From May 1817 to April 1819, he edited the American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review in New York with Horatio Bigelow.
From July 1823 to 1826, and from 1827 to 1831, he edited the Troy Sentinel where he published in December 1823 anonymously a poem now better known as The Night Before Christmas but to which he gave the title Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.
In 1836 he edited the Western Repository and Genesee Advertiser and absorbed the Canandaigua Freeman.
He was elected in 1838 by joint ballot of the State Legislature defeating the incumbent William Campbell.
In 1841, he was re-elected to another term of three years, but in 1842 all state officers were removed by the new Democratic majority.