REPORT OF THE CASE OF JOSHUA STOW VS. SHERMAN CONVERSE, FOR A LIBEL; CONTAINING A HISTORY OF TWO TRIALS BEFORE THE SUPERIOR COURT, AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT OF ERRORS.
New Haven: Printed by S. Converse, 1822. [1], 3, [3 blanks], [5]-183 pp, with erratum at bottom of page 3. Disbound, rubberstamp on title page. Scattered foxing, Good+.
"Stow, a Republican judge, charged Converse, the editor of the Connecticut Journal, with libel in declaring him to be an infidel. The jury found Converse guilty and awarded Stow $500. The judge declared the damages insufficient and the jury reconsidered and awarded $1,000, which the court accepted. Converse requested a new trial which the Supreme Court granted. The retrial in Superior Court resulted in a $750 award which the jury refused to increase when sent out to reconsider. The Supreme Court then denied the defendant's motion for another trial. That denial is reported at 4 Connecticut Reports 17." Cohen.
The trial, as the Introduction notes, was an outgrowth of the "strong political feelings" of the time: Connecticut 's Republicans and Federalists were at each other's throats. Stow, who had also been Middletown's postmaster and tax collector, supported Thomas Jefferson in 1800, and resented the Federalists' efforts to place the Congregational Church at the center of political life. Stow actively supported the 1818 State Constitution's disestablishment of the Church; Federalists called him an infidel. "If the future historian of Connecticut would thoroughly understand the real genius and political spirit of the times in which we live, he will find more of them embodied in this pamphlet than in any other authentic document with which we are acquainted."
Cohen 12059. Item #34504
Price: $500.00