George Barrell Cheever: Deacon Giles' distillery (1844)

At the Court of Common Pleas for Essex Co., Mass., held at Salem, June 24th, 1335, Hon. Solomon Strong, Judge, the Rev. Geo. B. Cheevee, was tried on an indictment for a libel on Deacon John Stone. Hon. J. T. Austin, Attorney General: Hon. L. Salstonstall, Counsel for the Commonwealth: Hon. Peleg Sprague and Hon. Rufus Choate, for the defendant. The indictment charged Mr. Cheevcr with a false, scandalous, indecent, malicious libel on John Stone, charging him with knowingly, wilfully, and designedly preparing, in league with evil spirits and demons, the means of pestilence and disease to the bodies, and condemnation and ruin of the souls of his fellow-beings; thereby intending to aggrieve, vilify, and defame him, and to deprive him of the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens, &c.