[2] Afterward Spencer attended Yale College, where he was an editor of the student newspaper and participated in Lacrosse.

[3] Selden Spencer first held elected office in 1895 when he was voted a member of the Missouri House of Representatives.

In November, 1918 Spencer defeated former Governor Joseph W. Folk with 52-percent of the vote[5] to fill the remaining two years of Stone's term.

In 1920 Selden Spencer won reelection, first by defeating tennis star-turned-politician Dwight F. Davis in the Republican primary,[6] then Democrat Breckinridge Long by over 121,000 votes in the November general election.

Senator Spencer made numerous speeches against the treaty while campaigning for fellow Republicans in 1920 and 1922.

[2] Senator Selden P. Spencer died at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., on May 16, 1925, following complications from hernia surgery.