soner that
if he ever became the chief executive he would release him. The
opportunity thus being presented for the first time, Jacob pardoned
Fairbank on April 15, 1864, after a continuous imprisonment of twelve
years. Such was the experience in Kentucky of an ardent northern
abolitionist who boasted that he had "liberated forty-seven slaves
from hell."[331]

The systematic stealing of slaves from Kentucky had begun about 1841
and at the time of the Webster and Fairbank trial was at its height.
This movement was one of the results growing out of the animosity
created by another legal case which occurred in 1838--that of the Rev.
John B. Mahan of Brown County, Ohio. This Methodist minister, although
living in the State of Ohio, was indicted by the grand jury of Mason
County, Kentucky, for having aided in the escape of certain slaves.
Governor Clark, of Kentucky, then issued a requisition on the Governor
of Ohio for Mahan as a "fugitive from justice." Upon receipt of the
demand, the chief executive of Ohio immediately issued a warrant for
the arrest of the minister. A short time later he became convinced
that this step had been too hasty, because Mahan had never been in
Kentucky. His offense had merely consisted in helping runaways along
the "underground railroad," once they were on free soil.

Hence, Governor Vance sent a special messenger to the chief executive
of Kentucky redemanding the alleged fugitive from justice. Governor
Clark made this very cordial and diplomatic reply:

The position assumed by you in relation to the fact of Mahan
having never been within the limits of Kentucky is clearly
correct, and if upon the legal investigation of the case it be
found true, he will doubtless be acquitted. I feel great
solicitude that this citizen of your state, who has been arrested
and brought to Kentucky, upon my requisition, shall receive
ample and full justice, and that, if upon legal investigation he
be found innocent of the crime alleged against him, he shall be
released and set at liberty. I will, therefore, address a letter
to the judge and commonwealth attorney of the Mason Circuit,
communicating to them the substance of your letter, and the
evidence which you have transmitted to me.[332]

The efforts of the Governor of Ohio were eventually successful, for in
spite of his slaveholding sympathies Governor Clark wrote to the judge
of the Mason Circuit