At the age of eighteen, he left his father's farm and after walking to Troy, he learned the trades of masonry and stonemasonry in Hoosic.

Self-taught, he studied and made himself a good engineer and draughtsman and became a large contractor for the construction of railroads and canals.

In April 1851, the rivalry was ended when he purchased their steamers on the Atlantic side and sold his new Pacific Line and its ships on the Panama City to San Francisco run.

Impressed by the returns from the short amount of line of William Henry Aspinwall's Panama Railway, he acquired a large interest in the project in 1852.

He went to the isthmus to examine the route and located the terminus at Aspinwall, where he began to build the railroad depot next to the steamship wharf.

The Spanish government refused entrance to any vessel with Purser Smith or Admiral David Porter aboard.

Law was recognized by some for his stand against government inactivity in the face of a threat to a U. S. citizen, and was nominated as the Native American Party or Know-Nothing candidate for President of the United States in February 1855 by the Pennsylvania Legislature, but Millard Fillmore, one of the U.S. Presidents whom Law had attacked, was chosen as that party's candidate for the 1856 Election.

She sank in a three-day and night hurricane carrying most of her passengers, gold bullion then valued at US$2,000,000 and Commander William Lewis Herndon down with her.