	Scott was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1869, and in 1870 convened a Congressional Inquiry into the atrocities of the Ku Klux Klan, but was not a candidate for reelection in 1875. He served as Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Claims during the Forty-third Congress. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1875, and served as general counsel of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1875 to 1877 and general solicitor from 1877 to 1895.