To the editor:

I have to disagree with Richard Norton Smith comparing Osama bin Laden with William Quantrill. There would never have been “Quantrill’s Raiders” if not for the real terrorists of the Kansas-Missouri border. I am talking about the abolitionists Charles Jennison, John Brown and James Lane.

Jennison and Lane were the leaders of the dreaded Jayhawkers, and later the infamous Red Legs. These terrorists raided Missouri, murdering, stealing and raping both Southern and Unionists at will.

John Brown’s cold-blooded murders and thefts are well known.

Quantrill’s Raiders were organized by Missouri youth to defend their homes and loved ones from the murderous Kansas abolitionists. Had it not been for Jennison, Brown, Lane and their kind, there would not have been a Lawrence raid.

Richard Schrader,

Lawrence