John Peter Zenger
John Peter Zenger (
October 26,
1697 -
July 28,
1746) was a
printer,
publisher,
editor and
journalist in
New York City. His indictment, trial and acquittal on
sedition and
libel charges against the Governor
William Cosby of the
New York Colony in
1734 was an important contributing factor to the development of the
freedom of the press in America. The Zenger decision helped clarify the beliefs of early Colonial life and lay the groundwork for the responsibilities of both media and government in a functioning democracy.
Zenger migrated with his family from the German
Palatinate to New York in 1710. His father died during the journey and his mother raised the children alone. He was
indentured to New York's only printer,
William Bradford until 1718. Zenger married in 1719 but his wife died soon after, leaving him with an infant son. He married again in 1722 and fathered five more children. Zenger and Bradford became partners in 1725 until Zenger started his own shop the next year. In 1733, former New York Attorney General,
James Alexander, gave Zenger the opportunity to print the America's first party newspaper, the
New York Weekly Journal.
It is unclear just how seriously Zenger personally took the material published in the New York Weekly Journal. It was almost certainly financed by one of the opposition political factions in New York politics, possibly by
James Alexander who, along with
William Smith was disbarred for objecting to the two man court
Cosby had hand-picked. Zenger was most likely a convenient target to use in an attempt to end criticism. His trial may have resulted in the addition of the expression
Philadelphia lawyer to the language. His defense attorney,
Andrew Hamilton, was from
Philadelphia, and won a case most closer attorneys were confident would be unwinnable, and over which prior attorneys had been disbarred.
At the end of the trial on
August 5,
1735, the twelve New York jurors returned a verdict of "not guilty" on the charge of publishing "seditious libels," despite the Governor's hand-picked judges presiding. Hamilton had successfully argued that Zenger's articles were not libelous because they were based on
fact. Zenger published a verbatim account of the trial as
A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger (1736). Hamilton had worked for free. In gratitude for what he had done the
Common Council of New York awarded Hamilton the
freedom of that city and a group of prominent residents contributed to the production of a 5½ ounce gold box that was presented to Hamilton as a lasting mark of their gratitude to him. The box was preserved as a family heirloom for many years and is now in the custody of the Atwater Kent Museum near
Independence Hall,
Philadelphia. (It is not on display.) Each year the Philadelphia Bar Association presents a replica of that box to the outgoing Chancellor of the Association. A Latin motto inscribed on the box, identical to one on the original, has the English translation "Acquired not by money, but by character."
Zenger may be buried in an unmarked grave in the
Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in
Manhattan, New York.
*
Jury nullification* 1-9A Criminal Defense Techniques § 9A.02, FN3 (note his name is misspelled as John Paul Zenger, although from context it is quite clear the publication was referring to John Peter).
* Livingston Rutherfurd,
John Peter Zenger (New York, 1904)
* M. Van Gerpen, Privileged Communication and the Press, 5-6 (1979)
*
Zenger Trial*
John Peter Zenger*
The Crown v. Zenger*
Considering Zenger: Partisan Politics and the Legal Profession in Provincial New York
