In 1733. during an election for Westchester County assemblyman. the British Governor attempted to force his own handpicked candidate upon the Colonists. When they resisted and instead elected their own candidate. the Governor insisted on polling the voters in a manner that denied members of the Quaker religion the privilege of voting. Then. when a newspaper reported this travesty. the British Governor burned copies of the newspaper and imprisoned the publisher. a German immigrant named John Peter Zenger. for seditious libel. Zengers acquittal. following his defense by a brilliant attorney named Andrew Hamilton. set the stage for the development of a free press in America. Events in Westchester County were crucial to the establishment of all four of the freedoms guaranteed in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights: freedom of the press. speech. religion. and assembly.
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