In New York, he contributed literary articles to the "Morning Chronicle", the newspaper of his friend Peter Irving. He next opened an office in Rhinebeck, and in 1814 was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he was appointed chairman of a committee on colleges and academies, and succeeded in passing a bill, which is the original of the existing law on the subject of the common-school income. He was also chairman of the committee that arranged the constitutionality of the state law vesting the right of navigation in Livingston and Robert Fulton, and throughout his service bore a prominent part in promoting canal legislation.