ngress, and editor of a newspaper in Vermont, was
brought to trial under the Sedition Law, for a false, malicious, and
seditious libel. He had published in his newspaper a somewhat severe
attack on the Federalists then in power. The article, alleged to be
"seditious," was a letter written and mailed at the seat of government
seven days before, and published nine days after, the passage of the
Sedition Law itself. It was as much a political trial, Gentlemen, as
this--purely political. Judge Patterson--United States Circuit Judge
of Vermont--charged that the jury had nothing whatever to do with the
constitutionality of the Sedition Law. "Congress has said that the
author and publisher of seditious libels is to be punished." "The only
question you are to determine is ... Did Mr. Lyon publish the
writing?... Did he do so seditiously, with the intent of making odious
or contemptible the President and government, and bringing them both
into disrepute?"

Mr. Lyon was found guilty, and punished by a fine of $1,000 and
imprisonment for four months. The "Seditious Libel" would now be
thought a quite moderate Editorial or "Letter from our Correspondent."
His imprisonment was enforced with such rigor that his constituents
threatened to tear down the jail, which he prevented.[158]

[Footnote 158: Wharton, 333; 4 Jefferson's Works (1853), 262.]

3. In 1799 Thomas Cooper, a native of England, residing at
Northumberland, Pennsylvania, published a handbill reflecting severely
on the conduct of President Adams. He was prosecuted by an
Information _ex officio_, in the Circuit Court for Pennsylvania, and
brought to trial before Judge Chase, already referred to, charged with
a "false, scandalous, and malicious attack" on the President. Mr.
Chase charged the jury, "A Republican government can only be destroyed
in two ways: the introduction of luxury, or the licentiousness of the
press. This latter is the more slow, but most sure and certain means
of bringing about the destruction of the government." He made a fierce
and violent harangue, arguing the case against the defendant with the
spirit which has since become so notorious in the United States courts
in that State. The pliant jury found Mr. Cooper guilty, and he was
fined $400 and sent to jail for six months. He subsequently became a
judge in Pennsylvania, as conspicuous for judicial tyranny as Mr.
Chase himself, and was removed by Address of the Legislature from his
seat, but afterwa