Note 63 — SEVENTH CONGRESS.—FIRST SESSION.
Reading edition
[From the National Intelligencer of Jan. 8, 1802.]
On Monday last the editor addressed a letter to the President of the Senate, requesting permission to occupy a position in the lower area of the Senate Chamber, for the purpose of taking with correctness the debates and proceedings of that body.
It may be necessary to remark that heretofore no stenographer has been admitted in this area; and the upper gallery, being open to the admission of every one, and very remote from the floor of the House, has prevented any attempt being made to take the debates, from the impossibility of hearing distinctly from it.
The contents of the letter were submitted by the President to the Senate; and a resolution agreed to, to the following effect: Resolved, That any stenographer, desirous to take the debates of the Senate on Legislative business, may be admitted for that purpose, at such place, within the area of the Senate Chamber, as the President shall allot.
On Wednesday the editor had, accordingly, assigned to him a convenient place in the lower area, from which he took notes of the proceedings of the Senate On the adoption of the above resolution, which opens a new door to public information, and which may be considered as the prelude to a more genuine sympathy between the Senate and the people of the United States, than may have heretofore subsisted, by rendering each better acquainted with the other, we congratulate, without qualification, every friend to the true principles of our republican institutions.