Shreve was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-third Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1914. He resumed the practice of law in Erie, and also engaged in banking and interested in several manufacturing plants. He was again elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth Congress; reelected as an Independent Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress and as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth through Seventy-second Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932. He resumed the practice of law in Erie until his death there. He was buried in Erie Cemetery.