William P. Gardner (ca. 1768–1826), government clerk, was a native of Philadelphia who served as a Treasury Department clerk beginning about 1793. He briefly took a position with the Bank of Pennsylvania, traveled to Europe, returned to the United States in 1796, and worked again as a clerk at the Treasury until he resigned in 1800. A zealous Republican, Gardner supplied Treasury Department documents to Philadelphia Aurora editor William Duane, who in the summer of 1800 accused leading Federalists, including Timothy Pickering and Jonathan Dayton, of unethical use of public funds. Gardner thought that this partisan act limited his employment opportunities, but in 1802 TJ appointed him United States consul at Demerara. The British colonial government refused to receive him, and he evidently failed in his attempt to claim a family inheritance there. Gardner returned to America and resigned his position in 1803, after which he obtained employment as a clerk in Washington at the postmaster general’s office. In 1809 he served as grand sachem of the Tammany Society of Washington, and the following year he was the organization’s secretary. Gardner served a number of terms on the city council. He died in Washington (Gardner file in DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1801–09; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 33:108–9; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 1:409 [10, 11 Mar. 1802]; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 31 vols.  Congress. Ser., 17 vols.  Pres. Ser., 6 vols.  Sec. of State Ser., 8 vols description ends , Sec. of State Ser., 3:589–90, 4:253–4, 5:114–5, 143; Washington National Intelligencer, 8 July 1807, 10 Mar. 1809, 16 May 1810; Gideon Granger, Letter from the Post-Master General, accompanied with a Report [Washington, 1808]; Return J. Meigs, Letter from the Postmaster General transmitting a List of the Names of the Clerks Employed in the General Post Office [Washington, 1815]; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 31 vols.  Congress. Ser., 17 vols.  Pres. Ser., 6 vols.  Sec. of State Ser., 8 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 5:234; Judah Delano, The Washington Directory [Washington, 1822], 38; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 23 Mar. 1826).

Although Gardner and George Murray agreed to publish a fine engraving of the Declaration of Independence in partnership, Murray changed his mind by 1816 and instead engraved the version soon published by John Binns. Gardner accordingly complained in print that Murray and Binns had stolen his idea (New York Columbian, 2 July 1816; Baltimore Patriot & Mercantile Advertiser, 21 July 1818; Benjamin Owen Tyler, Declaration of Independence. A Candid Statement of Facts, in answer to an unwarrantable denunciation of my publication of the Declaration of American Independence, Made by Mr. John Binns, Editor of the Democratic Press, In his Paper of the 9th and 18th of April, 1818 [Washington, 1818]). The enclosed sketch by John James Barralet has not been found, but it was prepared before 8 Oct. 1810, when Murray sent it to Gardner and stated that it depicted personifications of Liberty and Tyranny, Minerva, and an Indian, with circles or ovals set aside for likenesses of members of the Continental Congress in 1776 (Tyler, Declaration of Independence, 32–3).