my Duty: in 1804, Gardiner became secretary of the first chamber of the Washington city council (William V. Cox, comp., Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Establishment of the Seat of Government in the District of Columbia [Washington, D.C., 1901], 298).

In 1804, the city council established the Institution for the Education of Youth to provide “ample provision for the education of those children whose parents or guardians are unable to make such provision themselves.” The enactment provided funding for the purposed academies through a combination of tax revenue and private subscriptions. On 1 May 1805, TJ added his signature to a list of subscribers that would eventually grow to more than 180 names. TJ committed $200, to be paid in 10 quarterly installments, beginning 1 Oct. Two public schools opened in 1806, funded by private donations and an allotment drawn from city taxes (National Intelligencer, 29 June 1804; list of subscribers to school fund, 1805, MS in DWP: Artificial and Ephemeral Collection, Collection No. 060, Series: Schools; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826, Princeton, 1997, 2 vols. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1152).