The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-12-09
AN OLD TINE EDITOR.
An interesting Story OF Anthony Haswell' Of
BENNINGTON,

|
Bennington.
| In its issue yesterday celebrating its
10th Birthday the Rutland Herald
printed an article on old time politics
in which Pennington figured. Though
the story is not new the story is inter-
esting enough to deserve reprinting.
1t is as follows:
The government had not been go
| ing long under the United States con-
stitution before the federalsts be-
came alarmed at the way the press Of
the country was falling into the hands
of the rabid wing of the republican
democratic party party. All per-
sons holding high Office were special
marks for lampooning editors, and
when it was pointed out that MAORI
ty of the editors had been born in
other countries, Congress went tenn
porariIy daft on an A. p. a, measure,
which eventually reacted upon its
authors.
One the first victims of the alien and
! sedition acts was Matthew Lyon, who
was indicted at the October term of
the United States court at Rutland in
1885, for scurrilous, scandalous, ma
licious and defamatory language"
about President Adams. The Offend
ing article had appeared in the Wind
sor Journal three months before, and
il related to sundry appointments and
removable 10 public Office. He pictured
Adams as man rushing headlOng
with every consideration of public
welfare swallowed up in continual
grasp for power, unbounded thirst for
ridiculous pOmp, foolish adulation or
selfish avarice " The charge was al
so made that the federalists in power
were mixing up religion with politics.
Lyon pleaded his own case and was
convicted and sentenced to four
month S Imprisonment and fined $1,000
/ While serving his term in Vergennes
| Jail he was reelected to Congress.
| His Imprisonment only added to the
! bitterness of his language, and his
| printed declarations written in conf
/ ment would have led to his rearrest
/ upon being set free il he had not de-
fen ded himself by proclaiming that he
was on his way to Philadelphia as Il
member of Congress. He started out
on the journey by way OF Bennington
! in a coach and four, with the American
| flag waving in the air and all the dem
ocrats OF the county able to be out of
| bed, shouting themselves hoarse over
him. His route to Bennington was a
| continuous ovation.
| Anthony Haswell, who was post
master general in this state from 1854
until 1871, had tried his hand unsuc.
cessfully at a newspaper here in Rut-
! land after he retired from office, and
then he returned to the Bennington
| Gazette. He did not bear much good
will toward Lyon, although both were
! anti federalists; but he used Lyons
| Imprisonment as an excuse to score
Adams and his party. The result was
t1at he found himself in Bennington
jail and sentenced to pay 500 into the
bargain. This fine mis- heirs collected
( ON the state half century later.
The Fourth of July celebration in 1900
was delayed at Bennington until the
Q when Haswell S term of imprisou-
ment expired, end Bennington indulg-
ed in another celebration over dem
ocratc hero. Cannons were fired, and
the whole town seemed beside itself
Haswell was an Englishman and
Lyon an Irishusn. About 30 OF the
200, more or less, newspapers in
America were edited by foreigners,
and as these aliens invariably turned
their papers against the federalists,
the demand for conviction under the
aliea and sedition acts continued.
Abijah Adams, publisher of the Bos'
ton Chronicle, spent 80 days in the
county jail and gave bonds upon his
liberation that be would not libel those
in authority.