ANDREW HAMILTON

The question before the court and you, gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are trying. No. It may in its consequences affect every freeman that lives under 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 citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt at tyranny and who, by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict, have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves and 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 opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth.

The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death.

There is a natural right to complain about abusive rulers — to “put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or even ­violence of men in ­authority.

The question before the court and you, gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are trying. No. It may in its consequences affect every freeman that lives under 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 citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt at tyranny and who, by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict, have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves and 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 opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth.

The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death.

There is a natural right to complain about abusive rulers — to “put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or even ­violence of men in ­authority.