The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-05-27
FIRST ATTEMPT TO
MUzzLE THE PRESS

were having stormy time of it during
the first quarter of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and complaints as to the condi.
tions that existed could be heard only
through the pupblic press says the Phil
adelphia Press. On November 5, 1873,
John Peter Zenger, a printer, who had
learned the art in the establishment of
William Bradford, began the publica-
tion of paper called the New York
Weekly Journal. This paper was the
organ of the party that was opposed
to the governor of the province and was
powerfully supported by Chief Justice
Lewis Morris, Rip Van Dam and James
Alexander.
About a year after its establishment
Ienger was imprisoned by an order of
the council on the charge of publishing
false and seditious libel, principally
through lampoons and pasquinades that
attracted wide attention, which contrib
uted greatly toward loosening the bonds
between England and the colonies.
The grand jury before which his case
was presented would find no bill against
him, and the attorney general fled an
information. The counsel of Zenger
took exceptions to the commissions of
the judges because they ran during
pleasure and because they were granted
without the consent of counsel
The angry judge met the objection
by disbarring James Alexander, who
offered it, though he stood at the head
of his profession in New York for sa-
gacity, penetration and application to
business. All the central colonies re-
garded the controversy as their own.
haH nd
mand. The opposition to Zenger's week
ly was called the New York Gazette,
an aristocratic paper published by
Bradford. Bradford had been in the
printing business in New York from
1898, and his was the first newspaper
printed in the colony.
Zenger had been imprisoned for a
period of thirty-fve weeks before his
trial During all this time the excite
ment was intense. At the trial the pub
fishing was confessed, but the aged
and venerable Alexander Hamilton,
who went to New York from Philadel-
phia to plead for Zenger, justified the
publication by asserting its truth.
You cannot be admitted inter
rupted the chief justice, "to give the
truth of libel in evidence
1--WE appeal to you for witnesses of the
facts The jury have the right to de-
| termine both the law and the fact, and
they ought to do so.
"The question before you,o he add
ed, els not the cause of poor printer
nor of New York alone; it is the cause
of liberty - The jury gave their verdict
'Not guilty"
Hamilton received of the common
council of New York the franchises of
the city for his "learned and generous
defense of the rights of mankind and
the liberty of the press. +" Besides this,
Hamilton was entertained at a public
dinner, and when he started across the
river to return to Philadelphia he was
honored by the firing of salute of
cannon.
When Zenger was released from
prison he was received with tumultuous
applause by a concourse of people who
had assembled to learn of the result.
This event has been termed "the morn
ing star of that liberty which subse-
quently revolutionized America" Zen
ger died in 1854, and his paper was con-
tinued by his wife and son.
Hamilton's remarkable speech, which
completely. won the jury, ended with
the following: "Men who injure and
oppress the people under their admins
tration provoke them to cry out and
complain and then make that very com
plant the foundation for new oppres-
sions. The question before the court
and you, gentlemen of the jury, is not
of small or private concern; it is not
the cause of poor printer nor of New
York alone which we are now trying.
''No 1t may in its consequences af
feet every freeman that lives under \
British government on the main of
America 1t is the best cause. 1t is the
cause of liberty, and | make no doubt
but your upright conduct this day viii
not only entitle you to the love and es-
TEEN of your fellow citizens, but every
man who prefers freedom to life of
slavery will bless and honor you as men
who have baffled the attempt of tyran-
ny 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 of both expos
ing and opposing arbitrary power by
speaking and writing truth. F"
The words of Hamilton s remarkable
appeal to the jury for free speech are
frequently quoted in cases in which an
appeal is made for the freedom of the