Born in Westport, Connecticut, Wood attended the common schools and in 1824 he graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New New York He was engaged in teaching delivering lectures on temperance and other topics, and later studied law with Robert Lansing and Harmanus Bleecker.
On May 29, 1827, Wood was made solicitor in the New York Court of Chancery. He became counselor in the New York Supreme Court in 1835 and in the United States Supreme Court in 1845. 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 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 New York
Republican Party, Democratic Party.
He served as member of the Albany County board of supervisors in 1844.
