Cheney's main social ideology was that of egalitarianism; he personally voiced his disdain for racial inequality, social elitism, and socioeconomic depravation regularly, in controversial speeches and articles. He was ordained a minister in his early twenties, became the headmaster at Parsonsfield, Maine, and illegally harbored and transferred slaves to safety during the 1840s in New Hampshire–an action punishable with a decade's jail time by the federal Fugitive Slave acts. His religious community work garnered him widespread support, culminating in his nomination for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives without his knowledge. Having been told he was nominated and elected on his way to his induction ceremony, Cheney would go on to be an able Free Soil legislator. His first bills drafted and passed supported state prohibition, advocated for temperance, regulated liquor traffic (notably the passage of the Maine Liquor Law), and provided the funds for his first school–the Lebanon Academy in Lebanon, Maine. He gave many abolitionist speeches to the legislature, which produced mixed reactions and death threats; historians have occasionally noted him as "completely and utterly careless with his life."