Charles edited for a total of thirteen years. While living in Wilkes-Barre, Miner also married Letitia Wright in 1804. They had ten children together. Pennsylvania House of Representatives Miner was an active member of the Wilkes-Barre community, serving on several city boards and councils. In 1807, he was elected to represent Luzerne County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. During his term, he promoted internal improvements to roads and canals, aid for the poor, compulsory vaccines for kinepox, and the regulation of bank currency. United States House of Representatives and Anti-Slavery Efforts In 1817, Miner bought the Chester and Delaware Federalist and moved his family to West Chester, Pennsylvania. However, he had to leave his newspaper business when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Chester, Delaware, and Lancaster counties in 1824. He was re-elected once, and therefore served in the Nineteenth Congress and Twentieth Congress. During Miner's terms, slavery was still widespread in the South and West, but Northern states were already reflecting anti-slavery views. Miner presented his first anti-slavery proposal to the House on May 13, 1826. He introduced his plan to immediately end the slave trade in the District of Columbia and gradually abolish slavery in the capitol over a period of about ten years. Miner thought that immediate, nationwide abolition was impossible, but he hoped that if the District of Columbia could successfully abolish slavery, it would act as a “lever” to influence the rest of the country to do likewise. Congress adjourned before he could elaborate on the topic. He tried to readdress the plan in December 1826, but he was encouraged not to speak because the topic provoked excitement and irritation, especially among the Southern representatives. Despite the opposition, Miner continued to work toward gradual abolition. In 1828, he presented a petition titled “Memorial of the Inhabitants of the District of Columbia, praying for the gradual abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia” to the House. The document asserts: Miner primarily argued that the slave trade was cruel and unjust. Slavery, he believed, contradicted both American and Christian values, and therefore depleted the morality of the citizens. Miner's final and most influential anti-slavery effort occurred in January 1829. In preparation for his proposal, he visited prisons and auctions to discuss the issue of slavery with slaves and jail keepers. He was especially disturbed to learn that free men were