He was then elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat to fill the vacancy created by the death of Peter E. Bossier.
He was reelected to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses and served from December 2, 1844, to March 3, 1851.
He was the chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims during the Thirty-first Congress.
In 1850, he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, defeated by John Moore (Whig).
He was appointed by President Franklin Pierce on December 2, 1856, as one of two special commissioners to New Granada to negotiate concerning the transit of citizens, officers, soldiers, and seamen of the United States across the Isthmus of Panama.