Instead he traveled Europe for two years, gaining great knowledge in music and singing, and developing interests in parks and playgrounds.

He assisted developing the Prison Discipline Society, becoming its treasurer and president to reduce the miserable conditions found in the houses of correction.

He was elected as a Whig to the 31st United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert C. Winthrop, and served from August 22, 1850, to March 3, 1851; he declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1850.

On June 13, 1826, he married Mary Lyman the daughter of Theodore Lyman (1753-1839) born in York Maine, and his second wife Lydia Pickering Williams of Salem Massachusetts, the daughter of George Williams and niece of Colonel Timothy Pickering, the third United States Secretary of State under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.

The marriage produced four daughters and two sons, including Charles William Eliot, a future president of Harvard University.