New York Weekly Journal: Difference between revisions

'''Description of Artwork:''' John Peter Zenger was a libertarian who published the newspaper ''The New York Weekly Journal'', a newspaper in direct opposition to the government paper, the ''New York Weekly Gazette''. The newspaper published articles concerned with the government and liberty of the press. The issues the British Government were concerned with were described "as having in them many things tending to raise seditions and tumults among the people of this province, and to fill their minds with contempt for his majesty's government."

'''The Incident:''' "...In October 1734 a committee was appointed to investigate Zenger's newspaper and to look into the charges of seditious libel that had been alleged against it. The committee found numbers 7,47, 48, and 49, which contained a reprinted article on the liberty of the press, to be libelous as charged and ordered them to be burned. Zenger was arrested and jailed." (The Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green, Pg. 365) Zenger was represented in the trial by defense attorney Andrew Hamilton and James Alexander, founder of the American Philosophical Society. Alexander was thought to be one of the first colonial writers to develop a true philosophy on the freedom of the press and speech. Their basic argument, "Truth ought govern the whole affair of libels," coupled with the growing distrust of the British Government enabled them to persuade the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.