JONATHAN ELLIOT

Background

Jonathan Elliot was born near Carlisle, England.

Career

Coming to New York City at the age of eighteen, he began work as a printer.

He is supposed to have served in the American army during the War of 1812, but between the date of his return to this country, and the commencement of his newspaper work, there was little time for fighting, except possibly in the latter part of 1814.

His real career began that year.

In December 1813, he entered a partnership with two associates, to produce the first daily evening newspaper ever published in Washington, the Washington City Gazette; the first number appeared in January 1814.

Elliot was the printer.

Soon after the capture of Washington, in the following summer, the paper suspended publication.

In November 1815 it was revived, as the Washington City Weekly Gazette, with Elliot as publisher and editor.

In 1817 the journal, now City of Washington Gazette, became a daily; this evidence of increasing prosperity may have been due to increased patronage, or—more probably —to lucrative public printing contracts received from the secretary of the treasury, William H. Crawford.

In 1826 Elliot sold the Gazette and abandoned the newspaper field, except for a brief return in 1828.

In 1822 he was still supporting Crawford, although at the same time he made overtures to John Quincy Adams, offering his services in return for a consideration.

Thereupon Elliot hinted that he had already ruined Calhoun’s chances of getting the presidency, and he threatened to ruin Adams’s, too.

When Adams remained unmoved by these advances, Elliot redoubled his efforts in behalf of Crawford.

After withdrawing from the newspaper field, Elliot began the work for which he is still well known to-day, the publication of historical material.

In 1827 he published the first volume of Debates, Resolutions, and Other Proceedings in Convention on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution.

This, as he intimated in the preface, was something of a gamble; “the pecuniary risk” was so heavy, he wrote, that he felt impelled to ask for the help of Congress and of the bar.

If the venture should prove profitable, other volumes would follow.

His wishes were gratified, and between 1827 and 1830 he published three more volumes.

The extensive demand for the work warranted a second edition, "much enlarged and improved, ” published in 1836.

Nine years later he added a fifth volume, including Madison’s notes of debates in the Federal Convention.

Described by Justice Story as “an invaluable repository of facts and arguments, ” the Debates still stand as one of the most valuable collections relating to the Constitution.

In 1827 Elliot also published the first edition of another compilation known as the Diplomatic Code of the United States of America, This included the treaties and conventions between the United States and foreign governments, together with abstracts of judicial decisions bearing upon foreign affairs, and a summary of the principles of international law.

In a second edition, published in 1834, The American Diplomatic Code, the collection was brought down to that date.

In the Jackson administration, Secretary of State McLane adopted the “code” for the use of his department.

Although the collection of treaties has been superseded by later collections, Elliot’s summaries of judicial decisions are still valuable.

In 1830 he published a large volume, compiled by J. A. Brereton, entitled Florae Columbianae, and in the same year a much better known work of his own: Historical Sketches of the Ten Miles Square Forming the District of Columbia.

This is the source from which numerous guide books have been drawn.

His last work, published in 1845, was the Funding System of the United States and of Great Britain, including a mass of statistical extracts from treasury reports, and other material dealing with the public debt.

Though Elliot’s Debates are known to every student of American history, Elliot himself, the man, is something of a phantom, a mere bibliographical abstraction.

Achievements

• He produced the first daily evening newspaper ever published in Washington, the Washington City Gazette

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787 ..; Volume 5

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Politics

In that year some of Jackson’s opponents started a campaign paper, We the People, with Elliot as editor.

Views

As a newspaper man, he took an active part in national politics.

Personality

Adams’s opinion of Elliot was not high ; he described him as “an Englishman, having no character of his own—penurious and venal—metal to receive any stamp” (Memoirs, VI, 47).

One journalist wrote that in “private life he was frank, generous, warmhearted, an affectionate father, and a kind husband. ”

Connections

He was twice married and left four children, one son being Jonathan, Jr. , and another, Henry, a member of the bar of New Orleans.

Son:

Jonathan Elliot, Jr.

Son:

Henry Elliot