 From July 1823 to 1826, and from 1827 to 1831, he edited the "Troy Sentinel" where he published in December 1823 anonymously a poem now better known as "The Night Before Christmas" but to which he gave the title "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas".In 1836 he edited the "Western Repository and Genesee Advertiser" and absorbed the "Canandaigua Freeman".As a Whig, he was New York State Surveyor General from 1838 to 1842.