Representative Scott Lord

Scott Lord (December 11, 1820 – September 10, 1885) was an American lawyer, jurist, and Democratic politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from New York from 1875 to 1877. His congressional service took place during a significant period in American history, in the decade following the Civil War and during the later years of Reconstruction, when he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his New York constituents.

Lord was born in Nelson, Madison County, New York, on December 11, 1820. He attended the common schools and continued his education at local academies in Morrisville and Geneseo, New York. After completing his preparatory studies, he read law, following the customary path of legal apprenticeship of the period rather than attending a formal law school.

In 1842 Lord was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Mount Morris, New York. His legal abilities and growing reputation led him to relocate in 1847 to Geneseo, the county seat of Livingston County, where professional opportunities were greater. That same year he began a significant judicial career when he was appointed or elected judge of Livingston County, a position he held from 1847 to 1856. After nearly a decade on the bench, he left the judiciary and resumed the private practice of law, continuing to build his standing in the legal community.

Lord’s professional trajectory later took him to central New York. In 1872 he moved to Utica, New York, where he continued the practice of his profession. By this time he was an established lawyer with both judicial and trial experience, which helped position him for national office. A member of the Democratic Party, he became active in politics and was selected as a candidate for Congress.

Lord was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Congress and served as a Representative from New York from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877. During his single term in the U.S. House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process at a time of intense national debate over Reconstruction, federal corruption scandals, and the contested presidential election of 1876. He was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1876 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against William W. Belknap, the former Secretary of War, a high-profile case arising from allegations of corruption in the War Department. Notably, Lord is recognized as the first member of Congress to have the first name “Scott.” In the 1876 election he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Forty-fifth Congress. That same election year, two Oneida people, asserting what they considered their right to suffrage, cast ballots for Lord; they were later arrested and their votes were ruled invalid, an incident reflecting contemporary disputes over Native American voting rights.

After leaving Congress, Lord moved to New York City in 1877 and again engaged in the practice of law. He took part in prominent litigation, most notably representing some of the children of Cornelius Vanderbilt in an unsuccessful 1877 effort to invalidate Vanderbilt’s will, a widely watched case involving one of the nation’s leading fortunes. Lord continued his legal work in New York City in the years following his congressional service.

Scott Lord died in Morris Plains, New Jersey, on September 10, 1885. He was interred in Temple Hill Cemetery in Geneseo, New York, returning in death to the region where he had received part of his education, built his early legal career, and served as a county judge.