 Culbreth was elected from the sixth district of Maryland as a Democratic-Republican to the Fifteenth Congress and reelected to the Sixteenth Congress, serving in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1817 to March 3, 1821.After two terms in office, he declined to run for re-election.He was appointed chief judge of the Caroline County orphans’ court in 1822 and was clerk of the executive council of Maryland from 1825 to 1838.