ower, and great natural
ability. He gained much influence with the people of the county by his
homely skill as a traveling preacher, going about distributing tracts,
and preaching wherever he could gather an audience. He was an aggressive
supporter of the political views and administrative policies of Thomas
Jefferson, and violently antagonized the Federalists of the county, who
were under the leadership of Judge Cooper. This opposition culminated
during the administration of President Adams in 1798, when Peck was
arrested under the Alien and Sedition Act for circulating petitions
against that Act. He was indicted and taken to New York in irons, but
was never brought to trial, and upon the repeal of the Act was
discharged. Peck's arrest and imprisonment fastened attention upon him,
and, together with his continued denunciation of the federal
administration, made him the recognized leader of the Republican
(Jeffersonian) party of Otsego county, so that he dictated its policy
and nominations for many years thereafter. Indeed, the overthrow of the
Federal party in this State, with the consequent success of Jefferson in
the presidential canvass, is attributed to the excitement and
indignation aroused by the spectacle of this little dried up man,
one-eyed but kindly in expression and venerable, a veteran of the
Revolutionary War, being transported through the State in the custody of
federal officials, and manacled, the latter an unnecessary and
outrageous indignity.

Jedediah Peck was a member of Assembly from 1798 to 1804, and State
Senator until 1808. Although looked up to by multitudes as the political
leader of his time, Peck was noted at Albany for his shabbiness of
dress. He wore coarse boots, which he never blackened. On one occasion,
on the eve of an important debate, some wag at the tavern blackened one
of Peck's boots. Peck, in dressing for the fray, did not recognize the
shining boot, and having put on one began to search high and low for the
other. At last, enlightened by the laughter of his comrades, he drew on
the polished boot, and with his feet thus ill-matched strode into the
Assembly chamber, where he delivered one of his most powerful speeches.

For many years Jedediah Peck unsuccessfully urged a bill for the
abolition of imprisonment for debt, which was later adopted. His most
permanent and valuable contribution to the welfare of posterity was the
scheme for the common school system of the State, which h