The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-08-02

UElTED STATES CoURr-The postponed
kaBeo< corpus case, of which there has been
SO nush talk, was disposed Of yesterday
afternoon by Judge Wilson. We have al
ready given q statement Of the facts Of
the case, but will repeat. About six
years sgo the Children's Aid Society picked
up two little boys in the streets of New
York city, named Bernard and James Car
roll. They were taken to Rsndall's Island
and kept there two years, when they were
brought west by an agent of that Society,
who succeeded in finding homes for them
in the families of two highly respectable
men of Ashland county, named W. WATSON
and Joseph Charlotte. The boys have been
living with these men four years, having
been absent from home six years.
Their mother was q widow in narrow cir
cumstances at the time the boys were seen
on the streets and taken under the protec-
ton of the Aid Society. She was 80 poor
that all her time was Consumed in getting
the bare, scant necessaries of life for herself
and her boys, and they were thus thrown
upon the highways, without apparent
thought or care. There is no evidence to
show, as has been alleged, that they were
kidnapped, as it were, by said Society.
Missing her children, the mother, Mrs.
Carroll, sought them in the Tombs, and
learned thu. they had been sent to Ran
dall's Island. The testimony shows that
she visited them there, and seeing their
smeliOrated condition, acquiescsd in their
staying there. Two years afterwards, ind
ing tbatthey had been removed, she learn
ed their whereabouts, and came on to Ash
and to see bow Jared her boys. Pleased
with their situation, she sequiesced in their
lot two years longer, at the expiration of
which time she remarked, and moved to
Baltimore.
Having provided herself a home, she
naturally desired to secure her chill
dren. She and her husband accord
inely came on to Ashland county a short
time since, and claimed the lads on the
ground that she was their natural guardian.
On the refusal of Messrs. WATSON and Char
Iotte to give them up, she procured thsi is
sue of a writ of ha5eas corpus and brought
the case into court, TO test the validity of
| papers made out by the Probate Court of
Asbland county, clothing these men with
the right of guardianship over the minors.
! MessIs. Vim. Heisly and George Wiley,
Esqrs., appeared as counsel for applicants,
and Judge Andrews for respondents.
The counsel for tho applicants rested the
case on humanitarian grounds, urging that
the feelings of a mother in such a case
should be respected, and that judicial con-
sent to sunder family relations should not
be given merely out of the consideration
that one party is able, pecuniarily, to
bring up the children and advance them
in the world. On the other hand it was
claimed that as the testimony dOes not
show that the children were deprived of
their liberty either illegally or against
their will, the case is left wholly to the dis
erection of the court, and in making decis-
ion the principle Of law must be borne in
mind, that the good of the children must
be kept in view, and take precedence of the
rights of parents in such cases. The moth
er, by the act of re-msrriage, lost all legal
claim to the right of guardianship of her
children. The Probate Court of Ashland
county was competent to invest the de-
PENDANTS with the right Of guardianship,
and its action is not to be impesched.
The court summed up the case, and de-
cided that as Bernard Carroll is now of
sufficient age to judge for himself as to
what course is best for him, and as he pre-
fers remaining in his adopted home, he
be reminded to the custody Of Mr.. VIM.
WATSON but James, the younger brother,
IVES given into the custody Of his mother.