[4] In New York, he worked as a prominent lawyer and in 1907 became a member of the law firm Cravath, Henderson and De Gersdorff.

[8][9][2] Cotton was a major policy adviser to Hoover and was appointed as the undersecretary of state on June 7, 1929 when the latter became president.

He served as the acting secretary of state, and succeeded in maintaining the dominant influence of the United States, when Henry Stimson went to assist as the chairman of the U.S. delegation to the London Naval Conference 1930.

[10][11] Cotton was admitted at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from an infection of the spinal cord where surgeons removed a tumor from his spine.

His abilities, his character, his devotion to the highest of purposes made him a great citizen.