August 4 · This Day in America
Printer John Peter Zenger has spent eight months in jail for libeling the royal governor of New York. The law is plainly against him: under English rule, criticizing the government in print is a crime even if every word is true. The judge instructs the jury accordingly. Then Andrew Hamilton, an aging Philadelphia lawyer, stands and tells them this case is not small or private — "It is the cause of liberty," the right of free people to speak and write the truth about power. On August 4, 1735, the jury ignores the judge and returns in minutes: not guilty. It is not yet law. The First Amendment is fifty-six years away. But a room full of ordinary New Yorkers had just decided that telling the truth about the powerful should never be a crime — and the country to come would build that idea into its bones.
Source: history.nycourts.gov
Also on this day · 1790
On August 4, 1790, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wins authorization for ten armed cutters to enforce customs laws and stop smuggling — the young republic was nearly broke and tariffs were its lifeblood. That little "Revenue-Marine" never stood down. It became the United States Coast Guard, the nation's oldest continuous seagoing service, born of a budget problem and still on the water two and a half centuries later.
Source: www.history.uscg.mil
“The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer... It is the cause of liberty.”Andrew Hamilton, defending John Peter Zenger, 1735