Vernal Express | 1980-02-21 | Page 12 | Your Right to Know

I1,WU IIJIMW M.IMf lull UHWWtWpWWl .1 John Peter Zenger was tried in 1733 on a charge of libel for writing "Scurrilous, Scandalous, and Virulent Reflections" upon Governor Cosby of New York. The stories he wrote in the Weekly New York Journal reported how the Governor used his power to take liberty and property away from people to make himself more powerful and wealthy. His defense attorney, Alexander Hamilton, presented a vigorous and appealing argument to the jury that resulted in acquittal for Zenger, and the establishment of truth as a defense against libel. Hamilton appealed to the. jury' to acknowledge the truth of the articles and set his client free with an argument ending with these words: "...you will have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to w hich nature and the laws of our country have given us a right the liberty both of exposing ex-posing and opposing arbitrary power in those parts of the world at least, by-speaking by-speaking and writing truth."