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John Scott collection of letters
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John Scott (1824-1896), son of John and Agnes Scott, was an American lawyer and statesman from Pennsylvania. Born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he attended Marshall College (modern Franklin & Marshall College) and returned to Huntingdon where he practiced law from 1846 to 1869, serving as a prosecuting attorney from 1846 to 1849. A member of the Republican party, he served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1862 to 1868. In 1868, he ran successfully for the United States Senate, where he served until 1875. In 1870 he convened an inquiry into the atrocities of the Ku Klux Klan, and participated in the 1871-1872 Congressional investigation on the status of Reconstruction in former states of the Confederacy. He also served on the United States Senate Committee on Claims during the 43rd Congress from 1873 to 1875. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1875, and relocated to Pittsburgh where he served as general counsel of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1875 to 1877 and general solicitor from 1877 to 1895. He died in Philadelphia in 1896 and is buried at Woodlands Cemetery.
The John Scott collection consists of letters and telegrams written to John Scott, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1868 to 1875, by constituents, colleagues, and correspondents. The letters' subject matter is varied, reflecting the concerns and interests of numerous constituents and individuals concerning local affairs, favors, and Republican party politics during the Reconstruction Era. The collection is organized chronologically, and multiple items falling under the same date are organized alphabetically within that date. This organization recreates the approximate order in which Scott received these letters, and thus reconstructs "a month in the life" of the senator via his correspondence.
Due to the sundry topics broached by the letters there is no single subject concentration within the collection. Rather, it is a relatively concentrated snapshot of a senator's daily interaction with his correspondents. Several letters have Scott's reply in shorthand. The collection will be of interest to researchers studying the correspondence of U.S. politicians and the daily business of interacting with constituents during the Reconstruction Era.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Kevin Stuart Lee
- Finding Aid Date
- 2014 May 6
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for researchers to use.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.