 He received limited schooling, was graduated from Pompey Academy, engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1834.He was one of the commissioners to build a railroad between Syracuse and Utica, and was postmaster of Pompey from 1840 to 1842.He was supervisor and city treasurer of Pompey and was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847.