of the House. He was elected to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820–1821, called after Maine was separated from the state. The separation of Maine included the division of its extensive public lands, in which Massachusetts retained an ownership interest. Lincoln represented Massachusetts on the commission that oversaw the division of these lands. Over this time Lincoln's political views progressively moderated, and he came to be seen as relatively nonpartisan with respect to the Republican-Federalist divide. His opposition to the Hartford Convention raised his profile, and during the contentious Constitutional Convention debates, he maintained positive relations with political friends and foes. In 1823 he was elected lieutenant governor, serving under moderate Republican Governor William Eustis. In 1824 Eustis nominated him to fill a vacancy on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court created by the resignation of Maine justice George Thatcher. That year he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Governor In 1825 Lincoln was approached by Republican party leaders about running for governor. Adopting a firmly centrist stance, he refused to run as the candidate of a single party. When a Federalist caucus seconded the nomination, he agreed to stand and won the election in a landslide against insignificant opposition. For the next five years, he ran virtually unopposed, only occasionally facing opposition from what were basically single-issue candidates and the weak perennial Democratic candidate Marcus Morton. Historian Ronald Formisano characterizes Lincoln's administration as "basically a National Republican, proto-Whig administration." In 1832, opposition parties began to gain strength, and he won a narrow majority over Democratic and Anti-Masonic opposition. Economic development issues dominated Lincoln's tenure in office. He was a regular supporter of development initiatives and worked to change state laws to limit the liability of corporate investors. He ordered the state's first geographical and topographical surveys. The opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal (connecting New York City to the Great Lakes) and the Blackstone Canal (connecting Worcester to Providence, Rhode Island) in 1828 presented challenges to Boston's dominance as a shipping hub. Lincoln early on proposed a canal connecting Boston to the Connecticut River, but this idea never caught on. His government eventually approved plans for the construction of a railroad connecting Boston to Albany, New York, chartering its first stage, the Boston and Worcester Railroad, in 1831. The railroad charter was issued in the wake of a controversy over the nature of