He cultivated an interest in beauty, art, and literature, and he possessed one of the finest law libraries in the U.S., which, upon his death, he gave to Hamilton College.

In 1857, he was appointed by the legislature a commissioner with Alexander W. Bradford and David Dudley Field to codify the laws of the state, and he was engaged in this work up to the time of his death.

In 1861 the legislature appointed him a commissioner to the conference, where he steadily labored to preserve the integrity of the republic, and at the same time maintain the honor of the loyal states.

His masterly analysis of moral insanity on the trial of Huntington, his argument in the court of appeals in the New Haven railroad case, his elaborate speech in the suit of the Delaware and Hudson Canal company vs.

His talents were always enlisted on the side of the people among whom he lived, and more than once fraudulent judgments against the city were vacated through his clear demonstration of their fallacy.