Griffin was elected as a Republican to the Thirteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Smilie. He was reelected to the Fourteenth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1816 to the Fifteenth Congress. He died from the effects of a fall from a wagon, on his estate in Nicholson Township, Pennsylvania, on October 12, 1827. Interment on what was known as the old Woods farm in Nicholson Township.
