Biography
Anthony Haswell was a printer, editor and Revolutionary War veteran who founded the Vermont Gazette in 1783. By the late 1790s the Gazette was the leading Democratic-Republican newspaper in Vermont and a vocal critic of the Adams administration. In 1799 Haswell published an advertisement soliciting funds for imprisoned Vermont congressman Matthew Lyon. The advertisement mocked the Adams administration's Federalist appointees. He was indicted under the Sedition Act in October 1799 and tried in Rutland in May 1800, the federal jury convicted him and Justice William Paterson of the U.S. Supreme Court sentenced Haswell to two months in jail and a $200 fine. He served his sentence at the Vergennes jail in Vermont. After his release he continued publishing until his death in 1816.
Belt describes Haswell appearing before Justice William Cushing on October 9, 1799, where he learned the two counts concerned the Matthew Lyon lottery advertisement and a paragraph about appointments of Tories. Although he acknowledged publishing them, Haswell pleaded not guilty. Cushing is identified at this initial appearance, not established by this passage as the sentencing judge.
