He was earnest for the protection of the frontier, but had no good opinion of the Indians.

"Twelve years had passed," he said, "since the peace of 1783; ever since that time he had lived on the frontier of Pennsylvania.
Not a year of this period had passed, whether at war or peace, that some murders had not been committed by the Indians, and yet not an act of invasion or provocation by the inhabitants." In the matter of impressment of American seamen, he urged the lodging of sufficient power in the executive.

Men had been impressed, and he held it to be the duty of the House to take notice of it by war or negotiation.

In the establishment of land offices for the sale of the western lands he brought to bear upon legislation his practical experience.

He urged that the tracts for sale be divided, and distinctions be made between large purchasers and actual settlers--proposing that the large tracts be sold at the seat of government, and the small on the territory itself.
He instanced the fact that in 1792 all the land west of the Ohio was disposed of at 1_s_.6_d_.the acre, and a week afterwards was resold at $1.50, so that the money which should have gone into the treasury went to the pockets of speculators.