Congress

Steele was elected special judge of Ulster County in 1850 and in 1860 as a Democrat. He was then reelected to the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses serving from (March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1865).

He served on committees on the District of Columbia, Revolutionary Pensions and the Pacific Railroad. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1864 to the Thirty-ninth Congress.

Death

He was again a candidate for the nomination in 1866, but died on the eve of the primary, when he died in an accident in Rondout, near Kingston, New York, on September 24, 1866. While descending Hone Street, his horse was startled, crashing his carriage against an awning post, against which Steele was thrown before falling to the ground. He suffered a cracked skull, broken ribs and other internal injuries and died later that day. He was interred in Wiltwyck Cemetery, Kingston, New York.^[1]