In this context, "the record" is a written account of what was said in a meeting. The idiom is "take the high road" (not "a" high road.) When you "take the high road" you're behaving better than those around you. It sounds like the speaker wants to make sure that everyone knows that he wanted to talk things out and engage in compromise even though others were arguing and being confrontational.

Take the high ground can also mean to take a superior or commanding overpowering position. In anything often used in big business, politics and military campaigns, battles.

You tried to take "the high ground" there are two similar expressions/idiom. I. take the high road. 2. take the high ground. in some contexts they might be interchangeable. But take the high/higher ground is used also, when you wish to express that you or someone else is being more ethically, or morally correct. To fully answer your question we need all or much more of the surrounding context.

Hello Ay, lets look at it a different way: I want (it to be known) that I tried to (do the right thing) * ''the record to show'' - mainly expresses that one wants people to be aware of something, usually in a written format, or format that allows people to review it. * "take the high road'' - mainly expresses that ones decision was the right/better decision (from a moral stand point)

Literally, it refers, as JK explains, to a written account. However the expression is also used less formally where there is no written record. If you say, for example, "Let the record show that I tried my best", it means that you want people later to know that you tried. You can think of the "record" as being the book of your life into which you "record" every day a new page.