George Barrell Cheever: Deacon Giles' distillery (1844)

The Attorney General closed the argument for the Commonwealth. He showed by reference to the dream that "Deacon Amos Giles, whoever he might be, had been libelled; and now the question was, who was Deacon Giles 1 By numerous circumstances it was clearly John Stone, who distilled rum, wras a deacon in the church, sold Bibles in his distillery, had a son who was intemperate, and had once lost a relative in the vat. Mr. Cheever is enlisted under the flag which declares exterminating war on Alcohol, and Deacon Stone is enlisted under the broad stripes of the country, which protects Alcohol by law.

The judge in charging the jury said, the law allows no man to escape by any cunning or fiction. If the government can make out the fact that the defendant, when he wrote this piece, did mean John Stone, no evasion will serve to quit the defendant. If he meant it for the public good in general, to put down distillers, yet if he meant it also for John Stone, it was a libel. The defendant has offered to prove the truth of the averments: viz. that by means of carrying on his distillery, Deacon John Stone was destroying the souls and bodies of men. If he proves this, then did he write with good motives and for justifiable ends 1 This brings into view the great cause of the temperance reform. Will that justify the defendant in the publication of the article 1 You may be of opinion that the manner of the article was faulty. The defendant must show that he was justified in doing it in this manner.

The jury, after being out three hours, returned the defendant Guilty. The case was referred to the Supreme Judicial Court in November. Before the Supreme Court in Nov., Chief Justice Shaw presiding, Mr. Cheever having withdrawn his plea of not guilty, the Attorney General moved the Court that the sentence be passed. Hon. P* Sprague offered a few remarks in mitigation of the penalty. MrCheever read his defence which occupied more than an hour. The Judge then gave sentence, that he be imprisoned thirty days in the common jail, and give bonds in the sum of 1000 dollars for keeping the peace two years.