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John Wilkes was a radical British politician who was extremely popular with many American revolutionaries and provided a powerful example of why liberty of the press was so critical. Wilkes was arrested, thrown out of Parliament, put into prison, and accused of treason and seditious libel. His legal travails, his publications, and his every movement were covered with great interest by the colonial newspapers. While a blasphemous and pornographic publication eventually tarnished his reputation, he was nonetheless an important force behind many American constitutional protections. This article explores a connection not previously developed- how John Wilkes was a key inspiration for the first-ever constitutional protection for a free press. The conclusion here is that Wilkes should be remembered for his crucial influence upon the American ideal of press freedom; his battle against seditious libel charges was a notable precedent for attitudes against control of the media on this side of the Atlantic.
Englishman John Wilkes was widely admired in the American colonies as a political journalist, a radical politician, and a fighter for liberty. He greatly influenced the revolutionaries who fought for American independence, but modern historians of America have by and large ignored the essential role that Wilkes played in establishing the right to freedom of the press.1 Wilkes published stinging criticism of the British ministry in the infamous issue no. 45 of his newspaper, The North Briton, and was accused of seditious libel, thrown out of Parliament, and made an exile from his homeland. His battles with an oppressive government received constant attention in the colonial American newspapers. His arrest was noted critically in many papers, including this one in the Boston Post-Boy of June 1763: "The Hand of Authority being lifted up in order to fall heavily on such Political Writers as may displease."2 While he was the political darling of the London radical lower classes and the colonial press paid him lavish attention, his constant indebtedness, his licentiousness, and his eventual rejection by his radical followers has left his image badly tarnished and his contributions largely ignored. Despite his downfall, Wilkes was critically important to the development of freedom of the press as a constitutional right in the United States. Our enjoyment of this essential freedom owes much to this...