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The Unheroic Truth About John Peter Zenger
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Newspaper Article
The Unheroic Truth About John Peter Zenger
1985
Overview
When the corrupt Gov. William Cosby deposed Chief Justice Lewis Morris and replaced him with James DeLancey, son of a rich merchant friend, Cosby outraged the town's other lawyers as well as the citizenry, who hated him and his tyrannical rule. Choosing to fight back, Morris's friends founded and financed [John Peter Zenger]'s Weekly Journal for the sole purpose of assailing the Governor and arguing Morris's case in open forum. In fact, truth as a defense in a libel action was not recognized until after 1804, when another Hamilton, Alexander, argued in Albany as brilliantly as Andrew that another convicted editor, Harry Croswell, should have a new trial for his libel case. A divided New York Supreme Court upheld the conviction, but before its verdict was handed down, the State Legislature enacted a statute establishing truth as a defense if the publication was made with good motives. This ''Hamiltonian doctrine'' became a part of most state constitutions later on.
Publisher
New York Times Company
Subject
