20 INTRODUCTION. 



that he mitrht have a copy of the presentment, and be informed under what law 

 he was prosecuted ; but these requests were denied. During the trial, " the grand 

 jury sat by the prisoners overawing and threatening them, when they spoke boldly 

 in their own defence, and one of the grand jurors wrote down such words as they 

 disliked, signifying that they would present them. Justice Cooke bade the grand 

 jurors take notice of such and such words." When the prisoner's counsel began to 

 say something in regard to the matter, the court directed an officer to take him 

 away. The attorney for the prosecution concluded by saying, " It was evident 

 William Bradford printed the seditious paper, he being the printer in this place, 

 and the frame on which it was printed was found in his house." Bradford then 

 said, " I desire the jury and all present to take notice, that there ought to be two 

 evidences to prove the matter of fact, but not one evidence had been brought in 

 this case." Justice Jennings answered, "the frame on which it was printed is 

 evidence enough." Bradford replied, " But where is the frame 1 There has no 

 frame been produced here ; and if there had, it is no evidence unless you saw 

 me print on it." To which justice Jennings answered, " The jury shall have the 

 frame with them ; it cannot well be brought here ; and besides the season is cold, 

 and we are not to sit here to endanger our health." The jury, however, after 

 remaining out sixty hours, resisted all the efforts of the court, disagreed, and were 

 discharged. Soon after this trial, Bradford having in some manner obtained a 

 release, appeared in New- York. The sedition of the publication consisted in the 

 inquiry, whether the Friends, in sending out armed commissions against piracy, 

 did not transcend the requirements of their religious profession. 



Thus the foundation of the press in New- York may be said to have been laid 

 in the maintenance or assertion of its primary rights and liberties. On arriving 

 at New-York, Bradford became printer to the government, which station he held 

 for many years ; and such is the infirmity of our nature, that at a later period, when 

 the only rival press in the colony had assumed an attitude opposed to the local 

 government, and was sought to be crushed by prosecution and imprisonment, he 

 was found on the side of power and privilege, and against the enfranchisements 



