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power . . . tby speaking and writing the truth.”
In short order, after Hamilton’s* speech en{Ud, the jury returned a verdict ofrinnocent amid cheers from the spectators.
Despite the verdict, the prinples for which Hamilton argued —truth as a defense against libel, and the right of a jury to determine whether a publication is defamatory—were not accepted in the United States for some 60 years.
However, Zenger’s trial crystallized public opinion concerning the freedom of newspapers.
This was evidenced twice writhin the next 50 years, once in 1765 (when the British imposed a newspaper tax, and again after the revolution when Massachusetts passed a similar levy.
The people feared the right te tax might become the right" to censor, control or destroy newspapers, and they cried out in loud protest. Both levies were quickly repealed. .
After the Constitution was written, Thomas Jefferson begged that the States withhold ratification until freedom of the press, among other things, was specifically included.
* ■ As a result, the First Amendment stipulated “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . .” /
The Constitution was ratified, and the next question was how the courts would interpret the press freedom clause.
A court test soon came when Henry Croswell was arrested for^ publishing that Jefferson had paid a man for calling George Washington a “traitor, a robber and a purjurer,” and for calling Adams “a hoary-headed incendiary.”
Editor Croswell said he could
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