| John Peter Zenger |
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Information AboutJohn Peter Zenger |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOHN PETER ZENGER | |
| 1697 births | |
| zenger, john peter | |
| 1746 deaths | |
| american printers | |
| american journalists | |
| defamation | |
| history of new york | |
| american media history | |
| english case law | |
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Zenger migrated with his family from the German Palatinate to New York in 1710. His father died during the journey and his mother raised the children alone. He was Indentured to New York's only printer, William Bradford until 1718. Zenger married in 1719 but his wife died soon after, leaving him with an infant son. He married again in 1722 and fathered five more children. Zenger and Bradford became partners in 1725 until Zenger started his own shop the next year. In 1733, former New York Attorney General, James Alexander , gave Zenger the opportunity to print the America's first party newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal . It is unclear just how seriously Zenger personally took the material published in the New York Weekly Journal. It was almost certainly financed by one of the opposition political factions in New York politics, possibly by '' to the language. His defense attorney, Andrew Hamilton , was from Philadelphia , and won a case most closer attorneys were confident would be unwinnable, and over which prior attorneys had been disbarred. At the end of the trial on August 5 , 1735 , the twelve New York jurors returned a verdict of "not guilty" on the charge of publishing "seditious libels," despite the Governor's hand-picked judges presiding. Hamilton had successfully argued that Zenger's articles were not libelous because they were based on Fact . Zenger published a verbatim account of the trial as ''A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger'' (1736). Hamilton had worked for free. In gratitude for what he had done the Common Council Of New York awarded Hamilton the Freedom Of That City and a group of prominent residents contributed to the production of a 5 ½ ounce gold box that was presented to Hamilton as a lasting mark of their gratitude to him. The box was preserved as a family heirloom for many years and is now in the custody of the Atwater Kent Museum near Independence Hall , Philadelphia . (It is not on display.) Each year the Philadelphia Bar Association presents a replica of that box to the outgoing Chancellor of the Association. A Latin motto inscribed on the box, identical to one on the original, has the English translation “Acquired not by money, but by character.” Zenger may be buried in an unmarked grave in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan, New York . SEE ALSO PUBLICATIONS
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