He was mustered out July 3, 1865, when the regiment returned to Madison from Kentucky and was discharged.
He was elected to the assembly for 1879 from the 2nd Waupaca County district (the towns of Bear Creek, Dupont, Helvetia, Iola, Larrabee, Lebanon, Little Wolf, Matteson, Mukwa, Scandinavia, St. Lawrence and Union, and the first and second wards of New London), receiving 943 votes against 783 for Republican L. D. Moses (Republican incumbent Francis Guernsey was not a candidate).
Scanlon was assigned to the standing committee on town and county organization.
[2] He ran for re-election for 1880, and was defeated by Republican Nels Anderson, who drew 962 votes to 419 for Democratic former State Representative Michael Gorman and 345 for Scanlon.
[3] He returned to farming in Symco, but spent some time as a messenger for the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin office in Madison.