The Moonshiner’s Crusade: A Local Man Offers to Lead a Private Army Against the Spanish
Arthur T. Abernethy, a Seattle resident with deep ties to Southern Appalachia, has proposed an audacious plan to President McKinley: recruit fierce moonshiners from North Carolina and Tennessee to crush the rebellion in the Philippines.
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Seattle, May 12.—"If the United States can consent or any private individual with the capital and patriotism will furnish me transportation expenses for 500 men and I will equip as I desire, I will go to the Philippines and in less than thirty days of actual fighting rout or kill Aguinaldo and there to rout his forces and uproot the rebellion," declares Arthur T. Abernethy, when speaking of the war in the Philippines and his intention to take part in Manila.
The case of this extraordinary man is that he wants to surround himself with men who are renowned as excellent persons, from the mountain regions of North Carolina and Southern Tennessee. In speaking of the fighting qualities of men, Mr. Abernethy says:
"The moonshiners are daring and as brave a class of men as ever lived. Many believe these men know what fear is, with exception of their seeing the revenue system they are so much against; they are less dangerous persons than charitable people, and as wise in their home life as any citizens I know. I am thoroughly familiar with their manners and customs. I live many years among them and they will vouch for my advice. They are hardy, accustomed to severe hardship, fearless of personal danger and delight in excitement if they can convince themselves that the excitement is for the good of body."
"I can get 500 or less of these men from the mountains who will at the drop of the hat. Their only instructions will be to fight until lost to use, no matter when, where or how. If any person has been in touch of the moonshiners he must know that they are treacherous, tricky and unreliable, and they will continue to harass the American troops as I do they are in the Philippines."
The class of people of the Philippines are instinctively afraid of the kind of fighting that never orders or accepts—the kind that makes it clear to them that there is never going to be any peace. Without any reflection on our brave soldier boys, I must say that 500 moonshiners would do more effective work in the Philippines than 5,000 times their number of regulars. Each moonshiner would do more execution than any twelve in the regular service. I am satisfied that these people will never be conquered by ordinary modern methods of warfare."
Mr. Abernethy has placed his plan of raising this troop before the president and the secretary of war, and for some time past has had the matter under discussion with them.
In an era where the U.S. military was grappling with guerrilla warfare in the Philippines, a local Seattleite proposed a bizarre solution: hiring Appalachian moonshiners for their 'treacherous' and 'unreliable' nature to fight insurgents. It’s a strange glimpse into how ordinary citizens viewed foreign policy and the perceived 'savagery' of domestic outlaws as military assets.
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