istration
of Governor Crosby, under the patronage, as was supposed, of the
Honorable Rip Van Dam, who had previously discharged the duties of the
executive office, as President of the Council. The first great libel
suit tried in New York was instituted by the Government in 1734 against
Zengar. He was imprisoned by virtue of a warrant from the Governor and
Council; and a concurrence of the House of Representatives in the
prosecution was requested. The House, however, declined. The Governor
and Council then ordered the libellous papers to be burned by the common
hangman, or whipper, near the pillory. But both the common whipper and
the common hangman were officers of the corporation, not of the Crown,
and they declined officiating at the illumination. The papers were
therefore burned by the sheriff's deputy at the order of the Governor.
An ineffectual attempt was next made to procure an indictment against
Zengar, but the grand jury refused to find a bill. The Attorney-General
was then directed to file no information against him for printing the
libels, and he was kept in prison until another term. His counsel
offered exceptions to the commissions of the judges, which the latter
not only refused to hear, but excluded his counsel, Messrs. Smith and
Alexander, from the bar. Zengar then obtained other counsel--John
Chambers, of New York, and Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia. The trial
at length came on, and excited great interest. The truth, under the old
English law of libel, could never be given in evidence, and was of
course excluded on the present trial. Hamilton nevertheless tried the
case with great ability. He showed the jury that they were the judges as
well of the law as of the fact, and Zengar was acquitted. The verdict
was received with cheers by the audience; and the corporation voted the
freedom of the city to Andrew Hamilton, 'for the remarkable service done
to the inhabitants of this city and colony, by his defence of the rights
of mankind and the liberty of the press.' The certificate was sent to
Mr. Hamilton by Mr. Stephen Bayard in a superb gold box, on the lid of
which were engraved the arms of the city with several classical and
appropriate mottoes.

Thus ever has power been arrayed against the liberty of the press; and
thus ever have the people been ready to sustain it.

Soon after the relinquishment of his paper by Bradford, it was resumed
by James Parker, under the double title of _The New York Gazette