 In 1839, he became president of the Boston Temperance Society, the first total abstinence association in that city, and in 1839 he advocated a continuous railway between Boston and the Mississippi River.In 1840 he retired from commercial life and went into academia.In 1842–1848 he lectured on political economy at Oberlin College, in 1853–1860 he was an examiner on political economy at Harvard, and in 1859–1869 lecturer on political economy at Amherst College.