THE ZENGER TRIAL 201

weak as I am, I should think it my duty, if required, to
go to the utmost part of the land, where my service
could be of use in assisting to quench the flame of prose-
cutions upon information set on foot by the government,
to deprive a people of the right of remonstrating (and
complaining too) of the arbitrary attempts of men in
power. Men who injure and oppress the people under
their administration provoke them to cry out and com-
plain, and then make that very complaint the founda-
tion for new oppressions and prosecutions. I wish I
could say there were no instances of this kind. But to
conclude: the question before the court, and you, gentle-
men of the jury, is not of small nor private concern; it
is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York
alone, which you are now trying. No! It may in its
consequence affect every freeman that lives under a
British government on the main of America! It is the
best cause. It is the cause of liberty, and I make no
doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only
entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow-citi-
zens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of
slavery will bless and honour you, as men who have
baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by an impartial and
uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for se-
curing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors,
that to which nature and the laws of our country have
given us a right — the liberty both of exposing and op-
posing arbitrary power ... by speaking and writing
truth!

With scathing irony he fell upon the theory that
truth was no defense for libel: