_The liberty of the press is a subject of the greatest importance, and
in which every individual is as much concerned as he is in any other
part of liberty._
_New York Weekly Journal_
November 12, 1733
THE TRIAL OF
Peter Zenger
EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
Vincent Buranelli
[Illustration: Publisher Logo]
_Washington Square
New York University Press
1957_
© 1957 by New York University Press, Inc.
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 57-6370
Manufactured in the United States of America
[Illustration: Front page of New-York Weekly Journal]
Numb. XVI.
THE
New-York Weekly JOURNAL.
_Containing the freshest Advices, Foreign, and Domestick._
_MUNDAY_ February 18, 1733.
Mr. _Zenger_;
_I beg you will give the following Sentiments of_ CATO, _a Place in
your_ weekly Journal, _and you’ll oblige one of your Subscribers_.
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom, and no
such Thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech, which is the
Right of every Man, as far as by it he does not hurt or controul the
Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the
only Bounds it ought to know.
This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governnments, that the
Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and
in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own
he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the
Liberty of a Nation must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech; a
Thing terrible to publick Traytors.
This secret was so well known, to the Court of King _Charles_ the First,
that his wicked Ministry procured a Proclamation to forbid the People to
talk of Parliaments, which those Traytors had laid aside.
To assert the undoubted Right of the Subject, and defend his Majesty’s
legal Prerogative, was called Disaffection, and punished as Sedition.
That Men ought to speak well of their Governours, is true, while their
Governours deserve to be well Spoken of, but to do publick Mischief
without Hearing of it is only the Prerogative and Felicity of Tyranny a
free People will be shewing that they are so, by their Freedom of
Speech.
The Administration of Government, is nothing else but the Attendance of
the Trustees of the People upon the Interest, and Affairs of the People.
And it is the Part and Business of the People, for whose Sake alone all
publick Matters are or ought to be transacted, to see whether they be
well or ill transacted; so it is the Interest, and ought to be the
Ambition of all honest Magistrates, to have their Deeds openly examined
and publickly scanned.
Freedom of Speech is ever the Symptom as well as the Effect of good
Government. In old _Rome_ all was left to the Judgment and Pleasure of
the People, who examined the public Proceedings with such Discretion,
and censured those who administred them with such Equity and Mildness,
that in the Space of three Hundred Years, not five public Ministers
suffered unjustly. Indeed whenever the Commons proceeded to Violence,
the great ones had been the Agressors.
Guilt only dreads Liberty of Speech, which drags it out of its Lurking
Holes and exposes its Deformity and horror to to[sic] Day light; the
best Princes have ever incouraged and promoted freedom of Speech they
know that upright Measures would defend themselves and that all upright
Men would defend them. _Tacitus_ speaking of the Reign of good Princes
says with extasy; _A blessed Time, when you might think what you would,
and Speak what you Thought_.
I doubt not but old _Spencer_ and his Son who were the chief Ministers
and Betrayers of _Edward_ the Second would have been glad to have stopt
the Mouths of all the honest Men in _England_. They dreaded to be called
Traytors because they were Traytors. And I dare say Queen Elizabeths
Preface
In this book you will find the reasons for the fame of Peter Zenger and
Andrew Hamilton. You will also find the reason why James Alexander
deserves mention as the third member of a great trio. Zenger was the
central figure of a colorful and influential historical event—his trial
for seditious libel. Hamilton was the champion who won him his freedom.
The place of Alexander in all this is virtually unknown, and yet without
him Hamilton’s fame would be cut in half, while Zenger would not merit
even a footnote in the histories of America, of democracy, or of
journalism.
Alexander edited the _New York Weekly Journal_. That simple fact means
that he was the first American editor to practice freedom of the press
systematically and coherently, and the first to be justified legally.
The defense of Zenger’s person was a defense of Alexander’s philosophy
of journalism. The victory engineered by Hamilton was the result of a
courtroom campaign along lines laid down by Alexander.
Perhaps it would be too strong to say that the genius behind the
_Journal_ was our greatest editor, but it would be hard to name one of
equal importance. If we believe, as we do, that freedom of the press is
essential to our civilization, surely we ought to give due recognition
to the first American to say so and to act effectively. For this
Scottish immigrant of the eighteenth century taught his adopted land the
first law of sane journalism: that the news is to be reported on the
basis of factual accuracy, and that censorship by the authorities is to
be resisted as far as is consistent with national security and the
interests of society.
The introduction to the text of the trial is based on a series of
articles by the author, published in the following journals:
“Peter Zenger’s Editor,” _American Quarterly_, VII (1955), 174-81.
“Governor Cosby’s Hatchet-Man,” _New York History_, XXXVII (1956),
26-39.
“The Myth of Anna Zenger,” _William and Mary Quarterly_, XIII (1956),
157-68.
“The Meaning of the Zenger Case,” _Social Studies_, January, 1957.
“Governor Cosby and His Enemies,” _New York History_, XXXVII (1956),
365-87.
“The Architect of Our Free Press,” _Social Education_, XX (1956),
311-13.
For permission to use material from these articles, thanks are due to
the respective editors and to the following societies: American Studies
Association, New York State Historical Association, Institute of Early
American History and Culture, and National Council for the Social
Studies. The author also wishes to thank Mr. H. V. Kaltenborn, without
whose Fellowship the research would never have been undertaken, much
less published.