Political Career
In 1841 Sage was elected as alderman in Troy. He was re-elected to this office until 1848, while also serving for seven years as treasurer of Rensselaer County. He was elected as to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Whig, and served, with re-election, from 4 March 1853 until 3 March 1857. He served on the Ways and Means Committee. Sage was the first person to advocate in Congress for the purchase of George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, by the government.
Subsequently, Sage settled in New York City, and engaged in the business of selling puts and calls and privileges on Wall Street.
In 1869, Sage was involved in a legal case concerning the usury laws in New York state, in which he was accused of being the leader of a usury group. He was convicted and fined $500, but his jail sentence was suspended. That year he remarried, to Olivia Slocum of Syracuse, New York.
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“He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)