 He was a delegate to the 1896 Republican National Convention and a member of the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission from 1901 until he resigned in 1907.He was elected April 27, 1907, as a Republican from Michigan's 5th congressional district to the Sixtieth Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Alden Smith.He was subsequently re-elected to the Sixty-first Congress, serving from March 17, 1908 to March 3, 1911.