Newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger was thrown into prison without a trial in 1734. His crime? Printing harsh criticisms of William Cosby, the newly-appointed Governor of the New York and New Jersey colonies. Cosby accused Zenger of seditious libel and angrily threw the weight of his administration against him.

Zenger was not Cosby’s only critic. The governor had already made himself a pariah in the colonies. He was described as a vile ruler. Zenger and his financial backers wanted the governor put on a ship back to London. So did a good many other colonists.

While Zenger languished in jail without a trial for nearly a year, his wife Anna kept the New York Weekly Journal in print.  Zenger finally got his day in court. It had become very apparent that the young publisher’s fate was of great importance to the colonies and the future American Republic. 

Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, told the jurors: “The question before the court and you gentlemen of the jury is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of a poor printer nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No. It may in its consequence affect every freedman that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty,” and you will have “laid a noble foundation for securing it for ourselves and our posterity.” 

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