Origins of the First Amendment
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What was the Zenger trial and how did it spark an American free press?
It's a chilly November morning in 1735 in colonial New York. Inside City Hall, at the corner of Wall and Nassau, the courtroom is packed. A printer named John Peter Zenger stands accused of a crime, one that could imprison him for life. His offense? Printing words. Words that dared to criticize the royal governor, expose corruption in the city, and generally challenge authority. The atmosphere in the courtroom is tense. A guilty verdict could render the very act of dissent a crime and potentially silence every newspaper in the colonies. An acquittal made the case that truth still has a place in public life. When the jury of 12 New Yorkers passes its verdict, against the odds, Zenger is cleared of the charges, sending a shockwave throughout the colonies.
In one instant, the spark of a free American press flickers into existence. Nearly three centuries later, that fragile spark is aflame. A torchlight, you might say. The First Amendment, protecting speech, assembly, and the press inscribed in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. But free press, even in America, is nothing static or simple. Its meaning has been contested, narrowed, and expanded across the generations all the way to the present. This is the story of how a single trial, and a few words on parchment, unleashed the most sacred and enduring idea in American life.
Hi all, I'm Don Wildman, and welcome back to American History Hit. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution is 45 words long. That's it. But the impact of those words on American society has been more consequential than perhaps any other text in our nation's history. But like so many of our rights and freedoms, we Americans often forget the journey required to achieve such things. What today we take for granted as plain and essential truths were not at all as clear and stable as what we read on paper today. For much of our history, the First Amendment was narrow, unevenly applied, frequently dismissed, especially for those challenging the established order. How the First Amendment arrived and evolved is what we freely discuss today with our returning guest, Michael Haddam, historian of the American Revolution, among other realms, whose newest work entitled The Declaration of Independence, A Concise History, will be published this fall.
Welcome, Michael. Welcome back to American History Hit. Speak freely. It is your sacred right to do so. Just don't slander my good name. Never. Thanks for having me back. It's always great to be here. Constitutional history is a vast territory. Let's start out simply. I mean, right at the beginning of this one, what were the intellectual origins, the roots of American ideas of free expression? By the time of European settlement of this continent, how had it developed?
If we're talking about the origins of concerns about freedom of speech or if we're talking about the rest of the First Amendment, the freedom of religion, right? A lot of that goes back to centuries of history prior to the settlement of the colonies of religious wars throughout Europe, right? Yeah. where heads of state were also the heads of the churches. And that intertwined the interests of both in ways that led to centuries of almost nonstop warfare. And there was a real sense, I think, in the colonies and then later after the revolution of the United States being able to be a place where that doesn't happen.
So much of what you're talking about has its real roots in the glorious revolution, which is the late 1600s, specifically 1689 or so, when the English Bill of Rights is passed. Is that the right word for it? I'm not sure. But all of this, as you say, is steeped in the Enlightenment thoughts of John Locke and Adam Smith, Voltaire in France. Who all purport these ideas of reason and liberty. And as they say, this has been developing for centuries through the age of discovery. And finally, as these colonies are developed in North America and elsewhere. So our conversation today really works in the 1700s. So by now, the colonies are settled and moving along.
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