Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/259

Rh decided to move to Raleigh and sold his Philadelphia paper to Smith, who changed the name from Independent Gasetter to Universal Gazette. On the first of October, 1800, Smith inaugurated the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, which was issued three times a week; he also transferred the Universal Gazette to Washington, making it the weekly edition of the Intelligencer." At about the same time Jefferson's opponents set up a paper called the Washington Federalist; it lasted but a very short time, while Smith's paper rapidly became prosperous and influential and was known as the "court journal."

In 1809 Smith admitted as partner Joseph Gales, Jr., son of the man from whom he had purchased the Independent Gazetteer. During the temporary retirement of Smith, Gales associated with him William W. Seaton, his brother-in-law, and the two became official stenographers to Congress, one reporting the Senate, the other the House of Representatives. They were the first official reporters of Congress; to them the country is indebted for the notes of the famous Missouri Compromise debates and other great oratorical clashes, including that of Webster and Hayne. Their seats were near those of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and, as one of the perquisites, they shared with those officials in the use of the official snuff-boxes.

After the war of 1812, their position was even more important than it had been before, for the British, when they captured the city, were reported to have destroyed their office "in revenge."

Gales and Seaton became a famous partnership and both were important men in the City of Washington. Clay rushed to avail himself of the columns of the In-