Elected to represent New York in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1815-1819, Served as Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1823 to 1836. He graduated from Union College in 1799. Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1800, and commenced practice in Salem, N.Y. He was District Attorney of the Fourth District from 1806 to 1811, and from 1812 to 1815, his jurisdiction comprising Washington, Essex, Clinton and St. Lawrence Counties, from 1808 on also Franklin County, and from 1813 on also Warren County. He was a member from Washington and Warren Counties of the New York State Assembly in 1814. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1819. He was District Attorney of Washington County from 1818 to 1820. He was New York State Comptroller from 1821 to 1823. He was Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1823 to 1837. In 1828, he was appointed Treasurer of the United States, but declined. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844. He was buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery, Utica.