[5] During this time, he was guided and assisted by Reverend Doctor Barclay, rector of Trinity Church.

[7] He read law, was admitted to the bar and moved to Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York.

[9] Towards the start of the American Revolutionary War, Benson approved the course of the Sons of Liberty and gave up, in a measure, his professional prospects then brightly opening and devoted himself to his country.

[5] He aided the Sons of Liberty, who were in Dutchess County where Benson, as a part of his first efforts, gave proper directions to the political meetings.

[5] When the British occupied New York City in 1776, Benson remained in Dutchess County for several years.

[citation needed] From 1777 to 1781, Benson served as a member of the New York State Assembly and drafted every important bill passed there in during the Revolution.

[10] The county made him the president of their committee of safety and in 1777 sent him to the revolutionary New York State Assembly.

[citation needed] When the first state government was organized, Benson was appointed the first New York attorney general and served until 1788.

[11] He was the author of several books, including Vindication of the Captors of Major Andre, defending the three American Patriots who captured the spy Major John André, which led to the discovery of the plot to surrender West Point to the British by Benedict Arnold.

[10] Benson also wrote and published in the New York American a series of able and highly interesting articles, in condemnation of what he regarded as the absurd and anti-Christian practice of calling the first day of the week the Sabbath.

[14] According to manuscripts and notes found in the Arthur D. Benson manuscript collection at Queens Library, Benson's name was engraved on a bronze tablet on the Butterick Building on 6th Avenue and Spring Street in New York City; this tablet was placed there by the Greenwich Village Historical Society.