Stewart was born in Newark, New Jersey, on January 10, 1867, where he attended the public schools.

He graduated from Yale College in 1890, where he was a member of Skull and Bones,[1]: 15  and from Columbia Law School in 1893.

He was chairman of the Union County Democratic committee in 1914 and of the Washington Rock Park Commission of New Jersey from 1915 to 1921.

Stewart was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ernest R. Ackerman and served from December 1, 1931, to March 3, 1933.

He died in Plainfield on June 30, 1951, and was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.