{{Short description|First newspaper in Washington, D.C.}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = National Intelligencer | logo = | image = File:National Intelligencer plaque.jpg | caption = Plaque at at the southeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street NW in Washington, D.C., marking the original location of the ''National Intelligencer''
| type = Thrice Weekly, later Daily [[newspaper]] | format = | owners = [[Samuel Harrison Smith (printer)|Samuel Harrison Smith]] | founder = | publisher = [[William Winston Seaton]] and [[Joseph Gales]] | editor = | chief_editor = | associate_editor = | managing_editor = | news_editor = | campus_editor = | campus_chief = | opinion_editor = | photo_editor = | seniorstaff = | staff_writers = | founded = October 31, 1800 | political_position = | language = | ceased_publication = January 10, 1870 | relaunched = | headquarters = [[Washington, D.C.]] | publishing_country = United States | circulation = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = 2474-4336 | oclc = 9581153 | website = }}
The '''''National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser''''' was a [[newspaper]] published in [[Washington, D.C.]], from October 31, 1800, until 1870. It was the first newspaper published in the District, which was founded in 1790. It was originally a tri-weekly publication. It covered early debates of the [[United States Congress]]. The paper was the quasi-official organ of [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s [[Democratic-Republican Party]].<ref name=LOC1 /><ref name=LOC2 />
==History== [[File:National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser Oct 18, 1800.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|''National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser'' masthead for October 31, 1800]] The publication was founded under the name ''National intelligencer and Washington Advertiser'' on October 31, 1800. Its name was changed to the ''National Intelligencer'' starting with the issue of November 27, 1810.<ref>{{cite web|title =Eighteenth-Century American Newspapers in the Library of Congress|publisher =Library of Congress|url =https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/18th/72.html|accessdate =January 17, 2007 }}</ref><ref name=LOC1>{{cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/|title=About The national intelligencer and Washington advertiser. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1800-1810 |website=Chronicling American, Library of Congress|accessdate=February 12, 2020}}</ref> The newspaper was published daily from 1813 to 1867 as the ''Daily National Intelligencer'' and was the dominant newspaper of the capital. During the [[War of 1812]], its offices and printing plant were demolished by [[British Empire|British]] forces as part of the [[burning of Washington]] on August 24, 1814. The British commander during the burning, [[Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet|Sir George Cockburn]], intentionally targeted the ''National Intelligencer'' and stated that "Be sure that all the C's are destroyed, so that the rascals cannot any longer abuse my name."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://time.com/3154591/burning-of-washington-200th-anniversary/ |title=Why Americans Celebrate the Burning of Washington |work=TIME magazine |access-date=January 16, 2021 |quote= }}</ref>
The paper suspended publication on June 24, 1869. It was renewed on September 20, 1869 as the ''Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express'' and continued publication until January 10, 1870.<ref name=LOC2 /><ref>{{cite web|title=Students |url=http://bingaman.senate.gov/features/students/juniorhigh/burning.cfm |quote=The National Intelligencer began in 1800. Thirteen years later, it became the ''Daily National Intelligencer'' and was the primary Capitol Hill news source for many years. |accessdate=April 2, 2016 |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124235443/http://bingaman.senate.gov/features/students/juniorhigh/burning.cfm |archivedate=January 24, 2012 }}</ref>
==Owners== [[Samuel Harrison Smith (printer)|Samuel Harrison Smith]], a prominent newspaperman, was an early proprietor. In 1810, [[Joseph Gales]] took over as sole proprietor. He and [[William Winston Seaton]] were its publishers for more than 50 years.<ref name=LOC2>{{cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026171/|title=About National intelligencer. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1810-1869|website=Chronicling American, Library of Congress|accessdate=February 12, 2020}}</ref>
At first, Gales was the [[United States Senate|Senate]]'s sole reporter, and Seaton reported on the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]. The ''Intelligencer'' supported the [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], [[James Madison|Madison]], and [[James Monroe|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 and Seaton flourished during the "[[Era of Good Feelings]]," a period of relative political complacency, but after Congress was split between the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], the partners lost their official patronage. From the 1830s to the 1850s, the ''National Intelligencer'' was one of the nation's leading Whig newspapers, and continued to hold conservative, unionist principles down to the Civil War, supporting [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]] and the [[Constitutional Union Party (United States)|Constitutional Union Party]] in the 1860 presidential election. Gales died in 1860 and Seaton retired in 1864.<ref>{{cite web | title =Biography of Joseph Gales, Jr. | publisher =U.S. Senate | url =https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_31_00016.htm#bio | accessdate =January 17, 2007 }}</ref>
[[James Clarke Welling]], who became President of [[George Washington University|Columbian University]], served on the editorial staff during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>Hagner, A.B. (1894) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40066702 Memorial of James Clarke Welling]. Historical Society of Washington, D.C. p. 47</ref>
In 1865, the ''National Intelligencer'' was taken over by Snow, Coyle & Co. John F. Coyle had been an employee at the paper's offices, and continued to publish the paper despite a half million dollars' worth of debts. On November 30, 1869, the statistician and economist [[Alexander del Mar]] bought the paper for cash and merged it with the ''Washington Express''. The short-lived ''Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express'''s last daily publication in Washington was January 10, 1870. Thereafter it was published weekly in New York until at least April 1871.<ref>{{cite book |last=Husdon |first=Frederic |year=1873 |title=Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872 |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Bros. |pages=258–9 |edition=reprint, Kessinger Publishing, 2005 |isbn=978-1-4179-5347-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHlDeaAIvr0C&pg=PA259 }}</ref> It later became the New York daily ''City and National Intelligencer'' with del Mar as editor and publisher, and a circulation of about 2,000 in 1872.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Geo. P. Rowell |location=New York (NY) |title=American Newspaper Directory, 1872 |year=1872 |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9262/m1/517/ |page=518}}</ref>
==See also== * [[List of newspapers in Washington, D.C.]]
==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist}}
'''Further reading''' * Ames, William E. "The National Intelligencer: Washington's Leading Political Newspaper." ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society'' (Washington, DC, 1966): 71-83. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40067248 in JSTOR] * {{cite book|author=Ames, William E.|title=A History of the National Intelligencer|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnationa0000ames|url-access=registration|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1972|oclc=278940|location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina|isbn=9780807811788 }} * Eaton, Clement. "Winifred and Joseph Gales, Liberals in the Old South." ''Journal of Southern History'' 10.4 (1944): 461-474. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2197798 in JSTOR]
{{coord|38|53|34.4|N|77|01|17.2|W|region:US-DC|display=title|name=National Intelligencer newspaper}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Defunct newspapers published in Washington, D.C.]] [[Category:Publications disestablished in 1867]]