Those living on the border of civilized settlements.
1856. I am not going to put on an equality … those who have gone to Kansas with Sharpe’s rifles in their hands, and the Missouri “border ruffians,” as they have been termed.—Mr. Butler of S. Carolina, U.S. Senate, March 5: Cong. Globe, p. 585.
1856. [The people of Missouri] are not entitled to the epithets of abuse … bestowed upon them; they are not “border ruffians.”—Mr. Whitfield of Kansas, House of Repr., Aug. 1: id., p. 1867.
1857. A great majority of the people of the West, on the borders, may be emphatically termed “Border ruffians.” The Eastern people call them by that name, and by that name they are known.—John Taylor at the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Aug. 9: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ v. 116.
1860. I only wanted to convince gentlemen … that Indianians made better border ruffians than we did.—Mr. Craig of Missouri, House of Repr., Jan. 4: Cong. Globe, p. 332.
1860. Abe Lincoln is … the beau ideal of a relentless Free-Soil border ruffian … a fanatic in philanthropy, and a vulgar mobocrat and Southern hater in political opinions.—‘Junius’ in the Richmond Enquirer, Dec. 4, p. 1/7.
1863. He put a guard at every Border-ruffian’s door.—Wendell Phillips, ‘Speeches,’ xvii. 372. (N.E.D.)
1863. The Border ruffianism of Kansas.—The Times, April 10. (N.E.D.)
