serve his community. Tucker received many cases in debt collection, and he was appointed trustee of the Lynchburg Female Academy and vestryman at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. He was also elected to serve in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825, representing the Lynchburg area in the 16th, 17th, and 18th United States Congresses. His financial largess was short-lived, as Tucker was unable to resist the allure of society and lavish living in Washington, not to mention the increased expenses of a larger immediate family. Though Tucker and Maria were warned against her having more children in her vulnerable physical and emotional state, she again conceived, and died in pregnancy in February 1823. In the carriage to Washington after the funeral, Tucker muffled his face with a handkerchief to hide his tears and feigned a toothache in response to inquirers. Maria's death indeed weighed heavily upon him, as he reflected on his plausible neglect in the midst of her travails. He also was much concerned for his son Daniel's indolence and unbalanced behavior, which years later resulted in the son's hospitalization and ultimate death in 1838 in Philadelphia. Due in part to these personal trials, he made no momentous contributions to Congress beyond his reliable positions representing Virginia's interests, with a consistent Jeffersonian Republican voting record. He did serve as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War. There are notable disparities between Tucker's more statist voting record and the nationalism predominant in his writings during this period and later. In his essay On Instructions to Representatives, he provides an explanation in political theory—an inevitable obligation to think one way and yet vote another, in compliance with constituent preferences. Tucker's self-assessment as a congressman is otherwise much less forgiving: “In addition to the pecuniary engagements and difficulties which unfitted my mind for the current business of legislation, I spent all my leisure hours playing chess, to which I was shamefully and regretfully, but passionately devoted. I had then a livelier ambition to be a great chess player than to be a distinguished member of Congress.“ Academics Near the end of Tucker's third congressional term in 1824, Thomas Jefferson presented him with an offer on behalf of the fledgling University of Virginia, sanctioned by Trustees James Madison and Joseph C. Cabell, to serve as the first Professor of Moral Philosophy. The offer met the school's