USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Centennial history of the city of Washington, D. C. With full outline of the natural advantages, accounts of the Indian tribes, selection of the site, founding of the city to the present time > Part 46
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It is also necessary further to explain that in these details is included the manufacturing carried on by the Government of the United States for its own purposes, as the lock and mail-bag repair shops of the Post Office Department; the publie printing office and binding, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Navy Yard ordnance and ordnance stores, and the carpenter shops operated by the War, Navy, and Treasury departments. The statistics of the above Government operations are as follows: Capital employed, $7,- 477,290; miscellaneous expenses, $27,815; amount of wages paid, $3,- 821,176; cost of materials, $1,782,645; value of product, $5,960,931; number of hands employed, 4,592.
Deducting these various sums from the corresponding amounts in the preceding table, the remainders are the amounts to be credited to the private manufacturing enterprises of the District of Columbia, and the general result is that $22,093,131 in value, in one shape or another, has been added to the wealth of the District during the ten years preceding June 30, 1890.
The total number of the different kinds of industries in the Dis- trict of Columbia, as reported by the census bulletin, is 120, and the total number of separate establishments, 2,300. Forty of these indus- tries employ less than 10 men each, and there are four of them employing more than 1,000 hands each. These last are, carpentering, 2,428 hands; brick and tile, 1,204; printing and publishing, 3,597; and paper hanging and painting, 1,134. Each of five of these industries employs a capital of more than $1,000,000; namely, carpentering, $1,- 212,239; engraving on steel, including plate printing, and also including
some of the methods in the departments, which had become generally obnoxious, and in this determination he was thoroughly successful. Prompted by a desire to become more actively engaged in business pursuits, he became a director in the Second National Bank, in the United States Electric Lighting Company, in the American Security and Trust Company, in the Metropolitan Railroad Company, and in various other business enterprises. He is now president of the United States Electric Lighting Company, vice- president of the American Security and Trust Company, and in all of these companies he takes a leading part in their advancement. His career throughout has been one of great activity and abundant success. Captain Thomas is yet a young man, and is con- spicnous among that class of young men who have contributed so much toward making the Capital City one of the finest cities on the globe.
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MANUFACTURING.
the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing, $1,546,425; malt liquor, $1,174,191; painting and paper hanging, $1,108,050; and print- ing and publishing, including the United States Printing Office, but not including the value of the lands of the latter, $1,731,504. The classes of business each of which has over 100 establishments, are the following: Boots and shoes, 232; carpentering, 171; men's cloth- ing, 116; women's clothing, 143; painting and paper hanging, 156.
The classes of business each of which annually use more than $1,000,000 are the following: Carpentering, $2,928,490; flouring and grist-mill products, $1,358,238; printing and publishing, $1,254,130.
The twenty-five principal industries are the following: Bottling, employing 208 hands and paying in the aggregate $118,957 in wages. Brick and tile-hands, 1,204; wages, $442,929. Carpentering-hands, 2,428; wages, $1,754,367. Carriages and wagons - hands, 290; wages, $160,170. Confectionery - hands, 349; wages, $165,907. Engraving on steel-hands, 997; wages, $849,332. Flour and grist mills -- hands, 149; wages, $85,718. Foundry and machine shops -hands, 311; wages, $172,297. Furniture - hands, 161; wages, $94,048. Iron work - hands, 309; wages, $186,412. Malt liquors - hands, 120; wages, $82,422. Lithographing and engraving - hands, 127; wages, $79,568. Planed lumber, sash, doors, and blinds-hands, 440; wages, $258,438. Marble and stone work - hands, 391; wages, $305,631. Masonry -hands, 661; wages, $537,180. Painting and paper hanging - hands, 1,134; wages, $748,728. Paving and paving materials-hands, 878; wages, $404,523. Plastering and stucco works - hands, 237; wages, $148,093. Plumbing and gas fitting- hands, 646; wages, $432,567. Printing and publish- ing - hands, 3,099; wages, $2,494,406. Printing and publishing news- papers-hands, 498; wages, $389,731. Saddlery and harness - hands, 106; wages, $58,636. Tinware, etc .- hands, 424; wages, $259,120. Tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes - hands, 159; wages, $83,279. Watch, clock, and jewelry - hands, 126; wages, $83,224. From these figures the average annual wages paid in the different industries may be easily deduced.
CHAPTER XIII.
. HISTORY OF THE PRESS.
The Washington Gazette - The National Intelligencer- The Washington Daily Gazette- The Washington Federalist -The Washington Republican -The Weekly Messenger -The Washington Mirror -The United States Telegraph -The Globe -The Madi- sonian -The Native American -The Columbian Star -The Columbian Gazette - The Washington Union - The Republic-The Spectator -The National Era - The Federal Republican - The American Telegraph - The Washington Sentinel - The Constitutional Union - The American Organ -The Sunday Morning Chronicle-The National Repub- lican -The Daily Patriot- The Evening Star-The Washington Post -The Wash- ington Critic-The Capital - The Public Service -The Home Magazine -The Sunday Herald -The Republic - The Washington Sentinel-The National Tribune -- The National View -The American Farmer -The American Anthropologist -The Vedette - Kate Field's Washington - Public Opinion -The Congressional Record - Other Papers -The Electric Telegraph - Press Agencies.
NIE Washington Gazette was first published June 15, 1796, by Ben- jamin More, a bookseller. It was a semi-weekly paper, issued on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at $4 per annum, from the office then lately owned "by Thomas Wilson, deceased, but subsequently, for a few weeks, in possession of Mr. John Crocker." The Gazette was a good paper for the times in which it was printed; well made up, neatly printed, and ornamented with an engraving of a shield, centered with an eye darting rays in all directions, and with the encircling motto, Nunquam dormio. Mr. More continued to publish his paper for more than a year, and then, in his number of July 26, 1797, he published the following notice: "The Washington, Gazette will not be published again until the publication is attended by some profit to the publisher"; and he also stated that "nothing but want of money stops the paper." How its publication was ever to be attended with profit unless it were published, is somewhat difficult for an Anglo-Saxon intellect to perceive. However, Mr. More found encouragement of some kind soon afterward, for on September 16, 1797, the Washington Gazette again appeared, but this time as a weekly paper, containing the following announcement: "The Wash- ington Gazette again makes its appearance, and its editor hopes to receive that encouragement from the public which will enable him
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to continue the publication uninterrupted, until he shall be able, from experience, to sing of mercy as well as of judgment." Precisely what was meant by this last allusion must be left to conjecture. After a further struggle of about thirty-five weeks, Mr. More, in his number of March 24, 1798, announced as follows: "I shall not be able to continue the publication of the Washington Gazette unless some friend should lend a helping hand. Hope has led me into a thicket of diffi- culties, and appears to be departing from me." At that time, there was not a large constituency for any paper, and besides this it has been suggested that Mr. More was somewhat caustic in his criticisms of the commissioners then engaged in laying out the Federal Dis- triet, and was at the same time a Federalist. So far as is known, the Washington Gazette, under Mr. More's management, did not appear again.
The National Intelligencer was established in Washington in October, 1800, about the time of the removal of the Federal Government from Philadelphia to Washington. The first number of this paper appeared October 31, and it was published in a row of brick buildings on New Jersey Avenue erected by Thomas Law. The editor and proprietor was Samuel Harrison Smith, a biographical sketch of whom appears in another chapter. His residence, while he lived in Washington, was one of the conspicuous objects in the vicinity, being situated on a command- ing site about three hundred feet above tide water. The paper was published three times each week, and was thus what is generally called a tri-weekly publication. Mr. Smith in his prospectus said: "The appearance of the National Intelligencer has been protracted to this day [October 31, 1800] by the inevitable though unanticipated embar- rassments attending the removal of the printing office. The vessel which contained the greater part of the material sailed from Phila- delphia on the 20th of September, but did not arrive in this city until the 25th inst., owing to her having been driven on shore by the vio- lence of the late storm. . . The editor, at the commencement of his duties, considers it as not improper to state the nature of the plan which he intends to pursue, and concisely to notice the principles by which he proposes to regulate his own conduct as well as those by which it is expected that correspondents will regulate theirs," etc. After showing the necessity of the freedom of the press, he said: "But while the editor classes with our dearest rights the liberty of the press, he is decidedly inimical to its licentiousness. As, on the one hand, the conduct of public men and the tendency of public measures will be freely examined, so, on the other hand,
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private character will remain inviolable, nor shall indelicate expres- sions be admitted, however disguised by satire or enlivened by wit."
Whatever may be said of this paper, as to its "interminable diatribes," or as to its general character as a "National Smoothing Plane," or as to its first editor as "Silky, Milky Smith," the high tone indicated in the above extract from its first prospectus was steadily maintained by all its managers from 1800 down to 1870, when it ceased to exist.
The terms of publication were at first announced as follows: First, the paper shall be published three times a week, on good demy paper, and with new type; second, the annual subscription shall be $5, paid constantly in advance, by all subscribers not residing in the city of Washington, and $6 by those residing in the city, in which case the payment shall be half-yearly; third, all letters shall be postpaid.
Politically, the Intelligencer supported Mr. Jefferson for the Pres- idency, to succeed President John Adams. On Monday, November 3, 1800, it said that on the Saturday before, November 1, President Adams arrived in Washington, and took up his residence in the house appropriated to him by the commissioners, the house, however, not being then finished.
Mr. Smith is entitled to great credit for the struggle he made for the right to publish the debates in Congress as they occurred. In his paper of January 19, 1801, he details his interview with the Speaker of the House of Representatives in reference thereto, explaining that he could only secure the Speaker's consent to his having such papers as the clerk of the House should permit him to copy, and that he might publish an account of anything upon which the House had como to a decision. The position of the Speaker, in full, was as follows: "I have no objection to your obtaining copies of those papers that are proper to be published; but you must know it would be manifestly wrong to publish papers that relate to papers in an unfinished state. For instance, a member may make a motion that refers to a particular subject; it may be made inadvertently -its meaning may be equivocal. To publish it in this immature state, before the House has decided upon it, might be to produce miscon- ceptions, and might essentially injure the respect of the people for the Government. Such papers ought not to be published. But in cases in which the House has come to a conclusion, you may publish what has been decided upon."
Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, was then Speaker of the House of Representatives, and John Holt Oswald, of Pennsylvania,
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clerk. The progress made by the press in securing the right to publish the proceedings of Congress may be readily measured by comparing the present condition of things with that indicated by the above-outlined position of Speaker Sedgwick; and as to whether the respect of the people for the Government has been diminished, that also may be estimated by a similar comparison.
Mr. Smith continued to edit and publish the Intelligencer alone until 1809, when Joseph Gales, Jr., of Raleigh, North Carolina, entered his employ as stenographie reporter of proceedings in Congress. This fact of itself is a suggestive indication of the progress already made in the direction referred to. Young Mr. Gales's services proved so acceptable to Mr. Smith that he was soon taken into partnership, and in September, 1810, he bought out the entire establishment. The paper continued to be anti-Federal, supporting Madison and Monroe. To the war with Great Britain, which was declared in the fourth year of Mr. Madison's first term, it gave a hearty support. In October, 1812, Mr. Gales was joined by his brother-in-law, William Winston Seaton, a native of King William County, Virginia, a printer by trade, who had served his apprenticeship in the office of the Vir- ginia Patriot, at Richmond.
The Daily National Intelligencer was established January 1, 1813, because of the necessity of the more prompt publication of the news of the war. The price was $10 per annum, payable in advance. When the British entered Washington in 1814, they partially tore out the Intelligencer office, and as a consequence it did not appear from August 24 to October 1, though it did not suffer so much as might have been expected. The paper continued to support the administration in power until President Jackson's time, when it became a strong Whig paper, teaching that Whig principles were the principles of the Presidents in power from Jefferson to Jackson. It was strongly in favor of what would in this day be called "civil service reform," and hence could not tolerate President Jackson's appointment to office of personal friends as a political reward, a policy at once discovered to be laden with manifold evils, and from which it has not yet been found possible to extricate that service. From day to day, during 1829, the first year of President Jackson's ineumbeney, it published reports of the progress made in the "reform" going on in the various departments. The editors were very friendly to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and extremely doubtful as to whether railroads could ever be made a success in this country.
The weekly edition of the Intelligencer was established June 5,
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1841, at $2 per annum, payable invariably in advance. The Intelli- gencer, after the death of President Harrison, was extremely reluctant to part company with President Tyler, but was at length compelled to do so, because of President Tyler's abandonment of the principles upon which he had been elected. With all its ability and conscien- tiousness it fought the annexation of Texas, and as an evidence of its influence it published the following letter:
" DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, May 8, 1844. " To the Publishers of the National Intelligencer:
"GENTLEMEN : I am directed and required to discontinue the copies of your semi-weekly and daily papers sent to this department for the legations abroad.
"I am, Gentlemen, " Your obedient servant, "EDWARD STUBBS, Agent."
Upon the receipt of this letter, the editor remarked: "Were it not for the narrow spirit which it evinees on the part of the Secretary of State,1 in regard to the freedom of the press, we should feel proud of this letter as a testimonial to the proprietors of this paper of their having discharged their duty to their countrymen, even at the hazard of the displeasure of these official personages."
The paper continued to be published by Gales & Seaton until the death of Mr. Gales, which occurred at Eekington, his country seat, July 21, 1860, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. August 30, Mr. Seaton announced that Mr. James C. Welling would be associated with him in the editorial conduct of the paper in the future. Mr. Welling had then been connected with the paper about ten years. On Saturday, December 31, 1864, Mr. Seaton retired from the proprietor- ship of the paper, and its editorial management. James C. Welling also retired on the same day, and the new proprietors, Snow, Coyle, & Company, took possession. April 1, 1865, the paper was enlarged to a seven-column sheet. Afterward, the Express was consolidated with it, and the name changed to the Intelligencer and Express. Snow, Coyle, & Company continued the publication of the paper until November 30, 1869, when they sold out to Alexander Delmar, then late Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, who announced his intention of placing it in the front rank of journalism. But on January 10, 1870, he was compelled to discontinue its publication.
1 Hon. John C. Calhoun.
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HISTORY OF THE PRESS.
It has been said of the Intelligencer that it was "Jeffersonian till Jackson's time, and then Whig till Lincoln's time, when it became rebel Democratic, and went into the lobby under Johnny Coyle."' This is partly true and partly false. It never became "rebel Democratic." Its motto always was "The Union and the Constitution." It was always true to the Union, and, in its own way, it was always true to the Constitution. In 1860, its devotion to slavery, that institution being protected by the Constitution in the States at least, led it to support Hon. John Bell for the Presidency as against Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln being the anti-slavery candidate. In 1864, it supported General MeClellan for the Presidency, because it could not even then see that slavery had forfeited its right to exist by attempting to overthrow the Constitution by which it had been protected. Presi- dent Lincoln and his emancipation policy were both too intricate and mysterious for the understanding of the Intelligencer, and hence it had to sustain what it could understand-the restoration of "The Union as it Was," that is, with slavery still unimpaired. Through the stormy reconstruction period, the Intelligencer was a strong supporter of Andrew Johnson and his plan of reconstruction, and it continued on this line of political thought until it gave up the ghost in 1870.
It may not be generally known that Joseph Gales, when driven from England for the freedom which he exercised in the publication of his paper at Sheffield, learned stenography on his way across the Atlantic. This art he found extremely useful in the service of Clay- poole in Philadelphia. His son, Joseph Gales, Jr., as one of the editors of the National Intelligencer, found the same art also extremely useful, as did likewise his partner, W. W. Seaton; one reporting the Senate, the other the House. Had it not been for the presence of Gales in the Senate, the great speeches of Hayne and Webster in 1830 would have been entirely lost to the world, and very few of the debates of earlier Congresses would have been preserved but for the efforts of Gales and Seaton, editors of the National Intelligencer. The action of Congress authorizing them to write up and publish their reports of the early proceedings was one of great wisdom, as through this action we have preserved to us the debates of Congress in the early days. Posterity is indebted to them for these, as it is to James Madison for the debates of the Constitutional Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States.
The Washington Daily Gazette was started in Washington October
1 " Washington Outside and Inside," by G. A. Townsend.
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
1, 1800, at $5 per annum, payable half yearly in advance. The pro- jector, in his advertisement, said: "It shall be conducted on a fair, impartial plan, open to political discussions; but no personal pieces or irritating animadversions on parties or individuals shall be admitted." This was signed by Charles Cist. How long this paper was published is not known.
The Washington Federalist was published for several years in the early part of the century, as a contemporary of the National Intelli- gencer, but advocating opposite views. It is believed to have existed about four years, but no authentic data with reference to this point could be obtained.
The Weekly Register of Political News was first published in Novem- ber, 1807, by J. B. Colvin. How long it was published is not known.
The Washington City Gazette was established in 1812 or 1813, by William Elliott. It was edited by George Watterston. William Elliott was a native of England, and died December 30, 1838, at the age of sixty-four years. He was a man of considerable scientific attainments, and was one of the earliest and most zealous members of the Columbian Institute.
The Washington City Weekly Gazette was started in 1815, by Jona- than Elliott, who was also an Englishman. He continued the publica- tion of this paper as a weekly until 1817, when he changed it to a daily.
The Washington Republican was first issued in 1822, by James C. Dunn & Company, as a semi-weekly paper. It was published in the interest of John C. Calhoun. It afterward passed into the hands of Ilaughton & Company, and was the ostensible forerunner of Force's semi-weekly National Journal, begun in November, 1823, and of the Daily National Journal, begun in 1824.
The Weekly Messenger was started in 1807, by John B. Colvin, who, in 1808, changed the name to the Washington Monitor. This paper was soon succeeded by the Washington Expositor, conducted by Dinmore & Cooper.
The Weekly Messenger was first published in 1817, by Mrs. John B. Colvin, the talented widow of John B. Colvin.
The National Register was first issued in 1816, by J. K. Meade, and edited by George Watterston.
The Washington City Chronicle was started in 1828, by A. Roth- well and T. W. Ustick, and edited by George Watterston. It was a literary paper, published weekly. It was transferred in November, 1830, to James C. Dunn, and in 1832 it was the property of B. Homans.
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HISTORY OF THE PRESS.
The Washington Mirror was commenced October 18, 1834, by William Thompson, an Englishman. The name was afterward changed to the Metropolitan, and edited by Rufus Dawes. Mr. Dawes made his paper popular and successful for some time, but this popularity was not of great duration. In 1836, the paper was merged into the United States Telegraph. Mr. Thompson assumed the position of city editor on the National Intelligencer, and on July 17, 1846, he started the Saturday Evening News, which he continued until 1858, when, on account of an affection of the eyes, he abandoned its publication.
The African Repository was first published in 1835, by Ralph R. Gurley, secretary of the American Colonization Society, who continued its publication for several years.
The United States Telegraph was established in 1826, by Duff Green. Upon the inauguration of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States, the Telegraph became the organ of the Adminis- tration; though, if the Hon. Thomas II. Benton is good authority, it was more the organ of John C. Calhoun than of President Jackson. Some time afterward, a very strong article against nullification appeared in the Frankfort Argus, published in Kentucky, to which was called the attention of the President, who, upon being informed that it was written by Franklin P. Blair, invited him to Washington, and the Globe was the result. At any rate, it can be stated that the Globe was established because of differences betweeen President Jack- son and Mr. Van Buren.
The Globe, upon its establishment in December, 1830, became at once a power in the Government. While it was not in the Cabinet, it had a cabinet of its own, widely known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." Soon after its establishment, John C. Rives became a partner with Mr. Blair, and Amos Kendall became a regular contributor to the paper. Amos Kendall wrote the broadside editorials of the Globe, at the dictation of the President, but, of course, greatly improving the President's English; for, while he could not write elegantly, yet he was a vigorous thinker. The Globe had the public printing and advertising for eleven years, or until General Harrison was inaugu- rated, ceasing to be the Government organ on March 3, 1841; but it did not cease then to be the chief organ of the Democratic Party. The National Intelligencer then resumed its old position. The death of President Harrison, however, brought confusion to the Whigs, and the vetoes of President Tyler against the Bank bills disrupted the relations of the Intelligeneer with the Government, the Intelligencer adhering to the fortunes of Henry Clay and the Whig Party.
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