included his Springvale Farm and Morristown. In 1874, McFarland ran on the Democratic ticket against four-term Republican incumbent Roderick R. Butler for the 1st district congressional seat. While Republicans generally controlled the district, Butler was caught up in a scandal over the selling of cadetships at U.S. military academies, which may have led to low turnout that year among Republican voters. On election day, McFarland defeated Butler, 8,783 votes to 6,995. During his lone term in Congress, McFarland sought to limit federal prosecutions for illegal whiskey distilling in East Tennessee, which many of his constituents felt had gotten out of control. He also introduced legislation that would allow farmers to sell the first $100 of their annual tobacco crop tax-free, and sought appropriations for improvements to the Tennessee River and its tributaries. He favored the use of silver as legal tender. Running for reelection in 1876, McFarland was ruthlessly assailed for his affiliation with the Democratic Party, with his opponents suggesting he was conspiring with former Confederates and Southern Democrats to destroy the federal government and reopen the slave trade. He defended himself by pointing out he had remained loyal to the Union throughout the war, and had supported virtually every measure regarding pensions and other aid for former Union soldiers and their families. Nevertheless, with Republicans no longer boycotting the vote, he stood little chance of winning a second term. On election day, he was defeated by the Republican candidate, James H. Randolph, 12,349 votes to 11,215. Later life McFarland was again considered for the Democratic nomination for the 1st district seat in 1878, but was outpolled at the district convention that year by rising politician Robert Love Taylor (Taylor would become the last Democrat to hold the 1st district seat). While McFarland campaigned for presidential candidates Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880 and Grover Cleveland in 1884, he mostly turned his attention to local politics. He was elected to Morristown's Board of Aldermen in 1880, and was reelected in 1881, winning more votes than any of the other fourteen candidates in this second election. In 1882, McFarland was elected mayor, defeating Major W.D. Gammon for the office after the incumbent, A.H. Gregg, declined to seek reelection. He served as mayor until 1885. McFarland died in Morristown on April 12, 1900 (age 78 years, 194 days), and was interred at City Cemetery. He was later reinterred at Emma Jarnagin Cemetery