Joseph Gales

Joseph Gales, Jr. (born April 10, 1786 in Eckington , Derbyshire , Great Britain , † July 21, 1860 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician . Between 1827 and 1830 he was Mayor of Washington City.

Career

In 1795, Joseph Gales came to the United States with his father. The father was a printer and had been expelled from England for his Republican views. Joseph graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . From 1807 he lived in Washington, where he worked as an assistant to the editor Samuel Harrison Smith of the newspaper The National Intelligencer . Since he had learned shorthand , he reported from the congress. In 1813 Smith retired from the newspaper publishing company and Gales became its owner. He went into a partnership with his brother-in-law William Winston Seaton (1785-1866).

For many years, Gales was the sole reporter from the US Senate , while Seaton reported from the House of Representatives . The Intelligencer supported the governments of Thomas Jefferson , James Madison, and James Monroe . Gales and Seaton were the official printers of Congress from 1819 to 1829 and printed the minutes of the Congress sessions. After that the government had its own "printing office".

Between 1834 and 1856 they published 42 volumes on the debates of Congress between 1798 and 1824 under the title Annals of Congress . These represent an important source for historical research to this day.

The party affiliation of Gales is not recorded. Since 1814 he sat on the Washington City Council. After the resignation of Mayor Roger C. Weightman , the city council elected him to succeed him. He took up this position on June 11, 1827. A year later he was officially elected to this office, in which he remained until June 14, 1830.

Seaton was also to become mayor of the federal capital between 1840 and 1850. After Congress split into Whigs and Democrats , the partners lost their official patronage. The National Intelligencer continued to appear until 1868; Gales died in 1860 and Seaton retired in 1864.

It is also worth noting that until 1871 the mayor of Washington did not administer the entire District of Columbia. The then independent city of Georgetown provided its own mayor until 1871. After the end of his time as mayor, Joseph Gales continued his journalistic work. He died in Washington on July 21, 1860.

Web links

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger C. Weightman	Mayor of Washington 1827–1830	John Peter Van Ness

personal data
SURNAME	Gales, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 10, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH	Eckington , UK
DATE OF DEATH	July 21, 1860
Place of death	Washington, DC