Samuel Harrison Smith, though his years as a Washington newspaper publisher were relatively brief, played an important role as a journalist and as the reporter of debates of the Congress during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Smith was only twenty-eight years old when he founded the National Intelligencer as a triweekly newspaper in October 1800, the year the federal government moved from Philadelphia to Washington. An ardent Republican and a friend of Thomas Jefferson, Smith was a faithful but far from servile supporter of the Jefferson administration. The Intelligencer during Jefferson's presidency, however, was often called the "official gazette" or the "government organ," though the paper's character clearly transcended such a limited role.

The Intelligencer under Smith's guidance became a valuable means of preserving a record of the congressional debates during the early Washington years. In addition, many newspapers throughout the several states relied upon Smith's reports...