Visiting Richmond every winter, he gradually extended the circle of his acquaintance, and increased his personal influence; he also occasionally passed a few weeks at Philadelphia.

Two visits to Maine are recorded in his diary, but whether they were of pleasure merely does not appear.

One was in 1788, in midwinter, by stage and sleigh.

On this excursion he descended the Androscoggin and crossed Merrymeeting Bay on the ice, returning by the same route in a snowstorm, which concealed the banks on either side of the river, so that he governed his course by the direction of the wind.

With the intellect of a prime minister he had the constitution of a pioneer.