The laboring oar was left almost exclusively to me.

In the session of 1791-1792, I was put on thirty-five committees, prepared all their reports, and drew all their bills.

Absorbed by those details, my attention was turned exclusively to administrative laws, and not to legislation properly so called....

I failed, though the bill I had introduced passed the House, in my efforts to lay the foundation for a better system of education.

Primary education was almost universal in Pennsylvania, but very bad, and the bulk of schoolmasters incompetent, miserably paid, and held in no consideration.