John Zenger / Andrew Hamilton Court Case 1735

Heroes

The trial against John Peter Zenger, represented by Andrew Hamilton, reflects the first step to the right of free press. In New York, 1733, William Crosby was the current Province Governor. He used all types of tyrant methods to silence and take down his opponents. John Peter Zenger was one of two printers in New York. He was approached by people of the Popular Party, a party formed to influence opposition to Crosby’s administration, to publish their anti-Crosby articles on a weekly basis. Zenger agreed to their request. He called the news paper the New York Weekly Journal. Zenger was responsible for publishing a letter, which was subject to seditious libel, written by Chief Justice Lewis Morris in 1733. The letter provided facts about Governor Crosby, which revealed his wanting of a juror-less trial against Rip Van Dam. This made Crosby look bad to the public. It caused Crosby to label the letter as subject to seditious libel.

Crosby wanted interim Governor Rip Van Dam to give him half of his salary during the months which Crosby was appointed, to the date he stepped into office. Van Dam accepted the charge on the basis that Crosby split with him the profits he made during the same time period. Therefore, Crosby would end up paying Van Dam more money! Crosby filed a suit on Van Dam. Knowing he would have trouble winning the case, Crosby requested that their trial only consist of one judge and no jurors. Three Supreme Court judges voted on the matter. Chief Justice Lewis Morris’ vote denied Crosby’s request. Crosby demanded an explanation, from Morris, of why he voted against his request to set up a trial without jurors in his case against interim Governor Rip Van Dam. Morris wrote the letter and turned it into John Zenger to be published in the New York Weekly Journal. Crosby fired Chief Justice Lewis Morris and replaced him with James Delancy. Delancy was in favor of Crosby’s policies and well known as a respected loyalist.

On November 17, 1734, Zenger was arrested for seditious libel against Governor Crosby. He would be held in New York City for eight months. While in jail, Zenger continued to publish the New York Weekly Journal. His wife would visit him every week and listen to Zenger through a small square hole on the cell door. As the trial approached, Crosby hand picked his jurors. The jurors picked were originally sympathetic to Governor Crosby’s case. Andrew Hamilton, a 60 year old lawyer from Philadelphia, decided to represent John Zenger. Hamilton did more than just represent Zenger; he represented the idea of free press. His defense questioned the validity of law from England to the colonies. He argued that the laws that are set for the king should not be put in place in New York. After all, Governor William Crosby was certainly not the King of England. Hamilton stated, “What is good law at one time and in one place is not so at another time and another place.”

Heroes Andrew Hamilton proved that the articles Zenger published were not seditious libels because they were based on fact. Therefore, information can only be libel if it is false. The jurors, originally in favor of Crosby’s administration, found John Peter Zenger not guilty. Hamilton’s defense brought light to the concept of free press. The trial also reflected the importance of independent jurors. Without the judgment of the people, how would a democracy function properly? On Hamilton’s way back to Philadelphia, it is said that cannons were fired in his honor.

This trial was a milestone for the early stages of pre-revolution thought. It also sparked the idea that society cannot afford to sit back and let authority take away their liberty. Gouverneur Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and grandson of Chief Justice Lewis Morris later wrote, "The trial of Zenger in 1735 was the germ of American freedom, the morning star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized America."