In New York in 1735, publisher John Peter Zenger was charged with committing“seditious libel” for printing true,
but critical, facts about New York's governor(at the time, this was illegal).
Here, at the top of Wall Street, was where the
first U.S. Congress sat, where the Bill of Rights was enacted, where the Zenger trial established freedom of the press,
where the Northwest Ordinance was adopted, and where, in 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president.