"Wood was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1847). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1846 to the Thirtieth Congress. He served as president of the Young Men's Temperance Society in 1851. He also served as trustee of Union College, Williams College, and the Albany Law School, and was vice president of the Albany Medical College. Wood was one of the founders of the Republican Party in New York State in 1855, and ran for the New York Court of Appeals in November 1855 on the Republican ticket. He was also vice president of the American Home Missionary Society, and founded of the First Congregational Church in Albany. He served as United States Minister to Denmark from 1861 to 1865. He died in Albany, New York, September 26, 1889. He was interred in Albany Rural Cemetery, New York."