On February 22 Chief-Justice Dana issued a writ commanding the sheriff to arrest the culprits. Under this writ Abijah Adams was taken into custody, but was released pending his trial upon furnishing bail in the sum of one thousand dollars. Thomas Adams was not arrested. At the time he was suffering from what proved to be a fatal illness, and the sheriff returned a certificate signed by two physicians affirming that he could not be taken before the court without serious danger to his life.
The arrest of the younger Adams took place on the twenty-seventh of February and on the following day the Chronicle for the first time took notice of the attack upon itself. Less than ten lines sufficed for the simple announcement that the younger Adams had been arrested and that his trial would begin the next day. Ultimately the indictment and every transaction connected with the affair, the Chronicle promised, would be minutely handled for the public instruction, but prior to the decision, "We scorn to attempt to bias our numerous readers on this subject." This promise was kept and not a single line further appeared in the Chronicle until after the entire affair was over; then the whole case of the defense was published in four installments, aggregating twenty-five columns.[1] From this elaborate argument, brief notices of the trial in the Mercury and Centinel, and the manuscript records of the Supreme Judicial Court a quite complete account of the entire trial can be extracted.
- ↑ Chronicle, April 11 to May 2, 1799.
