810 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

### The Trial

In the United States Circuit Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1800.

**Hon. Samuel Chase,**
**Hon. Richard Peters,**
Judges
April 11

An indictment had been found against Thomas Cooper under the Sedition Act, which made it a crime to be punished by fine and imprisonment for anyone to print or publish any false, scandalous, and malicious writings against the Government, Congress, or the President, with intent to defame them, to bring them into contempt, or to excite the hatred of the people against them. This was for the following seditious libel against John Adams, President of the United States.

The libelous matter set out in the indictment was as follows:

"Nor do I see any impropriety in making this request of Mr. Adams. At that time, he had just entered into office; he was hardly in the infancy of political mistakes; even those who doubted his capacity thought well of his intentions. Nor were we yet saddled with the expense of a permanent navy or threatened, under his auspices, with the existence of a standing army. Our credit was not yet reduced so low as to borrow money at eight percent in time of peace, while the unnecessary violence of official expressions might justly have provoked a war. Mr. Adams had not yet projected his embassies to Prussia, Russia, and the Sublime Porte, nor had he yet..."

*Publicography: "An account of the Trial of Thomas Cooper of Northumberland, on a charge of libel against the President of the United States, Taken in shorthand by Thomas Cooper."*

*Wharton’s State Trials, see 4 Am. St. Tr., 616.*

**Samuel Chase (1741-1811):** Born in Somerset Co., Maryland; studied law at Annapolis and was admitted to the bar in 1761. He was a member of the Colonial Legislature and prominent in the Stamp Act agitation; a signer of the Declaration of Independence; United States Commissioner (with Franklin and Carroll) to Canada; removed to Baltimore in 1786; Chief Justice of the Baltimore Criminal Court in 1788; member of the Maryland convention to ratify the Federal Constitution; Chief Justice of the General Court, Maryland, 1791; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1796-1811.

*See 4 Am. St. Tr., 616.*