Hugh Scott

Hugh Doggett Scott Jr. (November 11, 1900 – July 21, 1994) was an American politician. A member of the

In 1922, Scott earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law at Charlottesville, where he was a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society and the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity.^[10] His interest in politics was established after he frequently attended committee hearings in the Virginia House of Delegates.^[14]

Early political career

Scott was admitted to the bar in 1922 and then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he joined his uncle's law firm.^[12] Two years later, he married Marian Huntington Chase to whom he remained married until her death in 1987. The couple had one daughter, Marian.^[11]

Scott, who had become a regular worker for the Republican Party, was appointed assistant district attorney of Philadelphia in 1926^[12] and served in that position until 1941. He claimed to have prosecuted more than 20,000 cases during his tenure.^[14] From 1938 to 1940, he served as a member of the Governor's Commission on Reform of the Magistrates System.^[13]

United States House of Representatives

In 1940, after longtime Republican incumbent

In 1943, he became a member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati. In 1944, Scott was defeated for re-election by Democrat Herb McGlinchey, losing by only 2,329 votes.^[17]

Scott joined the United States Navy Reserve in 1940. He served during World War II, and was posted to both Iceland with the Atlantic Fleet and the USS New Mexico with the United States Pacific Fleet. He was among US forces that entered Japan on the first day of post-war occupation, and was discharged with the rank of commander.^[13]

In 1946, Scott reclaimed his House seat, handily defeating McGlinchey by a margin of more than 23,000 vote by speaking out against both President

In

Scott voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.^[21] In 1966, along with two other Republican Senators and five Republican Representatives, Scott signed a telegram sent to Georgia Governor Carl Sanders on the Georgia legislature's refusal to seat the recently elected Julian Bond in its state House of Representatives. The refusal, said the telegram, was "a dangerous attack on representative government. None of us agree with Mr. Bond's views on the Vietnam War; in fact we strongly repudiate these views. But unless otherwise determined by a court of law, which the Georgia Legislature is not, he is entitled to express them."^[23]

Scott supported New York Governor

In 1967, Scott held a Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, where he contributed regularly to Alan Montefiore's politics seminar for postgraduates. Once, when he and Montefiore started talking at the same time, Scott carried on speaking with the amiable excuse: "You can remember what you want to say longer than I can."^[27]

Scott was Chairman of the Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (92nd Congress). He wielded tremendous influence.^{[citation needed]}

Scott was displeased with the

Scott was one of the three Republican leaders in Congress to meet Nixon in the Oval Office of the White House to tell Nixon that he had lost support of the party in Congress, on August 7, 1974. The meeting came the day before Nixon would announce his resignation from the presidency. The delegation was led by senior party leader and Arizona Senator Goldwater and also included House Minority Leader John Jacob Rhodes (R-Arizona). The erosion of Nixon's support had progressed after the June 1972 Watergate break-in.^[29] At that meeting, Scott and Goldwater told Nixon that, at most, 15 Senators were willing to consider voting to acquit him–not even half of the 34 votes Nixon needed to avoid conviction and removal from office.^[30]

In 1976, the Senate undertook an ethics inquiry into accusations that he had received payment from lobbyists for the Gulf Oil Corporation. Scott acknowledged having received $45,000 but claimed that they were legal campaign contributions.^[31]

He did not run for re-election in

Scott was a resident of Washington, D.C., and then Falls Church, Virginia, until his death there in 1994. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His papers are held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.

References

• Kotlowski, Dean J. "Unhappily Yoked? Hugh Scott and Richard Nixon." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2001 125(3): 233–266. ISSN 0031-4587 online^{[permanent dead link]}
  • Abstract: While their different public personas, political interests, and institutional duties led to occasional disagreement, President
    Watergate scandal, and endorsed President Gerald Ford
    's pardon of his predecessor. The Nixon-Scott relationship is notable because it confirms scholars' assumptions about Nixon's hot-and-cold association with Congress and indicates that sparring between moderate Republicans like Nixon and Scott was on its way out.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hugh Scott.

• United States Congress. "Hugh Scott (id: S000174)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The Political Graveyard
• Arlington National Cemetery
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Rep. Hugh D. Scott Jr.(September 1, 1952)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Rep. Hugh D. Scott Jr. (December 14, 1951)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
• Appearances on C-SPAN