The Zenger Trial | craigvandyke

The Trial of John Peter Zenger

The Zenger Trial was a trial against John Peter Zenger who printed a publication called the New York Weekly Journal. The publication criticized the actions of the royal government, and accused them of doing things such as rigging the elections, and allowing the French to explore the New York Harbor. In the publication they also basically called the governer an idiot. The authors of the documents in John Peter Zenger's publication were anonymous, and he never said who they were. Zenger was put into jail for the publication and was accused of Libel, which in his day was basically publishing something that criticized the government. Zenger was defended by one of the most famous lawyers in the colonies, Andrew Hamilton. Hamilton was able to convince the jury into coming to the verdict of Zenger being not guilty. (The Trial of John Peter Zenger)

The Zenger Trail occured in 1733 in New York City (The Trail of John Peter Zenger)
The leaders in the Zenger Trial were John Peter Zenger, and his lawyer Andrew Hamilton (The Trial of John Peter Zenger)
The trial involved colonists who believed the the royal government was corrupt and committing crimes, and the opposing side of the trial was the government and anyone who was royal to the government (The Trial of John Peter Zenger)
Most of the colonists were supporting John Peter Zenger, and Andrew Hamilton because many of them also believed that the royal government was corrupt and not treating them fairly (The Trial of John Peter Zenger)
The trial resulted with a very clear veridict, after Andrew Hamilton said the quote "It is not the cause of one poor printer, but the cause of liberty." The jury took less than ten minutes to come to the conclusion that John Peter Zenger was not guilty (The Trial of John Peter Zenger)
When the verdict came that Zenger was not guilty, everybody cheered, soon the word spread to just about every colonist, and Zenger and Hamilton were seen as heroes (The trial of John Peter Zenger)
This trial served as one of the stepping stones to liberty from the royal government, newspaper publishers felt more free to print more honest publications, and as the American Revolution came closer, the honest pintings became very important (The trial of Jon Peter Zenger)