d upon Goose Creek the name of Tiber, long
before this was Washington. The founder of this Pre-Adamite journal
was Mr. Benjamin Moore; its name, "The Washington Gazette"; its issue,
semi-weekly; its annual price, four dollars; and the two leading
principles which, in that day of the infancy of political "platforms,"
his salutatory announced, were, first, "to obtain a living for
himself," and, secondly, "to amuse and inform his fellow-mortals." How
long this day-star of our journalism shone, before night again
swallowed up the premature dawn, cannot now be stated. It must have
been published at what was then expected to be our city, but is our
penitentiary, Greenleaf's Point.

To the "Intelligencer" young Mr. Gales brought such vigor, such
talent, and such skill in every department, that within two years, in
1809, he was admitted by Mr. Smith into partnership; within less than
a year from which date, that gentleman, grown weary of the laborious
life of the press, was content to withdraw and leave him sole
proprietor, editor, and reporter. An enormous worker, however, it
mattered little to him what tasks were to be assumed: he could
multiply himself among them, and suffice for all.

In thus assuming the undivided charge of the paper, the young editor
thought it becoming to set forth one main principle, that has, beyond
a question, been admirably the guide of his public life: he said to
his readers,--"It is the dearest right, and ought to be cherished as
the proudest prerogative of a freeman, to be guided by the unbiassed
convictions of his own judgment. This right it is my firm purpose to
maintain, and to preserve inviolate the independence of the print now
committed into my hands." Never was pledge more universally made or
more rarely kept than this.

It was towards the close of Mr. Jefferson's Presidency that Mr. Gales
had entered the office of the "Intelligencer"; and it was during Mr.
Madison's first year that he became joint-editor of that paper. Of
these Administrations it had been the supporter,--only following, in
that regard, the transmitted politics of its original, the
"Gazetteer," derived from the elder Mr. Gales. Bred in these, the son
had learnt them of his sire, just as he had adopted his religion or
his morals. Sprung from one who had been persecuted in England as a
Republican, it was natural that the son should love the faith for
which an honored parent had suffered.

The high qualities and the stron