The Trial of Peter Zenger
The liberty of the press is a subject of the greatest importance, and in which every individual is as much concerned as he is in any other part of liberty.
New York Weekly Journal November 12, 1733
EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY Vincent Buranelli
Washington Square New York University Press 1957
© 1957 by New York University Press, Inc. Library of Congress catalogue card number: 57-6370 Manufactured in the United States of America
Numb. XVI.
THE New-York Weekly JOURNAL.
Containing the freshest Advices, Foreign, and Domestick.
MUNDAY February 18, 1733.
Mr. Zenger ;
I beg you will give the following Sentiments of CATO, a Place in your weekly Journal, and you’ll oblige one of your Subscribers .
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom, and no such Thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech, which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.
Unknown
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Preface
Foreword by H. V. Kaltenborn
Contents
Part One. Introduction
1. The Causes of the Trial
I. Peter Zenger
II. A Colonial Feud
III. Governor Cosby
IV. The Governor and His Enemies
V. The Administration Newspaper
VI. An Opposition Newspaper
VII. Freedom of the Press
VIII. A Newspaper War
IX. Zenger Goes to Jail
X. Van Dam’s Indictment of the Governor
XI. Morris on the London Front
XII. Cosby’s Defeat
XIII. Andrew Hamilton
2. The Meaning of the Trial
3. The Text
Part Two. The Trial
1. Dramatis Personae
2. Preliminaries
3. Pleading
4. Aftermath
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Notes to the Introduction
Notes to the Text
Other Footnotes
Suggestions for Further Reading
1. Editions of the Trial.
2. Source Material.
3. Histories of the Period.
4. Peter Zenger.
5. The Zenger Case.
6. Miscellaneous.
7. Important Articles.
Transcriber’s Notes
