as an awkward figure, with his "drawling, nasal, yankee twang" and his saddle-bags "filled with political papers and scraps" that he distributed to all who would listen. Peck was a strong anti-Federalist, and in 1798, Judge William Cooper, an ardent Federalist, had him arrested by a United States Marshal under the Alien and Sedition Acts for circulating petitions against those very acts. Peck was taken in irons to be tried in New York City. The spectacle of the martyred war hero being transported in chains only served to help the Republican cause. Peck was soon released without trial. He was a member of the New York State Legislature for eleven years, in the Assembly (1798–1804) and in the Senate (1804 to 1808). In 1801 he submitted an amendment, forerunner to the Twelfth Amendment, to adopt designations for the votes for president and vice president. His granddaughter, Anna Peck Sill, was the founder and principal of Rockford Female Seminary. Father of the Common School System of New York State While in the State Assembly (in 1801, 1803 and 1804), Jedediah Peck sponsored bills to establish common schools in the state, but each resolution was rejected. In 1811, after Peck's retirement from active politics, Governor Daniel D. Tompkins appointed Peck chairman of a five-man commission to study the problem of public school education. In five months the commission reported the fundamental principals of New York's educational system. In 1812, a bill become law and the basic foundation of the state's public school system was established. The law requires: that there be a division of towns into school districts; that there be trustees in each district to superintend those schools; that each town raise taxes as much as it received from the state school fund; that the funds be divided among the various towns on a population basis, and then subdivided among the school districts. In addition to his work in establishing the common school system of New York, he introduced a bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt which later became a law. Although nearly seventy years of age at the time, he served in the War of 1812, and took part in the Battle of Queenston Heights. He died at age 74 and is buried at the in the Town of Burlington, New York. A New York State Historical Marker at the site reads: In memory of Hon. Jedediah Peck,