
which on paper have the appearance of insig-
nificance, and which to you and others unfa-
miliar with the necessities of the case may seem
even pusillanimous but the half barrel of macke-
rel at which you sneer may have been the saw
ipgs out of the earnings of many days of toll
such as the editor of THE EVENING TELEGRAPH
is a stranger to, and the hat at which you are
disguised may be more to that man than an
entire wardrobe would be to those creatures of
luxury and abundance who never have known a
want themselves, nor know how to relieve it in
others.
The slander about the border people selling
water to soldiers is a stale rehash of an old
story which exists only in the disordered brain
of some whose acrimony is stronger than their
love of truth. / have myself, and have heard
Others do the same thing, said to some boy or
man, not unfrequently colored brother, as we
passed along, "Here, fill my canteen with water
and bring 1t TO me quick, and l will pay you"
Sometimes the protfered pay was accepted, and
sometimes it wasn't. 1t is, no doubt from cir
cumstances like these that many of these
charges originate, as 1 have on occasions like
these heard soldiers cursing the poor devils for
accepting the pr0tered pay but never saw,
nor do know of, any one peddling water; aud
there were not at all events, score of such
cases either at Antietam or Gettysburg, and it is
unfair and unWarranted to apply such a charge
to the people OF whole community of counties
indiscrmnately.
More than nineteenth of the aggregate of
these claims is in the hands of men and women
of unquestioned and unquestionab BILE loyalty.
Many of them are held by soldiers who them
selves were at the front fighting the battles of
their country while their homes were ravaged
by Rebel invaders, and many more are held by
those who gave their fathers sons husbands, or
brothers to the Union cause, while / do not
know of a single claim on file presented by any
one who was In active sympathy with the Re-
bellion.
From the items you publish, your readers will
naturally infer that, because these indiyid ual
claims are small in amount, they exhibit pusll-
Luminous spirit and want of patriotism on the
part of the claimants. Such, at least is the
tone and drift, if not the design, of your stric-
lures. Permit me, sir, to make statement OF
one or two of these claims which you hold up as
unworthy cases, and by which you would have
people judge, all the others. i accept the issue,