Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-12-30
NATIONAL INfELLIGENCER.
rHE REPoRT!Ns AND PUBLICATION OF
PROCEEnNGs IN CONGRESS.

So much mjApprehenson appears to exist in
he mind Of certain portion OF the Public Press
Ionceryng ale recent attempts to render more per-
bet I'D prompt the reporting ana pnolcano M q
Proceedings and Debates in both Houses OF Con-
RS, that we avail ourselves of disposable space
n our columns to take brief review OF the facts
Lylich constitute their history.
/ So inseparably connected with popular govern
nent did the trainers of the Constitution consider
diffusion among the People of the knowledge OF
he Proceedings Of Congress, that the publication
bv each House Of its own doings was made
fundamental provision Of the Constitution. Each
House shall Keep a Journal Of its Proceedings, and
from time to time PUBLISH THE SAME. ConsI.
art. j, Sec. S. Under this provision journal
has. from the beginning Of the Government, been
aecordingly keptby each House, but in form neces
sarily SO meager as to yield no information OF the
o,ofipes of pubic acts, Of which is OF SO great inn
portance in a Representative Government that the
Peonle should be automatically informed. But
even these Journals Of the two Houses, meager as
thew are. have never been, in any proper sense OF
he term, q published" They have been printed,
il is true, for the Members, and the sheets from
time to time laid on their tables, but SO tardy and
rregularly as to be of little use even to them and
number of copies are annually pound IN yo-
Inmes of which one copy is taken home by each
Member, and others are distributed or shelved In
the Capitol, where they may be preserved, but are
yery seldom resorted to as public records, and are
entirely out Of the general reach. To the Public,
to the body Of the People, the " Journal of each
House is and ever must be, while thus "publish-
ed" sealed book.
It is this injunction of the Constitution, there
fore, which, after so long disregard OF it, Con-
gress has been considering Of carrying into effect;
which the Senate has already put in operation, and
- nc ntot has
deliberalion.
Although hitherto, until very lately, no measure
for this purpose has been consummated, the expe-
diency of securing correct and ample reports of
Debaes at the public charge, has at different times
attracted attention in both Houses of Congress.
AS far back as in the first Congress, upon pro-
position for excluding Reporters from the Hall of
Representatives because of the gross errors and
misapprehensions in their reports and the alleged
partially shown to particular speakers the idea Of
an authorized publication of the Debates in that
body was thrown out by Gen. SUMTER, of South
Carolina, of Revolutionary fame, who said that if
motion were made to authorize the publication Of
the Debates in all able and impartial manner, he
would give il his support
AT several times in succeeding years the subject
was agitated, and occasionally isolated propositions,
which came to nothing, were made upon the subject
But, in the course of time, the idea Of publishing
the Debates at the expense OF the legislative bodies
came to be more seriously and methodcally enter
tanned. In the year 1910, Ex-senator BAYARD, of
his own motion, and certainly upon no suggestion
of ours, nor, as far as we know of any other Jour-
nast, proposed to engage corps of Reporters to
report the Debates of the Senate and, committee
being raised for the purpose report was made ia
yorable to the object But because the Senate doubt
ed the practcabity or feared the of that plan,
il was though proposed al successive sessions, never
put in execution. On one Of these occasions the
following remarks, made by Mr.. Secretary WALK
Err, then Senator from his own State, are freshly
remembered IL was his wish (he said) TO see
the proceedings of The Senate fairly and impair
TALLY reported for the information Of the People
but he believed that never would be done until
Congress employed reporters Of its own for the
purpose. 1t was seen every day that the various
ietter-writers who proiessed to give to the coun-
try statements of the business of Congress, mis-
represented every thing so as TO mislead the pub
lie mind"
Very full reports were made, however, by the
National Intelligencer from the year 1920 and up
wards, and some ten years afterwards the like was
done by successive other papers, the Telegraph, the
Globe, and the Union, at the expense Of their Pro-
prietors an expense which they could never have
met but for the actual or anticipated possession
OF the Printing for Congress, which each in their
turn enjoyed, and which, at the rates fixed by law,
had become sufficiently profitable (by the reduction
of the cost Of paper, the introduction of power
presses, and the practice of printing large extra
Numbers Of heavy documents) to justify large
expenditure on this service. This competition con-
tinued up the commencement of the first session
Of the present Congress, when, the preceding Con-
gress having in its wisdom returned TO the plan Of
letting its printing 10 the lowest bidder-who will
ever be some one unaware of what he is about 10
undertake, and who will underbid the regular trade
to depth out Of sight of all compet,on-the prin-
tiers Of this city left empty -handed, with un-
employed establishments dead capitaD on their
hands.
After this, 70 continue TO spend from four or FIVE
TO ten thousand dollars year, for which they must
necessarily 60 heavily in debt in reporting and pub
lis ing the Debates of the two Houses, could not
be yxpected Of the Publishers Of the Daily Papers
in this city, the profits Of whose circulation, how
ever wide and difusive it be, are for several rea-
sons far less than those Of papers Of less aggregate
circulation puslished in populous cities. To do so
was in fact little less than impossible.
The SENATE, after the passage Of the act referred
10, foreseeing probably this consequence OF what
was called the separation Of the Press from Con-
gress, accepted, on the motion OF Democratic mem
Der, proposition to report and publish the proceed
ings Of that body on the terms comprised in the fol-
lowing Resolution: