Robert Kingston Scott

Background

Robert Kingston was born on July 8, 1826 in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Jane (Hamilton) and John Scott, a farmer.

Education

In 1842 the boy went to Stark County, Ohio, to seek educational advantages. Scott studied medicine.

Career

In 1850 Robert Kingston Scott went to California, where, for brief periods, he engaged in mining and the practice of his profession. After visiting Mexico and South America he settled in Florida, Henry County, Ohio, probably in 1851, to practise medicine.

Aid in the suppression of a cholera epidemic soon gave him considerable local prestige. Profitable investments in real estate enabled him to withdraw gradually from medicine and to engage in merchandising.

On the outbreak of the Civil War, Governor Dennison appointed him a major with instructions to organize the 68th Ohio Infantry. In July 1862 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. He received honorable mention for gallantry in action and commanded a brigade in Sherman's march to the sea. On January 12, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general and at the end of the war was brevetted a major-general.

Returning to Ohio after the war, he was recalled into active service almost immediately and made chief of the South Carolina branch of the Freedmen's Bureau with the title of assistant commissioner. He served in that capacity until July 1868.

Popularity engendered by his services as the chief dispenser of the charity of the federal government led to his nomination, in March 1868, for governor by the newly formed Union Republican party of South Carolina. He was easily elected. In 1870 he was reelected by a large majority over Robert B. Carpenter, the candidate of an attempted coalition between Democrats and Republican reformers.

He was a governor from July 1868 to November 1872. When an attempt was made to impeach him, he stopped the proceedings by bribing the legislature with public funds. He was a leader in conspiracies to defraud the state of money by manipulating printing contracts and the stocks of the Blue Ridge Railroad. Provoking the formation of bands of the Ku-Klux Klan by the unscrupulous tactics through which he obtained reelection, he professed inability to suppress these organizations and called in the aid of Federal troops.

After a half-hearted resistance to the corrupt officials who surrounded him, he conveniently succumbed to their suggestions and personally profited from their acts. On the expiration of his term of office he retired from politics and settled in Columbia as a real estate agent.

He declared the experiment of Negro suffrage a mistake and in 1876 supported the state Democratic ticket; but on the return of the Democrats to power in 1877 he prudently left South Carolina in the face of possible prosecution and returned to Henry County, Ohio. There he engaged in the real estate development for the rest of his life.

On Christmas Day 1880 he killed Walter G. Drury, a young drug clerk, whom he believed responsible for making his young son drunk. On a plea of accidental homicide he was acquitted of the charges that grew out of this act. He died in Henry County.

Achievements

• Robert Kingston Scott was the 74th Governor of South Carolina, the first governor to be elected to two consecutive terms. Scott was largely responsible for the scandals and disorders that characterized the introduction of Republican rule in South Carolina. One of the most notable acts of his state legislature was voting itself a full time saloon and restaurant at taxpayer expense. His policies led to the increase of the public debt to thrice the amount it had been when he assumed office, and he concealed this fact from responsible investigators.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Message Of Robert K. Scott, Governor Of South Carolina: With Accompanying Documents Submitted To The General Assembly Of South Carolina (1869)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• According to E. P. Mitchell, he was "subject alike to alcoholic and female allurements, and on one occasion the state officials paid an actress to induce the drunken governor to sign an issue of bonds".

Connections

Scott was married to Rebecca J. Lowry and had two children.

Father:

John Scott

Mother:

Jane (Hamilton) Scott

Spouse:

Rebecca J. Lowry

References

• History of Henry and Fulton Counties: Ohio
• Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)