AROUND TOWN

Parade float

FAIR HAVEN — Actor/singer John Daly entertained as Fair Haven founder, Matthew Lyon, on the float that took second place in the Memorial Day Weekend parade.

Daly recalled Lyon’s imprisonment in the Vergennes jail for violating the Sedition Act of 1798. While running for a second term in Congress, newspaper publisher/editor Lyon was arrested for printing an article that criticized President John Adams’ pompous behavior and administration policies.

Although the story was published before the Sedition Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by Adams, Lyon was arrested, tried, and found guilty in just three days. The federal court in Rutland vacated his First Amendment protection safeguard for freedom of the press and of speech. Nine more journalists were la

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