He was mayor of Woonsocket from 1894 to 1895, and declined renomination. From 1897 to 1898 he served as Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, during the first year that Elisha Dyer, Jr. was governor. After his term as lieutenant governor, he retired from public office, but returned as a member of the Rhode Island Board of Education in 1907. Governor Dyer appointed him to the 1900 Paris Exhibition.