Temple was elected as a Progressive to the Sixty-third Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to succeed himself in 1914. However, he was soon after elected to the seat as a Republican in the special election to the Sixty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative-electWilliam Brown (who had defeated him in the 1914 general election). He was reelected to the Sixty-fifth and to the seven succeeding Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932. He worked as professor of international relations in Washington and Jefferson College from 1933 until his retirement in 1947. He died in Washington, Pennsylvania, and is buried in Washington Cemetery.