Hugh Scott | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| United States Senator fromPennsylvania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1977 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Edward Martin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John Heinz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chair of theRepublican National Committee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office June 27, 1948 – August 5, 1949 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | B. Carroll Reece | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Guy Gabrielson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1959 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Herbert J. McGlinchey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Herman Toll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | 7th district (1941–1945) 6th district (1947–1959) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1945 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | George P. Darrow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | James Wolfenden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1900-11-11)November 11, 1900 Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | July 21, 1994(1994-07-21) (aged 93) Falls Church, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Republican | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alma mater | Randolph–Macon College (BA) University of Virginia (LLB) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1917–1918 (Army) 1940–1946 (Navy) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Cadet (Army) Commander (Navy) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflict | World War I World War II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hugh Doggett Scott Jr. (November 11, 1900 – July 21, 1994) was an American politician. A member of theRepublican Party, he representedPennsylvania in theU.S. House of Representatives from 1941 to 1945 and from 1947 to 1959 and in theU.S. Senate, from 1959 to 1977. He served asSenate Minority Leader from 1969 to 1977.
Born and educated inVirginia, Scott moved toPhiladelphia to join his uncle's law firm. He was appointed as Philadelphia's assistant district attorney in 1926 and remained in that position until 1941. Scott won election to representNorthwest Philadelphia in the House of Representatives in 1940. He lost re-election in 1944 but won his seat back in 1946 and served in the House until 1959. Scott established a reputation as aninternationalist and moderate Republican Congressman. After helpingThomas E. Dewey win the 1948 Republican presidential nomination, Scott held the position of Chairman of theRepublican National Committee from 1948 to 1949. He also served asDwight Eisenhower's campaign chairman in the 1952 presidential election.
Scott won election to the Senate in 1958, narrowly prevailing over Democratic GovernorGeorge M. Leader. He was a strong advocate for civil rights legislation and voted in favor of theCivil Rights Acts of 1957,[1][2]1960,[3]1964,[4] and1968,[5] as well as the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and theVoting Rights Act of 1965,[6][7][8] and theconfirmation ofThurgood Marshall to theU.S. Supreme Court.[9] He won election as Senate Minority Whip in January 1969 and was elevated to Senate Minority Leader afterEverett Dirksen's death later that year. As the Republican leader in the Senate, Scott urged PresidentRichard Nixon to resign in the aftermath of theWatergate Scandal. Scott declined to seek another term in 1976 and retired in 1977.
The son of Hugh Doggett and Jane Lee (née Lewis) Scott,[10] Hugh Doggett Scott was born on an estate inFredericksburg,Virginia, that was once owned byGeorge Washington.[11] His grandfather served in theConfederate Army during theCivil War under GeneralJohn Hunt Morgan, and his great-grandmother was the niece ofPresidentZachary Taylor.[12] After attending public schools in Fredericksburg, he studied atRandolph–Macon College inAshland, Virginia, from which he graduated in 1919.[13] He enrolled in the StudentReserve Officers Training Corps and the Students' Army Training Corps duringWorld War I.[13]
In 1922, Scott earned his law degree from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law atCharlottesville, where he was a member of theJefferson Literary and Debating Society and theAlpha Chi Rho fraternity.[10] His interest in politics was established after he frequently attended committee hearings in theVirginia House of Delegates.[14]
Scott was admitted to the bar in 1922 and then moved toPhiladelphia,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 theRepublican Party, was appointed assistantdistrict 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]
In 1940, after longtime Republican incumbentGeorge P. Darrow decided to retire, Scott was elected to theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's 7th congressional district.[13] The district was then based inNorthwest Philadelphia.[14] He defeatedDemocratic candidateGilbert Cassidy by a margin of 3,362 votes.[15] In 1942, he was re-elected to a second term after defeating DemocratThomas Minehart, a former member of thePhiladelphia City Council and futurePennsylvania Treasurer; Scott received nearly 56% of the vote.[16]
In 1943, he became a member of the VirginiaSociety of the Cincinnati. In 1944 Scott spoke out fearlessly in the House of Representatives accusing President Roosevelt of having dishonestly manipulated the country into war by: a) moving the U.S. battleship fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor over the objection of Admiral Richardson (whom Roosevelt then fired) in order to give Japan a target it could reach; b) refusing to give Admiral Kimmel at Pearl Harbor (Richardson's replacement) enough PBY Catalina reconnaissance planes to scout the area around the Hawaiian Islands; and c) by withholding from Admiral Kimmel a message received by the U.S. government from the Australian government on the day before the Pearl Harbor attack that the Japanese fleet was steaming toward Pearl Harbor. In 1944, Scott was defeated for re-election by DemocratHerb McGlinchey, losing by only 2,329 votes.[17]
Scott joined theUnited States Navy Reserve in 1940. He served duringWorld War II, and was posted to bothIceland with theAtlantic Fleet and the USSNew Mexico with theUnited 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 ofcommander.[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 PresidentFranklin Roosevelt's "betrayal atYalta" andcommunists inWashington, DC.[14][18] He was reelected five times, and served until winning election to the U.S. Senate.
During his tenure in the House, Scott established himself as a stronginternationalist by voting in favor of foreign aid to bothGreece andTurkey and theMarshall Plan.[12] He also earned a reputation as amoderate Republican by supportingpublic housing,rent control, and the abolition of thepoll tax as well as other legislation sought by theCivil Rights Movement.[12] From 1948 to 1949,[19] he served as chairman of theRepublican National Committee; he received the position after helping New York GovernorThomas E. Dewey obtain the Republican nomination in the1948 presidential election.[11] Facing staunch opposition from Ohio SenatorRobert A. Taft, Scott barely survived a no-confidence ballot but still resigned as RNC chairman.[14] He later served as campaign chairman forDwight Eisenhower during the1952 presidential election.[14]
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In1958, after fellow RepublicanEdward Martin declined to run for re-election, Scott was elected to theUnited States Senate.[13] He narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, GovernorGeorge M. Leader, by a margin of 51% to 48%.[20] Scott continued his progressive voting record in the Senate by opposing President Eisenhower's veto of a housing bill in 1959 and a redevelopment bill in 1960.[21] He voted to end segregationist Democratic senators'filibuster of theCivil Rights Act of 1960, and he later sponsored 12 bills to implement the recommendations of theCivil Rights Commission.[21] A memorable quote from Scott came during theU-2 Incident in 1960, when he said, "We have violated the eleventh Commandment — Thou Shall Not Get Caught."[22] In April 1962, he joined SenatorKenneth Keating of New York in denouncing a UN resolution condemning Israeli retaliation against Syrian gun positions firing on Israeli fishermen on Lake Tiberias. They criticized the action as a form of evenhandedness that "looks like the palm of the hand for the Arabs and the back of the hand for the Israelis."[23]
In1962, Scott threatened to run forGovernor of Pennsylvania if the Republican Party did not nominate the moderate RepresentativeWilliam W. Scranton over the more conservative JudgeRobert E. Woodside, a formerPennsylvania Attorney General.[21] He even supported Scranton as a more liberal alternative to conservative SenatorBarry Goldwater for the Republican nomination in the1964 presidential election.[12] Scott also faced re-election in1964 and overcame the national landslide for Democratic PresidentLyndon Johnson to defeat the state Secretary of Internal Affairs, DemocratGenevieve Blatt, by approximately 70,000 votes.[14]
Scott voted for theCivil Rights Act of 1964, theVoting Rights Act of 1965, and theCivil Rights Act of 1968.[21] In 1966, along with two other Republican Senators and five Republican Representatives, Scott signed a telegram sent to Georgia GovernorCarl Sanders on the Georgia legislature's refusal to seat the recently electedJulian 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."[24]
Scott supported New York GovernorNelson Rockefeller for the Republican nomination in the1968 presidential election.[12] Scott was re-elected in1970, defeating DemocraticState SenatorWilliam Sesler by a margin of 51% to 45%. Scott served until January 3, 1977, and was electedSenate Minority Whip in January 1969.[13] On September 5 of that year, Scott was designated as acting minority leader to fill in for the ailing incumbent,Everett Dirksen, who died two days later.[25] On September 24, Scott was narrowly electedSenate Minority Leader over Tennessee SenatorHoward Baker (Dirksen's son-in-law), serving until 1977.[26][27]
In 1967, Scott held a Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, where he contributed regularly toAlan 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."[28]
Scott was Chairman of the Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (92nd Congress). He wielded tremendous influence.[citation needed]
Scott was displeased with theRichard Nixon administration and believed that it was aloof, unapproachable, and contemptuous of him.[29] Scott believed that he would be given a major role in setting administration policy but was disappointed when that did not occur.[29] Actively assisting in the behind-the-scenes transition from the Nixon administration to theFord administration in the months leading up to the resignation of PresidentRichard Nixon, Scott sought assurance fromGerald Ford that Scott would be able to address Ford as "Jerry" even after Ford became president.[29]
Scott was one of the three Republican leaders in Congress to meet Nixon in theOval Office of theWhite 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 announcehis resignation from the presidency. The delegation was led by senior party leader and Arizona Senator Goldwater and also includedHouse Minority LeaderJohn Jacob Rhodes (R-Arizona). The erosion of Nixon's support had progressed after the June 1972Watergate break-in.[30] 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.[31]
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.[32]
He did not run for re-election in1976 and was succeeded by RepublicanJohn Heinz. The same year, he chaired the Pennsylvania delegation to theRepublican National Convention.
Scott was a resident ofWashington, D.C., and thenFalls Church, Virginia, until his death there in 1994. He is buried atArlington National Cemetery. His papers are held at theAlbert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at theUniversity of Virginia.
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