After attacking the administration of Federalist President John Adams in print, Thomas Cooper (1759–1839), political writer and ardent Republican, was tried for seditious libel against Adams before Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase (1741–1811) in April 1800. Cooper was found guilty, fined, and imprisoned. Republican political leaders strongly criticized Justice Chase, and he was eventually impeached (though not convicted) in 1804, after the Republicans won control of the government.