Hugh Scott

This article is about the Pennsylvanian senator, for the U.S. Army Chief of Staff see Hugh L. Scott

Hugh Doggett Scott, Jr. (November 11, 1900 – July 21, 1994) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives (1941-1945, 1947-1959) and the U.S. Senate (1959-1977). As a Senator, he served as Senate Minority Leader from 1969 to 1977. He was also chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1948 to 1949.

Early life and education

The son of Hugh Doggett and Jane Lee (née Lewis) Scott,^[1] Hugh Doggett Scott, Jr. was born on an estate in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that was once owned by George Washington.^[2] His grandfather served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War under General John Hunt Morgan, and his great-grandmother was the niece of President Zachary Taylor.^[3] After attending public schools in Fredericksburg, he studied at Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, from where he graduated in 1919.^[4] He enrolled in the Student Reserve Officers Training Corps and the Students' Army Training Corps during World War I.^[4]

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.^[1] His interest in politics was established after frequently attending committee hearings in the Virginia House of Delegates.^[5]

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.^[3] Two years later, he married Marian Huntington Chase, to whom he remained married until her death in 1987; the couple had one daughter, Marian.^[2] Scott, who had become a regular worker for the Republican Party, was appointed assistant district attorney of Philadelphia in 1926.^[3] He served in that position until 1941, and claimed to have prosecuted more than 20,000 cases during his tenure.^[5] From 1938 to 1940, he served as a member of the Governor's Commission on Reform of the Magistrates System.^[4]

Congressional career

House

In 1940, after longtime Republican incumbent George P. Darrow decided to retire, Scott was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district.^[4] At the time, the district was based in Northwest Philadelphia.^[5] He defeated Democratic candidate Gilbert Cassidy by a margin of 3,362 votes.^[6] In 1942, he was re-elected to a second term after defeating Democrat Thomas Z. Minehart, a former city councilman and future state treasurer, receiving nearly 56% of the vote.^[7]

In 1944, Scott was narrowly defeated for re-election by Democrat Herbert J. McGlinchey, losing by 2,329 votes.^[8] He served in the U.S. Navy during the remainder of World War II, reaching the rank of commander.^[4] In 1946, following his military service, Scott successfully ran to reclaim his House seat; during the campaign, he spoke out against President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "betrayal at Yalta" and communists in Washington, D.C.^[5] He handily defeated McGlinchey by a margin of more than 23,000 votes.^[9] He was subsequently re-elected to five more terms.

During his tenure in the House, Scott established himself as a strong internationalist after voting in favor of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, foreign aid to Greece and Turkey, and the Marshall Plan.^[3] He also earned a reputation as a moderate to liberal Republican, supporting public housing, rent control, and the abolition of the poll tax and other civil rights legislation.^[3] From 1948 to 1949, he served as chairman of the Republican National Committee, a position he received after helping New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey obtain the Republican nomination in the 1948 presidential election.^[2] Facing staunch opposition from Ohio Senator Robert Taft, Scott barely survived a no-confidence ballot but nevertheless resigned as RNC chairman.^[5] He later served as campaign chairman for Dwight D. Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.^[5]

Senate

In 1958, after fellow Republican Edward Martin declined to run for re-election, Scott was elected to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania.^[4] He narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, Governor George M. Leader, by a margin of 51%-48%.^[10] Scott continued his progressive voting record in the Senate, opposing President Eisenhower's veto of a housing bill in 1959 and a redevelopment bill in 1960.^[11] He voted to end the Southern senators' filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, and later sponsored 12 bills to implement the recommendations of the Civil Rights Commission.^[11] A memorable quote from Hugh Scott came during the U-2 Incident in 1960, when Senator Scott said that "We have violated the eleventh Commandment — Thou Shall Not Get Caught."^[12]

In 1962, Scott threatened to run for Governor of Pennsylvania if the Republican Party did not nominate moderate Congressman William Scranton over the more conservative Judge Robert E. Woodside, a former state attorney general.^[11] He even supported Scranton as a more liberal alternative to the heavily conservative Senator Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election.^[3] Scott also faced re-election in 1964; he overcame the national landslide for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson to narrowly win by 70,000 votes.^[5] He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.^[11] He supported New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller for the Republican nomination in the 1968 presidential election.^[3]

Scott was reelected again in 1970, defeating Democratic state senator William Sesler by 51%-45%, and served until January 3, 1977. He was elected Senate Minority Whip in January 1969.^[4] Following the death of Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen in September of that year, Scott was narrowly elected Senate Minority Leader over Tennessee Senator Howard Baker (Dirksen's son-in-law), serving until 1977.^[13]

He was Chairman of the Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (92nd Congress). He wielded tremendous influence. He was one of the congressional leaders to meet Richard Nixon to tell him to resign following Watergate.

He did not run for reelection in 1976. The same year, he chaired the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Scott was a resident of Washington, D.C., and later, Falls Church, Virginia, until his death there on July 21, 1994. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Notes

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
  • Abstract: While their different public personas, political interests, and institutional duties led to occasional disagreement, President Richard Nixon and Senate Minority Leader Scott were not always unhappily tethered as evidenced by their stances on domestic and foreign issues throughout Nixon's presidency, during 1968–74. While he jousted with Nixon over racial policies and his Supreme Court nominations, including his choice of Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr., of South Carolina, Scott supported much of Nixon's domestic agenda, applauded the president's conduct of foreign affairs, backed his Vietnam policy, praised his invasion of Cambodia, publicly proclaimed Nixon's innocence during the 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.

External links

• Hugh Scott at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Political Graveyard
• Hugh Scott at Find a Grave