“These, gentlemen, are some of the offenses which are to make part of your inquiries. If any other should arise in the course of your proceedings, in which you are at a loss or conceive any doubts, upon your application here we will assist and direct you.”
The grand jury not indicting me as was expected, the gentlemen of the Council proceeded to take my Journals into consideration, and sent the following message to the Assembly:
[The message asked the Assembly to appoint a committee to act with one from the Council. The committees met and decided that the wishes of the Council should be reduced to writing, which was done in these terms]:
“Gentlemen, the matters we request your concurrence in are that Zenger’s papers, Nos. 7, 47, 48, 49—which were read, and which we now deliver—be burned by the hands of the common hangman, as containing in them many things derogatory of the dignity of His Majesty’s government, reflecting upon the legislature and upon the most considerable persons in the most distinguished stations in the Province, and tending to raise seditions and tumults among the people thereof.
“That you concur with us in addressing the Governor to issue his proclamation with a promise of reward for the discovery of the authors or writers of these seditious libels.
“That you concur with us in an order for prosecuting the printer thereof.
“That you concur with us in an order to the magistrates to exert themselves in the execution of their offices in order to preserve the public peace of the Province.”
[The Assembly flatly refused its concurrence, and the letter from the Council was returned to it along with the copies of the Journal that were marked for burning.]
On Tuesday, November 5, 1734, the Quarter Sessions for the City of New York began, when the sheriff delivered to the Court an order which was read in these words:
“Whereas by an order of this Council some of John Peter Zenger’s journals, entitled The New York Weekly Journal, Nos. 7, 47, 48, 49, were ordered to be burned by the hands of the common hangman or whipper near the pillory in this city on Wednesday the 6th between the hours of 11 and 12 in the forenoon, as containing in them many things tending to sedition and faction, to bring His Majesty’s government into contempt, and to disturb the peace thereof, and containing in them likewise not only reflections upon His Excellency the Governor in particular, and the legislature in general, but also upon the most considerable persons in the most distinguished stations in this Province;