April 18, 1770

John Wilkes Released from Prison

After serving his sentence for seditious libel, John Wilkes is released from prison and publishes an address to the freeholders of Middlesex that accuses the British ministers of "persecution and injustice" and declares his "readiness to die in the cause of liberty." It is widely reprinted in newspapers throughout the American colonies. The Earl of Chatham unsuccessfully attempts to have Wilkes re-admitted to Parliament.