William W. Seaton

A fixture in political Washington, William Winston Seaton partnered with his brother-in-law, Joseph Gales, to edit and publish the National Intelligencer, the leading paper for the Whig Party. Seaton retired from the paper in 1860. The duo were also the de facto official recorders of congressional debates; their Annals of Congress (known familiarly to historians as “Gales and Seaton”) was a record of the national government to 1837. Seaton also served in the local government and was the city’s mayor from 1840 to 1850, a critical period in the growth of Washington’s infrastructure.