Private practice, Illinois, -1853
Editor, Virginia [Illinois] Observer, 1848-1849
Private practice, Mobile, Alabama, 1853-1855
Private practice, Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, 1855-1857
Owner/editor, The [Kansas] Territorial Register, 1857-
Chief clerk, Kansas Territorial House of Representatives, 1860-1861
Surveyor general of Kansas and Nebraska, 1861-1863
Impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, February 28, 1873; no trial following his resignation as a federal judge.