Question

How did the lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, assert and protect the rights and liberty of the newspaper printer, John Peter Zenger?
How was James Alexander and Alexander Hamilton significant in the development of freedom of the press in America?

Answer 1

Answer.

The trial of John Peter Zenger, printer of the New York Weekly Journal, in August, 1735, raises vital questions about liberty and freedom of speech both in England and America during the 17th and 18th centuries. It concerned the government’s control of its citizens’ free speech and the freedom of the press. In particular, Zenger was prosecuted for libeling Sir William Cosby, who had been appointed governor of New York in 1631 by King George II. Cosby quickly invited political criticism for his arrogant and arbitrary ways. While Zenger was not the author of the anonymous attacks on Cosby that appeared in the New York Weekly Journal, but as its printer, he was held accountable against the charge of seditious libel.

Zenger’s main defense attorney was Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia. Common-law precedent required that trial juries used to consider only the facts in the case and accept the judge’s interpretation of the law. In Zenger’s case however, Hamilton asserted the jury’s right to interpret the law of seditious libel as it applied to Zenger, and to render a general verdict based on both the law and the facts of the case. Thus, Hamilton’s leading the jury towards delivering the verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ was historic for it established the right to criticize the public officials as a corollary of the principle that government derives its power from the people and thus is accountable to them.