Benjamin Fairbanks

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.[1][2]

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Fairbanks was charged with having a role in erecting the liberty pole in Dedham, along with David Brown. Brown held the ladder while another, presumably Fairbanks, put up a seditious sign on it.[3]

When it appeared, Fisher Ames and the rest of Dedham's Federalist community were enraged.[4] The pole was taken down[5] and the culprits were sought. Fairbanks, a prosperous farmer and former Selectman but also an "impressionable, rather excitable man," was quickly arrested[4] on November 6, 1798.[2] He was brought to Boston by the United States Marshal for the district, and accompanied by men from a neighboring community.[6] He was questioned the same evening by Judge John Lowell.[6]

He posted bond and was scheduled for trial the following June at the Federal Circuit Court in Boston.[4][6][2] When the trial came, Fairbanks requested the legal aid of Ames. While Ames declined to serve as the defendant's attorney, he did appear as a character witness.[1] Fairbanks, facing the "powerful forces" arrayed against him, confessed on June 8.[7]

Fairbanks said that "it was not then known by me, nor perhaps by others concerned, how heinous an offense it was."[7][8] He then added that he was a patriotic citizen, and would attempt to live his life accordingly in the future.[7] Justice Samuel Chase sentenced Fairbanks to six hours in prison and a fine of five dollars, plus court costs, the lightest sentence ever given for any of the Sedition Act defendants.[1][8] When Thomas Jefferson became president, one of his first acts was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act.[9]

Personal life

He was a descendant of Jonathan Fairebanke, builder of the Fairbanks House.[4] He was also related to Jason Fairbanks, the murderer, and Vice President Charles Fairbanks.

He served one term as a selectman in 1785.[10]

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See also

References
  1. Slack 2015, p. 179.
  2. Phillip I. Blumberg (30 September 2010). Repressive Jurisprudence in the Early American Republic: The First Amendment and the Legacy of English Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-139-49002-3.
  3. Slack 2015, p. 140.
  4. Slack 2015, p. 138.
  5. Slack 2015, p. 141.
  6. Richard N. Rosenfeld; Edmund S. Morgan (15 September 1998). American Aurora: A Democratic-Republican Returns: The Suppressed History of Our Nation's Beginnings and the Heroic Newspaper That Tried to Report It. St. Martin's Press. p. 541. ISBN 978-0-312-19437-6.
  7. Slack 2015, p. 178.
  8. Belt, Gordon T. "Sedition Act of 1798 – a brief history of arrests, indictments, mistreatment & abuse" (pdf). First Amendment Center. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  9. Slack 2015, p. 232.
  10. Worthington, Erastus (1827). The history of Dedham: from the beginning of its settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. p. 79-81. Retrieved November 8, 2019.

Works cited
  • Slack, Charles (2015). Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0802123428.
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