 After the war Edwards settled at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and was appointed by President Johnson as Assessor of Internal Revenue and served from August 15, 1866 to May 31, 1869.He was presented credentials of election as a Liberal Republican to the Forty-second Congress and served from March 4, 1871, to February 9, 1872, when he was succeeded by Thomas Boles, who contested the election.Not a candidate for renomination, he settled in Washington, D.C..

Edwards died in Washington, D.C., on April 8, 1894.