Zenger Trial
Unending battle for freedom of speech and press that is by no means quiescent today. For more than eight months the thirty-eight-year-old John Peter Zenger. He ignited the fuse of events that exploded at the Zenger trial three years later. The trial of Peter Zenger in New York, 1734. The printer of the New York Weekly Journal was accused of libel. Defended by Andrew Hamilton, he was acquitted and this precedent established freedom of the press in the United States.
The Zenger Trial is important for several reasons. It
established a political and historical precedent that printers were
not to be accused of libel by governmental officials, especially
governors of the colonies, simply for political disagreements. The
trial was also an example of how arbitrary government might ignore
the liberties and rights of the citizens if left unchecked. The
case also was used as an example of the need for an independent
judicial branch which served for good behavior, not at the pleasure
of the governor or executive, during the writing of the
Constitution. The Bill of Rights and the protection of the freedom
of the press can also be traced to the trial. It also was used in
arguing for the need of a grand jury so that the government would
be prevented from simply using the courts to trying enemies of the
administration in power. The Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to
the Constitution are also examples of the importance of the Zenger
Trial. For more information, see related links below.
The trial, as imagined by an illustrator in the 1883 book Wall Street in HistoryJohn Peter Zenger (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a printer and journalist in. Zenger printed. He was accused of in 1734 by, the royal governor of, but the jury acquitted Zenger, who became a symbol for.In 1733, Zenger began printing, in which the journal voiced opinions critical of the colonial governor, William Cosby. On November 17, 1734, on Cosby's orders, the sheriff arrested Zenger. After a refused to indict him, the Attorney General Richard Bradley charged him with libel in August 1735.Zenger's lawyers, and, successfully argued that truth is a against charges of. Contents.Early life Peter Zenger was born in 1697, a son of Nicolaus Eberhard Zenger and his wife Johanna. His father was a school teacher in in 1701.
The Zenger family had other children baptised in in 1697 and in 1703: 1202 and in in 1706. The Zenger family immigrated to New York in 1710 as part of a large group of, and Nicolaus Zenger was one of those who died before settlement.: 1123 The governor of New York had agreed to provide apprenticeships for all the children of immigrants from the, and John Peter was bound for eight years as an apprentice to, the first printer in New York. By 1720, he was taking on printing work in, though he returned to New York permanently by 1722.: 1124 After a brief partnership with Bradford in 1725, Zenger set up as a commercial printer on Smith Street in Manhattan.On 28 May 1719, Zenger married Mary White in the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.
On 24 August 1722, widower Zenger married in the Collegiate Church, Manhattan. He was the father of many children by his second wife, six of whom survived. Libel case. Retrieved October 24, 2012. Olson, Alison (2000). Early American Literature.
35 (3): 223–245. ^. Early America. Retrieved October 24, 2012. History Empire. Retrieved November 18, 2012. (28 February 2011).
Harper's Magazine. ^ (1985).
The Palatine Families of New York 1710. Universal City, CA. (1991).
More Palatine Families. Universal City CA. P. 381. ^ Keene, Ann T. Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present. German Historical Institute.
Federal Hall. National Park Service. Presbyterian Historical Society; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Church Registers; Book Title: Church Register 1701-1746; Accession Number: V MI46 P477rr v.1. The Archives of the Reformed Church in America; New Brunswick, New Jersey; Collegiate Church, Ecclesiastical Records, Baptisms, Members, Marriages, 1639-1774. Hudson, Frederic. Forgotten Books. 82.
Although this issue of Zenger's newspaper is dated 1733, the actual year was 1734. At the time, Britain and the colonies used a wherein January, February and part of March retained the preceding year's date. This system was eliminated in the 1750s. Smith, Jeffery (1990). Oxford University Press. P. 25. Gordon, Thomas (June 10, 1721).
Classical Liberals. Retrieved September 30, 2016. Williams, Greg H.
(25 July 2014). Retrieved 7 December 2017.External links Wikiquote has quotations related to:. First report of the trial. 1889.
at. at. at (1957 book, edited by Vincent Buranelli).