 He was the prime organizer and first president of the Pioneer Association of Michigan Sovereign Consistory and he was also the organizer and first president of the Past Potentates, Moslem Temple.Moslem Temple, the social branch of high degrees of Masonry, was made an active organization during his services in 1887 and 1888, when he was its first active potentate.In 1894, Corliss ran as a Republican and defeated incumbent Democrat Levi T. Griffin to be elected as a United States Representative from Michigan's 1st congressional district to the Fifty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1895, until March 3, 1903.