e case of Holmes. "Whether justifiable or
unjustifiable" there was not sufficient evidence before the jury to
decide in the case of Green. The verdict in the case of Holmes was the
only possible verdict on the admitted facts. Holmes was forcibly
resisting an officer of the law in executing a legal order of the
proper authority. In the case of Green the doubt arose from the
uncertainty whether he was bayoneted while resisting the officer or
after Mosely had made his escape. The evidence was conflicting and the
fact has never been made quite clear. No proceedings were taken
against the deputy sheriff; but a score or more of the people of color
were arrested and placed in prison for a time. The troublous times of
the Mackenzie Rebellion came on and the men of color were released,
many of them joining a Negro militia company which took part in
protecting the border.

The affair attracted much attention in the province and opinions
differed. While there were exceptions on both sides, it may fairly be
said that the conservative and government element reprobated the
conduct of the blacks in the strongest terms, being as little fond of
mob law as of slavery, and that the radicals including the followers
of Mackenzie, looked upon Holmes and Green as martyrs in the cause of
liberty. That Holmes and Green and their followers violated the law
there is no doubt; but so did Oliver Cromwell, George Washington and
John Brown. Every one must decide for himself whether the occasion
justified in the courts of Heaven an act which must needs be condemned
in the courts of earth.[18]

It was, however, only when the alleged crime was recent and followed
up promptly that the rigid rule of extraditing slaves accused of crime
was applied. A case which came before the Executive Council a few days
after Mosely's is a good illustration of the care taken in such cases.
Jesse Happy, a slave in Kentucky, had made his escape to Canada,
stealing a horse with which he outran his pursuers. Knowing the
indisposition of the Canadian authorities to return fugitives from
slavery, the Governor of Kentucky undertook to have this fugitive
extradited on the ground that he was charged with a felony in that
commonwealth. It appeared that the real object of the application from
Kentucky was not so much to bring Happy to trial for the alleged
felony as to reduce him again to a state of slavery. In the report of
the Attorney General reference was made to an applicati