David Brown

David Brown was convicted of sedition because of his criticism of the United States federal government and received the harshest sentence for anyone under the Sedition Act of 1798 for erecting the Dedham Liberty Pole.

Personal life Originally from Bethlehem, Connecticut, Brown was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. It is unknown what Brown did after his release from prison, or where or when he died.

Political views Brown thought the wealthy had gained too much political power in the new republic: "All our administration is fast approaching to Lords and Commons as possible, that a few men should possess the whole country and the rest be tenants to the others." Additionally, he thought the current system created a cycle in which the elites used their wealth to gain more political power, and then used their political power to create more wealth.

This, plus the fact that elected officials only represented speculators, and not the common man, meant that representative government did not work in his opinion. He believed that Americans would soon find themselves "the same chains of American tyrants that we once sported ourselves from under Britain."

He accused Federalist leaders of wanting a submissive, unthinking populace. He said they set themselves about the people, and expected them, like "the subjects of Julius Caesar, we must bow down and worship our Leaders as the Gods of Jupiter and Mars." Brown thought if people didn't fight back they were "to be brought into abject slavery." He worried that if Congress did not start listening to the public that the public "will finally break out like the burning mountain of Aetna, and we'll have an unconditional redress of their grievances."

Liberty pole

In the early American republic, Brown went throughout the towns arguing against the newly formed national United States government.