He attended the common schools and Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, for two years.

Wait was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry H. Starkweather.

He was reelected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from April 12, 1876, to March 3, 1887.

He died in Norwich, Connecticut, April 21, 1899, and was interred in Yantic Cemetery.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress