 He was instructed in elementary subjects by a private teacher and subsequently graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.Following law studies, he was admitted to the bar in 1846, at the age of thirty and, over the following decades, practiced law in the Mercer County seat, Mercer.At the age of fifty-six, he campaigned as a Democrat to represent his congressional district and was elected to the 42nd United States Congress in November 1870.