The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-07-06

While John Bull Depends Upon Con- |
tractors-oficial Reporters and News
paper Reporters-England's Hansard
and Our Congressional Record"
The death of John j. McElhope, for many
years the chief official stenographer of the House
of Representatives, brings up the subject of
Congressional reporting-an interesting and i'm
portant subject. The art of shorthand writing is
not new one, but its present perfection is an
achievement of the present generation. AS long
ago as 15SS-three centuries ago, that is to say
there was in use in England a system OF arbi-
trary characters to represent words 1t was
invented by a man named Bright. 1t wasn't
much of a system of shorthand, but it is the first
recorded invention having fast-writing for its
object. A shorthand alphabet-the tirst-was
published by an Bnglishman named John Willis
in 1902. From time to time improvements were
made OH that alphabet, until in 1887 Isaac Pitman
published his Photographic system, based upon
the old shorthand alphabet rearranged and i'm
proved and upon the principle of spelling every
word by sound
Up till that time the art of shorthand writing
had attracted but little attention, and was but
little used in America. But since then Ameri-
cans have made many improvements upon Pit
mans system, and there is no doubt that to-day
the United States is the foremost shorthand
writing country in the world. 1t is not to be
wondered at that Americans should lead the
world IN every art that conduces to speed in the
despatch of daily business. There is no other
government in the world whose transactions are
so fully and freely published are those of the
Government of the United States, and there is
no other national Legislature on earth whose
record is so fully and so thoroughly kept as the
Congress of the United States. AS an official re-
port of legislative proceedings the Congressional
Record is without peer.
The Continental Congress had record but
fba al No n
bates was made. And incidentally it may be re-
marked that the manuscript journals. scanty as
they were were not faithfully reproduced in the
printing. The Secretary of the Continental
Congress kept three manuscript Journalism
rough and smooth journal and secret journal.
The rough journal consisted of the rough notes
which the Secretary hurriedly jotted down while
the business was proceeding. The smooth
journal was the copy of the rough journal which
the Secretary made out afterward, when he had
leisure to pay some attention to neatness of
form and to excellence of penmanship. The
secret journal was separate and distinct affair,
in which only things of unusual Importance
were noted The secret journal was not made
public until 1925 when by order of Congress iG
was printed. The other journals of Congress
were printed soon after the occurrence of the
events which they recorded. OF the manuscript
journals there is no duplicate, and as the original
is kept among the archives of the State Depart
ment, from which it is not to be removed, it can
not, of course, be circulated among the people
for their general inspection and benefit Even
historians who have had occasion to verify facts
by reference to the journals of the Continental
Congress have been obliged to rest satisfied with
reference to the printed journals. never doubling
that they were absolutely accurate and true
copies of the MS. original Their confidence,
however, has been misplaced. The printed
journals of Congress are not true. They are
false and misleading in many important points.
A
made recently at the State Department by Mr..
Roberdean Buchanan proves to demonstration
that the signing of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence is an event not to be assigned to the Fourth
of July, (as it usually is and the printed
journals indicate that it ought to be.) but that
on the contrary the Declaration of Independence,
the sacred and venerable parchment which may
be seen by any devotee who takes the trouble to
seek it out at the State Department in this city,
was not even engrossed until the I'd Of August,
which is therefore the earliest date upon which
any of the immortal tfty-six could have signed
it. AS matter of fact Thornton, of New Hamp-
shire, did not sign it until November, 116 and IN
January, 1777, the signature of McKean, Of Della
ware, was still wanting. 1t is hard to say it,
but the venerable parchment itself sins in COM
mon with the printed journals. 1t pretends to
be document made signed, and in every way
completed on the Fourth of July, 1176, which is
altogether a false pretense, and the fact that the
Declaration was adopted by the Congress on
July 4 is no excuse. Not the adoption of the
Declaration, but the signing of the document
was the solemn and heroic act which gave the
Revolution paternity and home, and conse-
Grated to the Republic the sacred honor and the
lives of the sgners.
The entire record of the Congress from Septem-
ber 5, 1774 till the last meeting prior to the as
sembling of the new Congress under the new
Constitution in 1889 is contained in four printed
volumes of a size not much larger than the ordi-
nary novel of to-day. The reports of Congress
as printed in the Congressional Record now
would fill that amount of space in fortnight
journal of the House and journal of the
Senate has been kept up from 1889 till the pres
ent minute, in continuation of the journals of the
Continental Congress. The fullness of the re-
port in the Congressional Record of to-day does
not interfere with the journal which continues
in the even tenor of It's way, regardless of all in
terlopers. The journal is the official record. Ii
is prepared under the direct supervision of the
Senate and House respectively, and by the SEN
ate and House respectively is approved or cor
rected every morning before the business of the
new day is taken up The journal has an official
status and n function which have never been
conferred upon the Congressional Record, great
and voluminous as the latter has become.
The Congressional tecOfd Ia not the successor OF
the journal kept IN the years from l74 to 1882 but
of 1.-The Annals of Congress" !" "The Register OF
Debates in Congress" and the Congressional Globe
1t had no ancestor in the Continental Congress
1t was not until Congress met under the new
Constitution in l1S9 that any attempt was made
at reporting the debates. And then it was more
matter of compiling and of bookmaking than
reporting. 1t was simply that some enterprising
Journalist or literary man thought il would be q
good thing to publish book or something that
would give a fuller account of the proceedings