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The Dedham Liberty Pole was a liberty pole erected in 1798 in Dedham, Massachusetts. Several of those involved with the pole were arrested, resulting in both the harshest, and the lightest, sentences ever imposed under the Sedition Act of 1798.
Residents awoke one October morning in 1798 to find a large wooden pole had been erected on the Hartford Road in Clapboard Trees parish. [1] [2] At the top was a Phrygian cap and a hand painted sign declaring [3]
No Stamp act; no sedition; no alien bill; no land tax.
Downfall to the tyrants of America; peace and
retirement to the President; long live the vice
President and the minority; May moral government
be the basis of civil government. [1] [4] [5] [6] [2] [3]
This liberty pole was erected by David Brown, an itinerant veteran of the American Revolution who traveled from town to town in Massachusetts, drumming up subscribers for a series of political pamphlets he had written. [7] [8] [4] [2] The minister in the third parish had been preaching Democratic-Republican principals to his congregation for some time. [2]
Brown was assisted by Benjamin Fairbanks and about 40 others, [9] [2] including Amariah Chapin, who painted the sign. [10] [lower-alpha 1] Brown held the ladder while another, presumably Fairbanks, put up the sign. [10] Nathaniel Ames was also very likely involved. [11] [12]
When it appeared, Fisher Ames and the rest of Dedham's Federalist community were enraged. [9] [12] Judge John Lowell ordered the "Symbol of Sedition" to be "demolished. [3] The pole was chopped down by a group from the second precinct and the culprits were sought before Samuel Bradford, a US Marshall, got to Dedham, [2] [11] but they saved the "libelous label" as evidence. [3]
Fisher Ames wrote that "though the Liberty Pole is down... The Devil of Sedition is immortal; and we, the Saints, have an endless struggle to maintain with him." [12] A Boston newspaper, Russell's Gazette, wrote that "a vagabond Irishman, or Scotchman" was likely the ringleader. [7] Other Federalist press said the pole was "a rallying point for the enemies of a Free Government" and an emblem of "insurrection and civil war." [3]
Fairbanks, a prosperous farmer and former Selectman but also an "impressionable, rather excitable man," was quickly arrested and charged with violating the Sedition Act of 1798. [9] He posted bond and was scheduled for trial the following June in Boston. [9] [2] Nathaniel Ames described his arrest as a "pompous array of tyrant power, seized on suspicion and carried out of his own County to answer charges solely within the jurisdiction of his own State laws and in courts of his own County - and held to the excessive bail of 4,000 dollars to answer a tyrannic usurpation on our own Sovereign State!" [2]
Brown, on the other hand, eluded authorities until March 1799, when he was caught in Andover, 28 miles away. [13] [14] While Fairbanks was out on bail, Brown sat for three months in dank jail cell in Salem awaiting trial because he could not afford the $4,000 bail, which was twice the maximum fine if found guilty. [15] [14] When the trial came, Fairbanks was brought before the court first. He requested the legal aid of Fisher Ames, and while Ames declined to serve as the defendant's attorney he did appear as a character witness. [16] Fairbanks, facing the "powerful forces" arrayed against him, confessed on June 8. [15]
Fairbanks said that "it was not then known by me, nor perhaps by others concerned, how heinous an offense it was." [15] He then added that he was a patriotic citizen, and would attempt to live his life accordingly in the future. [15] [12] Justice Samuel Chase sentenced Fairbanks to six hours in prison and a fine of five dollars, plus court costs of 10 shillings, the lightest sentence ever given for any of the Sedition Act defendants. [16] [12] [lower-alpha 2]
On June 9, Brown also pled guilty, but he was not shown the same mercy as Fairbanks. [16] [4] [1] [12] Chase accepted the guilty plea, but insisted on trying the case anyway so that the "degree of his guilt might be duly ascertained." [17] [4] Several Dedham residents, including Chapin, Joseph Kingsbury, Jeremiah Baker, and Luther Ellis, testified against Brown, who was not represented by a lawyer. [18] Nathaniel Ames received what he called "two illegal summons to the High Fed Circ't Court," but refused to appear and testify. [18] [12] He was arrested and charged with contempt of court the following October. [19] [12] Ames was fined $8 and complained to Cushing, his classmate at Harvard, but Cushing refused to waive it and added "insult to injury" by suggesting that he discuss the matter with his brother Fisher. [20] [lower-alpha 3]
Chase offered Brown a chance to reduce his sentence by naming everyone involved with his "mischievous and dangerous pursuits," and the names of all those who subscribed to his pamphlets. [4] [19] Brown refused, saying, "I shall lose all my friends." [19] He did, however, apologize for his political opinions and "more especially in the way and manner I did utter them." [19] Despite this apology, and the promise to change his ways, Chase found "no satisfactory indication of a change of disposition, or amelioration of temper" that might lessen "the punishment which his very pernicious and dangerous practice demanded." [19]
Brown was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $400 fine, and $80 in court costs, the harshest sentence ever imposed under the Sedition Act. [3] [21] [4] [22] [12] Brown had requested that there be no fine as he had no way to pay it. [19] As he did not have the money, and had no way of earning it while in prison, Brown petitioned President John Adams for a pardon in July 1800, and then again in February 1801. [23] [4] [24] [12] Adams refused both times, keeping Brown in prison. [23] [8] [12] [3]
When Thomas Jefferson became president, one of his first acts was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act. This set free Brown and James T. Callendar, the only two remaining in prison. [25] [12] It is unknown what Brown did after his release, or where or when he died. [25]
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship, the Alien Friends Act allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens, the Alien Enemies Act gave the president additional powers to detain non-citizens during times of war, and the Sedition Act criminalized false and malicious statements about the federal government. The Alien Friends Act and the Sedition Act expired after a set number of years, and the Naturalization Act was repealed in 1802. The Alien Enemies Act is still in effect.
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood, and on the southeast by Canton. The town was first settled by European colonists in 1635.
Fisher Ames was a Representative in the United States Congress from the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. He was an important leader of the Federalist Party in the House, and was noted for his oratorical skill.
A liberty pole is a wooden pole, or sometimes spear or lance, surmounted by a "cap of liberty", mostly of the Phrygian cap. The symbol originated in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar by a group of Rome's Senators in 44 BCE. Immediately after Caesar was killed the assassins, or Liberatores as they called themselves, went through the streets with their bloody weapons held up, one carrying a pileus carried on the tip of a spear. This symbolized that the Roman people had been freed from the rule of Caesar, which the assassins claimed had become a tyranny because it overstepped the authority of the Senate and thus betrayed the Republic.
David Brown was convicted of sedition because of his criticism of the United States federal government and received the harshest sentence for anyone under the Sedition Act of 1798 for erecting the Dedham Liberty Pole.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1899 saw growth and change come to the town. In fact, the town changed as much during the first few decades of the 19th century as it did in all of its previous history.
Nathaniel Ames, a colonial American physician, published a popular series of annual almanacs. He was the son of Nathaniel Ames first (1677–1736) and the father of Nathaniel and Fisher Ames. The family was descended from William Ames of Bruton, Somerset, England, whose son William emigrated to Massachusetts and settled at Braintree as early as 1640.
Deborah Fisher, later Deborah Ames and Deborah Woodward, was a tavern owner in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Benjamin Fairbanks was an 18th-century farmer and selectmen from Dedham, Massachusetts who received the lightest sentence of anyone ever convicted under the Sedition Act of 1798.
Nathaniel Ames represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the Great and General Court.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1700 to 1799 saw the town become one of the largest and most influential country towns in Massachusetts. As the population grew and residents moved to outlying areas of the town, battles for political power took place. Similar battles were taking place within the churches, as liberal and conservative factions bristled at paying for ministers with whom they had differences of theological opinion. New parishes and preciencts were formed, and eventually several new towns broke away.
The Ames Tavern was a tavern in Dedham, Massachusetts. Founded as Fisher's Tavern in 1649 by Joshua Fisher, it eventually passed into the hands of Nathaniel Ames through a complicated lawsuit based on colonial laws of inheritance. It was eventually owned by Richard Woodward, who renamed it the Woodward Tavern by the time the convention that adopted the Suffolk Resolves met there.
The Norfolk County Courthouse served Norfolk County, Massachusetts from soon after its establishment in 1792 until 1827. It was replaced by a new Norfolk County Courthouse. In later years, the building was known as Temperance Hall.
Thomas Thatcher was the third minister of the West Church of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Samuel Haven was an American judge.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal Church in Dedham, Massachusetts
This is a timeline of the history of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Pillar of Liberty is a monument in Dedham, Massachusetts commemorating the repeal of the Stamp Act. Erected by the Sons of Liberty, it originally had a pillar with a bust of William Pitt on top.
The death of Elizabeth Fales took place on May 18, 1801, in Dedham, Massachusetts. Her boyfriend, Jason Fairbanks, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death but escaped from jail before he could be hanged. He was recaptured, returned to Dedham, and hanged before a crowd of 10,000. The case made national headlines.
The town of Dedham, Massachusetts, participated in the American Revolutionary War and the protests and actions that led up to it in a number of ways. The town protested the Stamp Act and then celebrated its repeal by erecting the Pillar of Liberty. Townsmen joined in the boycott of British goods following the Townshend Acts, and they supported the Boston Tea Party. Dedham's Woodward Tavern was the site where the Suffolk Resolves gathering was first convened.