Laws came into conflict with the Westminster trustees over matters of discipline, and at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 he was arrested and tried for treason after refusing to sign an oath of allegiance to the federal government.

He was removed from his position and jailed for three months in a St. Louis, Missouri prison, where he spent his time reading Aristotle.

Thus, as early as 1866, brokerage houses willing to pay the monthly fee could base trades on up-to-the-minute market information rather than waiting for runners to bring the news.

In June 1869, Laws hired a penniless would-be inventor named Thomas A. Edison as mechanical supervisor.

Following retirement from his teaching career, he lived in Richmond, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and finally Asheville, North Carolina where he died in 1921.