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384 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
at once served on those having them in custody. On Saturday night, by
agreement of parties, Judge Farwell ordered the sheriff to take the negro
boys from the custody of their keepers at the Mansion House and confine
them in the jail until the result of the proceedings could be known.
On Monday following they were produced before Moors Farwell, an associate
judge of Erie County, and return made of the cause of capture and
detention. F. D. Parish and L. S. Beecher appeared as counsel for the
boys, and John Wheeler and John N. Sloane as counsel for claimants.
The examination and argument of the cases closed about noon on Tuesday,
and the judge took the question under advisement until 9 o 'clock the
next morning, at Avhich time it was held that they Avere not detained in
a legal manner and they Avere discharged.
As soon as the decision was proclaimed, the boys Avere released from
confinement, hurried out of town and sent to Canada. There is no
doubt in this case, except for Mr. Parish, no proceedings Avould have
been made, and the boys would have been returned to slavery. It Avas
not, however, for aiding these boys to escape that Mr. Parish Avas sued,
but for the part he took in behalf of other slaves Avhich these same
Kentuckians sought to reclaim on the same day, of which latter case
the circumstances Avere as follows: There were at this same time two
colored persons. Jane Garrison and her little boy Harrison, stopping at
the house of Mr. Parish. The son of the man claiming to own them
called at Mr. Parish's house to see them, and stated to Mr. Parish that
he was there to reclaim them, that they AA'ere the property of his father,
Peter Driskell of Kentucky. Mr. Parish asked by what authority.
and the reply was by power of attorney, offering to produce it. "You
need not show it," said Mr. Parish, "as nothing but judicial authority
Avill do." The slaves went into the house and were not seen afterwards.
Suit was brought in the Circuit Court of the United States
against Mr. Parish for the value of the slaves, and a jury found a verdict
against him for hindering and obstructing the arrest, and awarded
damages against him in the sum of $500, the proved A'alue of the slaves
at the time of their escape. The amount of judgment and the costs,
and the costs and expenses in the suit, $1,000 in all, Avas collected by
subscription in sums of one dollar each and presented to Mr. Parish.
A full report of this case can be found in fifth volume of "McLean's
Reports."
The rapacity of the slave power had been constantly increasing. In
1842 they censured Mr. Giddings for offering in Congress a resolution
that slavery did not extend on the high seas beyond the jurisdiction of
the state. In 1845 they demanded the annexation of Texas Avith slavery,
by Avhich a territory as large as France Avas added as a slave state to
the Union.
Elijah Anderson, a brave and fearless colored man, was the general
superintendent of the underground system in this section of Ohio, and
probably conducted more fugitiA'es than any other dozen men up to the
time he was arrested, tried and convicted in Kentucky, and sentenced to
the state prison- at Frankfort, where he died in 1857. Anderson said,