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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

James Callender was a notorious literary hack, whose scurrilous pen was at the service of the highest bidder. To read his book, "The Prospect Before Us," and claim the writer was not guilty of sedition was impossible. However, what became of Callender was of little consequence, as everyone knew the real contest would be between the Republican lawyers of the Virginia bar and Judge Samuel Chase. Chase was the most reckless, partisan, and fearless judge on the bench of the Circuit Court.

Long before the trial opened, statements were made and sworn to that Chase had spoken his threats of what he would do. He had commanded the marshal to ensure that none of the "rascals" called Democrats were put on the jury. In the presence of a great company, he had shown how he would draw the best lawyers of Virginia across his knees and flog them out of their nullifying mood.

Callender's career in America began with vilifying Washington. Before he sank out of sight in the waters of the James River, he turned upon his old employers and loaded Jefferson with calumny and abuse. According to McMaster (Vol. 2, p. 468), "Mr. Jefferson, as soon as he became President, exercised his powers of pardon in favor of Callender, as well as all others who had been convicted under the Sedition Law and were then undergoing sentences of imprisonment."

A little later, Callender asked to be appointed Postmaster at Richmond, which was refused him. He took great offense at the refusal and soon began writing in opposition to the new administration. He openly justified his desertion on the grounds of ill-treatment he had received from Mr. Jefferson. Welcomed by new allies, Callender connected himself with the editor of an obscure journal recently established in Richmond, the Recorder. He poured forth against the Republican party generally, and Mr. Jefferson in particular, a torrent of scurrility and slander unprecedented in the United States, not even by himself.

The private life of Mr. Jefferson, present and past, was subjected to the closest scrutiny. Wherever he was believed to be vulnerable, no matter the cause or evidence, he was unhesitatingly assailed in the grossest and most offensive way. It remains to be added that while this wretched libeler, who had now become an habitual sot, was disseminating his slanders and ribaldry with untiring virulence, he was one morning found drowned in the James River, where he had been bathing, supposedly in a state of intoxication. (Tucker's Life of Jefferson, Vol. 2, p.)

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