Arrested for Speaking Out! In 1799, New York State Assemblyman Jedediah Peck circulated a petition calling for the repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts. For exercising the most basic right guaranteed by the First Amendment, he was arrested under the Sedition Act, shackled in irons, and marched across the New York countryside to stand trial. He never went to trial. The spectacle of a Revolutionary War veteran in chains for carrying a petition helped destroy the Federalist Party and sweep Thomas Jefferson into the presidency. This is the story of the Plough-Jogger — the forgotten farmer-legislator who bet his freedom on a piece of paper and won.