Aurora for the purpose of suppressing it. For expressing that opinion
he was fined and imprisoned. Thomas Cooper made the remark that in 1797
President Adams was "hardly in the infancy of political mistakes," and
these mild words cost him $400 and kept him in prison for six months.

It is hard to believe that the following proceedings took place within
the present hundred years in the United States of America, and yet they
did.

In the case against Callender, Judge Chase denounced the accused to the
jurors and forbade the marshals to place any one not a Federalist on the
jury. The lawyers who defended Callender were threatened with corporal
punishment.

In Otsego, N. Y., Judge Peck obtained signers to a petition for the
repeal of the obnoxious acts. For such action he was indicted and taken
to New York city for trial.

That was the sacred right of petition with a vengeance.

Matthew Lyon, while canvassing his district in Vermont for re-election
to congress, charged the president in one of his speeches with
"unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation and a selfish
avarice," certainly mild expressions compared with what are heard in
these times, but because of their utterance, Mr. Lyon spent four months
in jail and paid a fine of $1000.

When he had served out his term and been re-elected, a strong effort was
made to prevent his taking his seat. It failed and in 1840, his fine was
returned to him with interest.