John Peter Zenger Found Not Guilty!
In 1735, John Peter Zenger was found “not guilty” of seditious libel against the Governor of New York. The Royal Governor of New York, William Crosby, went after John Peter Zenger, one the few skilled printers in the colonies, because of the things printed against the governor in the New-York Weekly Journal, the newspaper where Zenger was a printer. Zenger’s attorney, Andrew Hamilton, argued that Zenger should not be found guilty if what he printed was true. While this was not a defense allowed under the seditious libel laws at the time, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty.
This case and the outcome of it, laid much groundwork for the American Revolution.
The rights to free speech and freedom of the press were being limited by the British government and dissenters were being targeted. Blackstone, later in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, supported criminal punishment for libel without regard for truth. “For the same reason it is immaterial with respect to the essence of a libel, whether the matter of it be true or false.” However, the Letters of Cato gave a different sentiment about free speech:
“The exposing therefore of publick wickedness, as it is a duty which every man owes to truth and his country, can never be a libel in the nature of things.”
Cato’s Letters No. 32.
“Men who injure and oppress the People under their Administration provoke them to cry out and complain; and then make that very Complaint the Foundation for new Oppressions and Prosecutions. I wish I could say there were no Instances of this Kind. But to conclude; the Question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the Jury, is not of small nor private Concern, it 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 Freeman that lives under a British Government on the Main of America. It is the best Cause. It is the Cause of Liberty; and I make no Doubt but your upright Conduct, this Day, will not only entitle you to the Love and Esteem of your Fellow-Citizens; but every Man, who prefers Freedom to a Life of Slavery, will bless and honour You, as Men who have baffled the Attempt of Tyranny; and by an impartial and uncorrupt Verdict, have laid a noble Foundation for securing to ourselves, our Posterity, and our Neighbors, That, to which Nature and the Laws of our Country have given us a Right – The Liberty – both of exposing and opposing arbitrary Power (in these Parts of the World, at least) by Speaking and writing Truth.”
Atty. Andrew Hamilton
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom – go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
Samuel Adams