Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/205

Rh "The printers of news papers in the United States are desirous to take notice that this is the only paper printed in the city of Washington, and issues from the office late the property of Mr. Thomas Wilson deceased, and since then a few weeks in the possession of Mr. John Crocker. They are requested to forward their papers to Benjamin More, or the printer of The Washington Gazette and may depend on having The Washington Gazette regularly forwarded to them."

The most important early paper was the tri- weekly, The National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, started on October 31, 1800, by Samuel Harrison Smith, who moved with the Government from Philadelphia to Washington and who has already been mentioned several times in these pages. He took into partnership in 1810 Joseph Gales, Jr., who dropped The Washington Advertiser from the title. After Smith became president of the Washington branch of the United States Bank, he retired from journalism and William W. Seaton became associated with Gales in the publishing of the paper now issued daily. Under the editorship of these two men the paper became the recognized Government organ called by John Randolph "The Court Paper." It was trie official reporter of Congress, and had it not been for the excellent work of Gales, who had been taught stenography by his father, it is extremely doubtful whether the great speeches of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun would have been preserved. These statesmen, incidentally, often wrote for the paper. The Intelligencer was the spokesman for the Presidents until the inauguration of Jackson, when The United States Telegraph, edited by General Duff Green, became the Administration organ. Because of Green's endorsement of the policies of John C. Calhoun, Jackson established The Globe. When William Henry Harrison was inaugurated in March, 1841, The Intelligencer came back into its own official position until the Whig Party was split by the death of the President, but it again became "The Court Paper" when Fillmore took the presidential chair on the death of Taylor. It continued to be published in Washington until January 10, 1870, when it was moved to New York, where it lasted only a short time. The reason for the removal was the fact that with the secession of the South the paper lost over two thirds of its entire circulation.