To James Madison from John Gardiner, 23 May 1809
From John Gardiner
Washington 23d May 1809
Sir
When you subscribed to the manufacturing Company,1 you were pleased to say “that when they wanted money, they might call upon you for the remainder of your Instalments.”
I have just returned from Philadelphia, whither I went at the request of the Directors, to select Machinery. I have perform’d that duty, but the Funds are not quite adequate to pay for the Machines.
Your aid will enable the Company to procure the machines, & to go into operation immediately. I am Sir most respectfully your obedt. Servant
John Gardiner2
Michl. Nourse Esqr. is Treasurer to the Company
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Probably the Columbia Manufacturing Company, formed by a group of Washington citizens in 1808 for the production of cotton textiles. The firm dissolved in 1813 (Allen C. Clark, “The Mayoralty of Robert Brent,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 33–34 [1932]: 273–75).
2. John Gardiner (d. 1839), an early Washington resident, conducted an auction house and school near the President’s House. Active in politics, he was appointed a clerk in the land office, then part of the Treasury Department (ibid.; Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., The Process of Government under Jefferson [Princeton, N.J., 1978], p. 328).