Note 742 — Chapter IV

The attention of Thomas and Abijah Adams, editors of the Independent Chronicle, during the fall and winter of 1798–99 was mostly occupied with very pressing personal considerations. In October, 1798, Thomas Adams was arrested under the Sedition Act. While his trial was in progress objectionable comments on the state and federal governments continued to appear in the Chronicle, with the result that his clerk and acting editor, Abijah Adams, was likewise arrested and put on trial. Thomas Adams died before his case was concluded; but Abijah Adams was later convicted and had the sentence of the court imposed upon him. Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts, pp. 144 et seq. These facts supply a new angle from which to view the relative silence of the Independent Chronicle with regard to the Illuminati controversy.