 At this time he began his career as an important legal scholar.His "North Carolina Reports" (1806) and "A Manual of the Laws of North Carolina" (1808) were the first important compilations of the state's statutes.He produced equally important legal texts for Tennessee, including "A Revisal of All the Public Acts of the State of North Carolina and of the State of Tennessee" (1809), "Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace" (1810), and "The Statute Laws of the State of Tennessee" (1831), the latter completed after his death by Robert L. Cobbs.