Barlow was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twentieth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1828 to the Twenty-first Congress. He resumed the practice of his profession and served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1829 to 1831. He was appointed as an associate judge of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, in January 1831 and served until his death in Meadville in 1845. Interment in Greendale Cemetery.