INTRODUCTION. 21 



of speech for which he had contended forty years before. Bradford established the 

 first j:>aper mill in New-Jersey, and the first perhaps in America. He was about 

 seventy years old when he began the publication of the Gazette, and continued in 

 the active duties of the paper for sixteen or seventeen years. The Gazette was con- 

 tinued after 1742, with the additional title of the " Weekly Post Boy" until 1773. 

 John Peter Zenger established in 1733 the "New- York Weekly Journal," the 

 second newspaper in the colony. It opposed the administration of governor 

 Cosby, and supported the interest of Rip Van Dam, who had previously con- 

 ducted the administration. Zenger maintained an effective battery. " The 

 ballads, serious charges, and, above all, the home truths in his democratic Journal, 

 irritated Cosby and his council to madness." Zenger was confined several months 

 by order of the governor and council, for printing and publishing seditious libels: 

 treated with unwarrantable severity ; deprived of pen, ink and paper, and denied 

 the visits of his friends. The popular feeling, however, was strongly against 

 these proceedings. The assembly, notwithstanding the application of the gover- 

 nor, refused to concur with him and his council. The mayor and the magistrates 

 also refused to obey the mandate of the governor and council, and to attend the 

 burning of the libellous papers " by the common hangman and whipper, near the 

 pillory." The grand jury manifested equal contumacy, and ignored the present- 

 ment against Zenger. The attorney-general was then directed to file an infor- 

 mation. The judges refused to hear and allow the exceptions taken by Zenger's 

 counsel, and excluded them from the bar ; but he was ably defended by other 

 counsel, and especially by Andrew Hamilton, then a barrister of Philadelphia. 

 Zenger pleaded not guilty. His counsel admitted the printing and publishing of 

 the papers, and offered to give their truth in evidence. The counsel for the 

 prosecution then said, " The jury must find a verdict for the king," and gave the 

 usual definition of a libel ; asserting that, " whether the person defamed was a 

 private man or magistrate, whether living or dead, whether the libel was true or 

 false, or whether the party against whom it was made was of good or evil fame, 

 it was nevertheless a libel." He then quoted from the Acts of the Apostles, and 



