During the conflict of 1854-1859 in Kansas, certain
"Free-state men in the Southeast, comparatively isolated,
having little communication with [the town of] Lawrence, and
consequently almost wholly without check, developed a
successful if not very praiseworthy system of retaliation.
Confederated at first for defense against pro-slavery
outrages, but ultimately falling more or less completely into
the vocation of robbers and assassins, they have received the
name—whatever its origin may be—of jayhawkers."
_L. W. Spring,
Kansas, page 240._
"The complaints in former years of Border Ruffian forays from
Missouri into Kansas [see KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859], were, as
soon as the civil war began, paid with interest by a continual
accusation of incursions of Kansas 'Jayhawkers' and 'Red Legs'
into Missouri."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, page 370._