Zain Rahman

Profile in Courage: Essay Contest

September 11, 2020

Margaret Chase Smith: The Conscious Senator

Joseph McCarthy glared at the Senator from Maine, in the condescending way that men
looked at women who dared to be of equal stature and stated, "Margaret, you look very serious.
Are you going to make a speech?" His tone echoed the disdain he wore on his face, as though he
sought to belittle Senator Smith who replied strongly, "Yes, and you will not like it!" Smith, to
the surprise of the senate, stood up and took the floor ​(US Senate)​.

The year was 1950, a deep fog of paranoia and suspicion gripped Congress. The Soviets
successfully tested the A-Bomb, Communist spies infested the government, and the Communists
had unified China once and for all. The threat of Communist subversion had become a
significant issue, as Americans were encouraged to rat out suspicious neighbors and keep an eye
on any who did not conform to American ideals. A staunch anti-communist, Smith initially
openly supported and condoned the actions of McCarthy. However, over time, Smith realized
that McCarthy based his claims on flimsy evidence and was perpetuating a witch-hunt
throughout the government (​Watson)​.

As Smith began to realize McCarthy’s folly, she quickly set to work writing and
preparing a speech decrying McCarthy. Over a few weeks, she rallied six other senators who also
disliked McCarthy’s tactics and prepared a speech that would shake Congress to its core. This
speech included a list of grievances, dubbed the “Declaration of Conscience.” To enhance her
speech, she prepared a short soliloquy on the destructiveness that the Red Scare had had on the
American Government (​Lerner)​. On June 1, 1950 she delivered her speech to Congress.

On the Senate floor, Smith spoke forcefully, with McCarthy sitting immediately behind
her. She spoke on the fear and frustration that permeated the Senate, and the ruin that the
government was headed towards as McCarthyism intensified. Her tone reverberated a message
of frustration. Quoting the four horsemen of calumny— “fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear”,
she decried the demagoguery of the Senate as a disrespectful way for Republicans to win in the
government (​O’Brien)​. Her tone quickly shifted from one of anger to one of passionate defense
as she noted the importance of American rights, decrying McCarthyism as a fake and deplorable
defense of American values. Her passionate tone mellowed and gave way to a list of grievances,
coining the term "Declaration of Conscience ​(US Senate)​." Smith expected McCarthy to rise in
anger. However, he remained seated, the New York Times noting, "white and silent, hardly three
feet behind her ​(Watson)​." He walked out of the room, obviously flustered. Smith accepted
congratulations from a few senators, then work resumed on the floor. Reminiscing on her
congressional career, Smith remarked that this was her greatest moment (​Lerner)​. Against a
backdrop of rampant sexism, a witch-hunt against communism, and opposition to the zeitgeist of
her party, Margaret Chase Smith delivered a seething attack on McCarthyism, decrying the
practice at the height of its reach.

​ ennedy writes about the struggles of the "man of conscience."

In ​Profiles of Courage, K
He remarks, "He cannot ignore the pressure groups, his constituents, his party… he must judge
for himself which path he will choose, which steps will help or hinder the ideals he is committed
to (​Kennedy p.9) ​." Smith understood the risks she was taking, yet still decided to fight against
what she saw as our democracy's decay. Smith staked her political future and reputation on this
speech, knowing that she was fighting the good fight. Her courage perfectly embodies the spirit
of political independence our country builds upon daily. Margaret Chase Smith understood the
perils of fixed thought and sought to overcome this with rational and critical thinking, a hallmark
of her career, and a lesson that independent thinking leads to healthier and well-informed
nations.

The initial response to her speech was polarizing, eliciting both glowing praise and
scalding criticism. However, she received immense praise from the Times and Washington Post
(​Crouse)​, with famous financier Bernard Baruch saying, "If a man had made the Declaration of
Conscience, he would be the next president of the United States (​Watson)​." On the other hand, a
collection of conservative newspapers lambasted her, responding to her perceived passiveness to
the communist threat with sexist remarks. One included, "I have long held..that women do not
belong in public life—that there are only two places for them, in the kitchen and the bedroom
(​Crouse)​." With praise and condemnation alike from the public sphere, the Senate echoed a
much different tone about the Senator.

Smith paid an enormous political price for her actions; all of the senators who supported
her quickly took back their words, leaving Smith alone to fight McCarthy. She was removed
from the Senate Judiciary Committee by McCarthy as revenge for her vocal opposition
(​Watson)​. With the Korean War, McCarthy rose higher and higher while Smith fell into
obscurity. Parallel to that, Republicans distanced themselves from Smith, realizing that she had
committed political suicide. Prior to her speech, Smith was a contender for the Vice-Presidential
nomination, but her campaign quickly fizzled after backlash from the Republican establishment
(​O’Brien)​.

Despite all this, she stood with her values. She continually stood against McCarthy and
unleashed scathing attacks on him again and again. While she continued her rhetoric, she fell
more and more into oblivion as the Korean War and the Red Scare reached its height. Her words
fell upon deaf ears, and most people forgot her original speech decrying McCarthy. The only
person who did not forget was McCarthy himself.

As a female Senator, giving a forceful speech in an age of timidity separated Margaret

Chase Smith from her peers. It represented an act of unprecedented political courage and respect
for the common good. Against a backdrop of sexism and communist suspicion, Margaret Chase
Smith made one of the most impactful speeches in American history that day. An ethical and
moral plea to unite our nation's great ideals against the tyranny of those seeking to destroy them.
Sources:

O'Brien, Steven G. “Margaret Chase Smith.” ​American Government​, ABC-CLIO, 2020,

americangovernment.abc-clio.com/Search/Results?q=197083.

Smith, Margaret Chase. "A Declaration of Conscience." ​Government, Politics, and Protest: Essential
Primary Sources,​ edited by K. Lee Lerner, et al., Gale, 2006, pp. 181-184. ​Gale In Context: U.S.
History​,
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Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.

Watson, Bruce. "The Woman Who Said 'No' To McCarthy: Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith
was the first in Congress to stand up to the bullying of Joe McCarthy." ​American Heritage​, vol. 65,
no. 1, Wntr 2020, p. NA. ​Gale In Context: U.S. History,​
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"McCarthyism." ​Gale U.S. History Online Collection​, Gale, 2020. ​Gale In Context: U.S. History​,
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Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.

Fanton, Jonathan F. . "Margaret Chase Smith Essay: The Right of Independent Thought." ​Maine
Policy Review​ 24.1 (2015) : 10 -11, ​https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol24/iss1/5​.

Crouse, Eric. ​Methodist History​. The United Methodist Church, 2008, ​General Commission on
Archives and History​, archives.gcah.org/handle/10516/243.

"Margaret Chase Smith: Quote on Public Service." ​American History​, ABC-CLIO, 2020,
americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/281630. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.

“An Interview with Margaret Chase Smith.” ​Smithsonian Folkways Recordings,​

folkways.si.edu/margaret-chase-smith/an-interview-with/oral-history-biography/album/smithsonian

. “A Declaration of Conscience.” ​U.S. Senate: A Declaration of Conscience​, 22 Dec. 2020,

www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/a-declaration-of-consci
ence.htm.

Kennedy, John F. ​Profiles in Courage​. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.