o nominated
for President of the Constitutional Convention in the Republican caucus,
and, as was very natural, was often called upon by Mr. Goldsborough to
preside over the Convention in his absence, which he did with that
_suaviter in modo_ and _fortiter in re_ for which he was remarkable and
with great acceptability to the members of both political parties.

During the invasion of the State in July, 1864, he was one of the most
active members in urging upon the loyalists of Annapolis and the
military authorities in that city and at Camp Parole the necessity of
defending the Capital of the State. He held the handles of the plow with
which the first furrow that marked the line of the fortifications around
the city was made. It may not be out of place to say that the editor of
this book, in company with Mr. Scott, walked along the line of the ditch
the morning before, and that the former walked ahead of the team
attached to the plow so that the person who led the team might know
where to go.

Mr. Scott was also one of about a dozen members who remained in
Annapolis for about two weeks, during much of which time the arrival of
the rebel raiders was hourly expected, and kept the Convention alive by
adjourning from day to day, without which, by the rules adopted for the
government of the Convention, it could not have maintained a legal
existence.

He was appointed School Commissioner in 1882, which office he filled
with great acceptability to the public until incapacitated by the
disease which terminated his life.

Mr. Scott, though one of the most amiable of men, was fond of argument
when properly conducted, and from the time he was twenty years of age
until nearly the close of his life was always ready to participate in a
debate if he could find any person to oppose him; and thought it no
hardship to walk any where within a radius of four or five miles, in the
coldest weather, in order to attend a debating society. He was possessed
of a large and varied stock of information and a very retentive memory,
which enabled him to quote correctly nearly everything of importance
with which he had ever been familiar. His ability in this direction,
coupled with a keen sense of the ridiculous and satirical, rendered him
an opponent with whom few debaters were able to successfully contend.
But it was as a companion, a friend and a poet that he was best known
among the people of his neighborhood, to which his genial character and