Serving as chairman of the Committee on Finance during the 2nd session of the 17th Congress.

In 1836 he moved to New York City and went to work with the Missionary Board of the Presbyterian Church.

Three of his sons, John Cameron, Walter Macon, and Reuben, were prominent as missionaries to India and China.

A nephew, Walter H. Lowrie, later served as chief justice of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.

Lowrie died in New York City on December 14, 1868, and is interred in the First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.