In 1735, Colonial New York, a change in American history was brewing. A German printer, John Peter Zenger, had just been tried and quitted for printing seditious libel against the colony's governor. The trial may have been forgotten by time, but the jury's verdict changed history.
280 years ago, in 1733, Colonial New York, a fight was brewing. The colony's ill-tempered British governor, William Cosby, had just removed the Chief Justice of the colony, Louis Morris, from his post. Morris had refused to indict a respected Dutch leader of the colony, Rip Van Dam. Cosby was suing Van Dam for the salary he earned while he filled in as governor until Cosby arrived from England. When Morris said no, Cosby fired him.
In response, Morris, Van Dam, his two lawyers, James Alexander, and William Smith, a group later known as the Morrisites, set out to send Cosby back to England. But the Morisites needed a way to reach the people's minds, to help to convince them to send Cosby back to England. A newspaper was the obvious answer. Almost everyone in New York read the paper, but the only one currently printed was the New York Gazette, run and printed by William Bradford, a strict Cosby supporter. British laws were harsh on criticizing the government.
The Morisites had a glimmer of hope, and it was John Peter Zenger. He had immigrated to New York City from Germany in 1710, and currently owned a printing shop in New York City. When Morris asked him to start printing a paper, Zenger readily agreed, and on November 5, 1733, the first edition of the New York Weekly Journal came out. It contained lengthy articles criticizing Cosby and his administration, one example calling Cosby a monkey of the larger sort. It is believed that the most likely author of the controversial material in the New York Weekly Journal was James Alexander.
A widely read collection of essays glorifying the virtues of freedom, Cato's letters, were avidly read and supported by alexander and heavily influenced his writings as for cosby he was outraged he had the journal publicly burned placed rewards on the authors heads and twice tried to have a grand jury indict zenger for seditious libel a statement causing people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarchy it all failed though and new yorkers were getting angrier so on november seventeenth seventeen thirty four Cosby had Zenger arrested and charged with seditious libel, illegally bypassing the grand jury. Zenger was imprisoned on the second floor of City Hall. James Alexander and his counterpart, William Smith, were prepared to defend Zenger, but were disbarred from law after they said Chief Justice James D. Lancy was illegally promoted to his post. On August 4, 1735, the Crown v. Zenger trial was ready to start.
Zenger's court-appointed lawyer, John Chambers, gave an opening speech on his behalf, but the situation looked much better for the prosecution. Until a man steps from the crowd in City Hall and announces he is defending Zenger. It's Andrew Hamilton, considered by many to be the best lawyer in the colonies at the time. He comes, he comes, the hero comes. Hamilton begins the trial by telling the judge, James D. Lancey.
I do confess for my client, he both printed and published the two newspapers set forth in the information. and I hope in doing so he has committed no crime. Attorney General Richard Bradley, in charge of the prosecution, then informed the judge, I think the jury must find a verdict for the king.
For by British law, which governed the colonies at that time, a jury decides if a man printed the material, a judge decides if the material is seditious. Hamilton disagrees. He attempts to bring in witnesses to prove that the statements in Zenger's paper are true. but judge de lancey shoots him down again stating the law hamilton then goes on to try to prove that if a lie was true it should not be a crime despite his masterful arguments however and the crowd's assent he soon senses he will not change the judge's minds so he appeals directly to the jury telling them plain out in defiance of british law if you should be of opinion that there is no falsehood in mr zenger's papers you ought to say so It is your right to do so, and there is much depending on your resolution. The question before the court and you gentlemen of the jury is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying.
No, it may in its consequence affect every free man who lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty. Hamilton has reached the jury's hearts, and in ten minutes they return with the unexpected verdict of not guilty.
That night. Andrew Hamilton receives an honorary dinner at the Black Horse Tavern, Zenger is freed the next day, and on his way back to Philadelphia, Hamilton receives a gunfire salute from the ships in New York Harbor. An inspiring story, but was it a turning point in history? Many have said no.
They say the Zenger trial did not affect freedom of the press in America whatsoever. Professor Stanley Kant says the Zenger trial did not directly further the development either of political liberty or freedom of the press in America. However, there is strong evidence that even at the time, that was not true.
The Zenger trial was big news. In America, and even across the Atlantic Ocean, a London newspaper reported Zenger's remarkable trial. It was big news for a reason.
Look at Freedom of the Press before 1735. In 1687, Reverend John Wise is convicted and fined for condemning Britain's tax policies. In 1723, James Franklin is arrested and imprisoned for insulting the government's failure to deal with piracy. John Checkley is fined in 1720 and 1724, and punishments for libel in 1689 are as follows.
Whipping, branding, boring through the tongue. fine, banishment, and even death, all for printing some kind of seditious material. But after 1735, libel cases just faded away in America.
Professor Leonard Levy says the law of seditious libel simply had no meaning anymore. And where there were libel cases, it went well for the people being accused. There are at least two examples after 1735 where the accused were allowed to prove that the libelous statements in their papers were actually true.
and therefore they were released. William Parks in the 1740s and Joshua Bailey in 1758. The trial became a symbol of freedom and more. Leonard Levy says the Zenger trial in 1735 gave the press freedom to print as far as the truth carried and a jury's emotions sympathetically swayed.
The trial didn't change the law but it made the British government afraid to enforce it. And I think the trial of John Peter Zenger It was 41 years before the Declaration of Independence. And yet, I think its echoes could still be heard in American law.
I think the Zenger trial was a turning point. He was tried for seditious libel and ultimately acquitted. And I think it was kind of an indicator that Americans wanted to be Americans even when they were under British colonial rule.
Professor and historian Edward T. O'Donnell says of the trial's impact. So what was the trial's ultimate significance? First, that freedom of the press was essential to the protection of liberty. Second, that statements that are true cannot be libelous.
And that three, that a jury should decide both the facts and the law in libel cases. It should be known Morris, Alexander, and the Morrisites weren't even fighting for a free press. They were just trying to get rid of a corrupt British governor.
But in doing so, they opened the door to a freedom. To a freedom that gave Americans an identity as people who considered freedom of the press essential to keeping monarchy in check. People are right when they say the Zenger trial did not change the law about freedom of the press at the time. But it played a more important role by changing what people thought and felt about freedom of the press. And that laid the foundation for what later became law.
The First Amendment officially changes the law by saying, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. For no law just happens or changes. The turning point is when people's beliefs about something begin to change.
After that, the law changes. Even today, many people refer back to the Zenger trial as the landmark event that changed freedom of the press in America. A free press helped to end the presidency. and in modern day America continues to put the great power of information into the hands of its citizens. The press's right to freedom, while still a struggle to be kept, has undoubtedly changed America.
Two quotes may sum up our story. One is by an unknown colonial man to Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette. He says the verdict of the Zender trial is better than the law, it ought to be law, and always will be law wherever justice prevails, because the jury recognized its own power and the power of truth.
The final quote is by Governor Morse, grandson of Lewis Morris, who helped write the Constitution and signed it. He says, The Zenger trial in 1735 was the germ of American freedom, the morning star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized America.