The Trial of John Peter Zenger
Text of Zenger Trial
COLONIAL CONFLICTS
ZENGER TRIAL
Primary Informations:
Location: New York
Date: Nov.17 1734--Zenger was arrested
August 4,1735--Zenger's trial started
Leaders of Conflict:
——defendant---Zenger,
counsel for the defence---James Alexander and William Smithbeing declared in contempt of court and struck form the roster of attorneys), Andrew Hamilton(successor of Alexander)
——prosecution--The Attorney General, Richard Bradley
Governor Cosby
Allies of Cosby on Court---Chief Judge James De Lancey and Justice Frederick Philipse
Trial of Zenger 2
Reasons of Trial Happened
Zenger was a newspaper printer. His newspaper, New-York Weekly Journal, was famous for "its shape Criticism of government." (Bourgoin P498) "The Journal mounted a bitter attack on Cosby, accusing him of seeking to destory the provincial courts and of flouting both England and American law." (Foner P1187) "Next, Governor Cosby determined to use the power of the governmental censorship to hinder the publication of the New-York Weekly Journal." (History society)
John Zenger
Brief Chronology
1732—The new governor of New York, William Cosby, arrived. He wished to use the post to enhance his own fortunes.(Bourgoin P487)
Nov. 5, 1733—The first issue of New-York Weekly Journal appeared.(Bourgoin P487)
Nov. 17, 1734—Zenger was arrested for printing seditious and libelous materials.(Bourgoin P487)
Nov. 23, 1734—Chief Justice De Lancey ordered a hearing, the court set bail at £400.(History society)
Apr, 1735—Zenger's counsels, James Alexander and William Smith, challenged the validity of the judicial tribunal.(History society)
April 16, 1735—The court issued an order striking the names of James Alexander and William Smith from the list of attorneys admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Judicature. Because they refused to withdraw the assertions of challenging the commissions of the other judges of the court due to governor's intersests.(History society)
August 4,1735—The trial of Zenger commenced in the courtroom on the second floor of City Hall. The result is that the jury found Zenger "not guilty" of publishing seditious libel.
City Hall
Consequences
At that time period, "the courts ruled that criticisms of government were not libelous if factually ture."(Brinkley P86) It is a great improvement on freedom of speech.
"Actually the casse had little effect on freedom for printers afterward. It was a fluke in colonial law. It did not limit the power of legislatures to suppress printers. Not until the end of the 18th century would there be many consistent advocates of freedom of expression.
In a way, the Zenger case was an isolated episode in the political infighting of one colony. In other ways, it did foreshadow future developments in the freedoms of Americans. Alexander used the case to give voice to some of the most advanced thoughts about liberty that an educated man of his time could encounter. And the decision of the jury, ignoring the demands of English law, revealed the way in which new situations in America might transform old beliefs and old loyalties." (Bourgoin 498)
"The Zenger case did not bring an immediate end to prosecutionsfo seditious libel, but it was an early
milestone in the struggle for freedom of the press. Its argument that true statements could not be defined as libelous was often cited in later years." (Foner P1187)
Contribute to the American Identity
the Zenger case did not establish legal precedent in seditious libel or freedom of the press. Rather, it influenced how people thought about these subjects and led, many decades later, to the protections embodied in the Unites States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Sedition Act of 1798. The Zenger case demonstrated the growing independence of the professional Bar and reinforced the role of the jury as a curb on executive power. As Gouverneur Morris said, the Zenger case was, "the germ of American freedom, the morning star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized America!" (History Society)
It primarily shows the apply of freedom of speech in the early America.