LAD #2 John Peter Zenger

1. John Peter Zenger was a German immigrant to New York that had been trained in printing. Following Governor William Cosby's prosecution of the prior interim governor and removal of a popular court justice he was selected by a rich opposition party to run a news circulation against the governor called The New York Weekly Journal. He published many vicious works towards the governor until he was arrested, jailed for 10 months and brought before the court under charges of seditious libel. He was found not guilty and set an early American standard for freedom of the press.

2. The controversy was that the governor claimed that the fact that he was publishing seditious works in his paper was enough grounds to convict him while many were against the governor in his claims and thought that Zenger had the right to speak out. Alexander Hamilton was the defense attorney in the trial and argued that although Zenger had written seditious works he had the right to because it was truthful. However seditious or rebellious one's speech could be if it could be proved a fact one had the right to speak it because it was the truth. That was the grounds Hamilton argued on and won the case because Zenger was in fact speaking the truth, however seditious it may sound.

3. The case had a profound impact on latter American government and its traditions. It set the precedent  for freedom of the speech and not allowing the government to limit anyone from speaking the truth however viciously it might attack the government. This idea was later included in the Bill of Rights while our founding fathers molded the Constitution. It also made sure that the judiciary system did not have too much power over the courts, that the power still rested in the hands of the jury as the judge had continually shot down the defense, but in the end the jury issued the verdict after an appeal by Hamilton.

4.The lasting significance of the trial is that it allowed for all future Americans to speak freely what they chose, on the grounds that it had a factual basis, whether or not it was in open criticism of the government. This is now an integral part of what makes America the country it is today and the freedom it gives its citizens. It also set the precedent for during the revolution that allowed for pro-Revolutionary papers and propaganda that might have given the revolutionary cause that extra push toward actual victory.