William Winston Seaton, editor of the National Intelligencer for fifty-two years, was the exclusive reporter of debates in the United States Senate from 1812 until 1829; his partner, Joseph Gales, covered the House of Representatives. Seaton and Gales's coverage of the debates of Congress supply the chief record of congressional activities until Congress hired its own reporters. Seaton's paper was recognized as the administration organ under Madison and Monroe.

Seaton was born on 11 January 1785 in King William County, Virginia. His parents, Augustine and Mary Winston Seaton, were members of a prominent Virginia family which had immigrated to America from Scotland in 1690. He was tutored by a man known as Ogilvie, earl of Finlater, who operated an academy in Richmond. According to his daughter, Josephine, "An absorbing delight in reading had been one of his earliest developed tastes; and in his father's solid library his opening mind was nourished on wholesome...