20 
INTRODUCTION. 
that he might 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 w 7 ere 
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 
