although he confessed to the adultery and proved that he had been victim of blackmail by James Reynolds over his adultery with Reynolds' wife rather than consorting with him in speculation. According to Callender, that was just a smokescreen. The financial charges were never proven, and after the scandal somewhat subsided, in 1798 President Adams appointed Hamilton for a new public office, Major General of the Continental Army. Callender's success was short-lived. By 1798 his fortunes were in a downward spiral: he was forced to seek poor relief, his wife died of yellow fever, and his anonymously published political broadsides were exposed as his by a rival pamphleteer, William Cobbett, putting Callender in legal jeopardy and physical danger. He fled from Philadelphia to Virginia, leaving his children behind. Prosecution for sedition Thomas Jefferson, impressed with Callender's attack on Hamilton, and eager to create a counterforce to the Federalist press, sought to use Callender's talents against John Adams. Subsequent to meeting him in Philadelphia, Jefferson supported Callender financially and provided feedback on early proofs of Callender's anti-Federalist pamphlet, The Prospect Before Us. Prior to the publication of the pamphlet, Callender was compelled to flee on foot from Philadelphia to Virginia, finding temporary refuge at the plantation of Senator Stevens Thomas Mason. This was due to his fleeing of the acts against him on sedition, after calling out Hamilton. In Virginia, he completed The Prospect Before Us, whose subject was the pervasiveness of political corruption, particularly among Federalists and the Adams administration. His populist style had his targets permanently on the defensive. In June 1800, in retaliation for The Prospect, Callender was prosecuted under the Alien and Sedition Act by the Adams administration. His trial was presided over by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, who later was impeached, in part for his handling of the Callender trial. Callender was fined $200 and received the longest jail term of the journalists prosecuted under the Sedition Act. He was released on the last day of the Adams administration, in March 1801. After his release, Callender and the others who had been prosecuted were pardoned by the new president, Thomas Jefferson. Attacks on Thomas Jefferson Out of jail, Callender asked Jefferson to appoint him Postmaster of Richmond, Virginia, warning that if Jefferson did not, there would be consequences. Callender believed erroneously that Jefferson was conspiring to deprive him of money owed to him by the