[5] Working as a carpenter during the day and studying at night,[5] Woods purchased a small law library and was eventually admitted to the bar in 1858, setting up a private practice.

[3] He was nominated as a presidential elector in March 1864 and was active in the campaign to re-elect Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, gaining a following as an eloquent and effective orator and stump speaker.

[6] Woods won election over his Democratic opponent, prominent attorney James L. Kelly, in a heated and intense campaign, becoming the third Governor of the state of Oregon.

"...tall, graceful, and commanding, with a handsome, cheerful face, which is set off by a full, flowing beard and manifesting the utmost mental activity.... His manner of speaking is rapid, but distinct and impressive, never using long or high-sounding words or indulging in any extravagance or impropriety or metaphor.

He seems to depend on the natural forces of ideas rather than upon the sonorousness of words; and although never written, unless by some very swift reporter at the time of their delivery, his speeches would be considered well adapted to the most refined of lecture-rooms.... Perhaps no American orator is capable of a quicker or keener retort, but it is a cut from a rapier, rather than a stroke with a bludgeon.

Governor Woods gave a speech to the delegation extolling the virtues of American industry, with its ability to erect a city in a "howling wilderness.