Biography

"For a half century before the Civil War, Joseph Gales, Jr., played a significant role in recording the debates of the U.S. Senate. Gales was born in England and immigrated to the United States as a child with his parents. He learned the printing trade and stenographic skills, and in 1807 Gales moved to Washington, D.C., where he joined the National Intelligencer newspaper and began reporting congressional proceedings. When the Intelligencer's founder, Samuel H. Smith, retired in 1810, Gales took over as owner and editor of the paper, in partnership with his brother-in-law, William W. Seaton.

At first, Gales was the Senate's sole reporter, and Seaton reported on the House of Representatives. The Intelligencer supported the Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe administrations, and Gales and Seaton were selected as the official printers of Congress from 1819 to 1829. In addition to printing government documents, they began compiling their reports of floor debates and publishing them in the Register of Debates, a forerunner of the Congressional Record. Gales also served as mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1827 to 1830. Gales and Seaton flourished during the "Era of Good Feelings," a period of relative political complacency, but after Congress was split between the Whigs and Democrats, the partners lost their official patronage. The National Intelligencer continued to be published until 1868, even after Gale's death in 1860."