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try. The jury, taking upon itself broad powers, returned the verdict of “guilty of publishing.” As this constituted no crime, the result was Zenger’s acquittal of the charge of seditious libel.
The welcome of this vendict by the liberal elements was not confined to the American colonies, but was celebrated just as strongly in England where is helped to pave the way for the passage of the Fox Libel Law in 1792. The Fox measure liberalized the English law a great deal.
The Zenger decision went a long way toward establishing truth as a defense for seditious libel. The theory involved culminated ih the Declaration of Independence; in which Thomas Jeffereon -•charted a new course for govern- ments of the world.
The first constitutional guarantee of free speech and a free press was perhaps contained in the writings of George Mason who prepared the Bill of Rights for the Constitution of Virginia. This view was included in the Federal Bill of Rights, and today all 48 states have expressions in their constitutions that differ only to a slight degree.
The author of the Declaration of Independence furnished another * great force for the common man’s' fight for all freedoms when he accepted the mandate of the small fanners and backwoodsmen in his election of 1800 to broaden their participation in government. Tensed the “bloodless revolution of 1800” Jefferson’s election guar* mnteed that the Alien and Sedition him. passed under the Federalist
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