Margaret Chase Smith
(December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was a member of the Republican Party and served as a U.S Representative (1940-1949) and a U.S. Senator (1949-1973) from Maine. [1] She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress.
Smith is best remembered for her 1950 speech, “Declaration of Conscience,” in which she criticized the tactics of McCarthyism.[2] Smith earned a reputation as a moderate Republican who often broke ranks with her party. For example, she supported much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Congresswoman Smith was also a strong supporter of women in the armed services.[3] Smith was sworn into the Senate on January 3, 1949.[4] After less than a year in office, she gained national attention when she became the first member of Congress to condemn the anti-Communist witch hunt led by her fellow Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.[5]
In a well-publicized speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, four months earlier, McCarthy claimed to possess the names of 205 card-carrying Communists in the State Department. Smith, like many of her colleagues, shared McCarthy’s concerns about Communist subversion, but she grew skeptical when McCarthy repeatedly ignored her requests for evidence to back up his accusations.[6]
On June 1, 1950, Smith delivered a fifteen-minute speech on the Senate floor, known as the “Declaration of Conscience,” in which she refused to name McCarthy directly (bowing to Senate rules on comity) but denounced “the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle.”[7] She said McCarthyism had “debased” the Senate to “the level of a forum of hate and character assassination.”[8] While acknowledging her desire for Republicans’ political success, Smith said, “I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horseman of calumny — fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear.”[9] Six other moderate Senate Republicans signed onto her Declaration, including Wayne Morse of Oregon, George Aiken of Vermont, Edward Thye of Minnesota, Irving Ives of New York, Charles Tobey of New Hampshire, and Robert C. Hendrickson of New Jersey.[10] [11] [12]
Smith’s speech triggered a public explosion of support and criticism. “This cool breeze of honesty from Maine can blow the whole miasma out of the nation’s soul,” stated the Hartford Courant. “By one act of political courage, [Smith has] justified a lifetime in politics,” commented another. Newsweek magazine ran a cover story entitled “Senator Smith: A Woman Vice President?” But critics called her “Moscow-loving,” and much worse. McCarthy dismissed her and her supporters as “Snow White and the Six Dwarfs.”[13]
In the 1952 election, Smith was widely mentioned as a Vice-Presidential candidate to run with General Dwight D. Eisenhower.[14] When asked by a reporter what she would do if she woke up one morning and found herself in the White House, she replied: “I’d go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. Then I’d go home.”[15] Smith was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election. Nonetheless she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the United States Presidency at a major party’s convention.[16] Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history.
Smith was the first (and as yet only) woman to serve as chair of the Senate Republican Conference, serving from 1967 to 1972.[17] She voted against President Nixon’s unsuccessful nominees to the Supreme Court, Clement Haynsworth in 1969 and G. Harrold Carswell in 1970.[18]
Smith was a strong supporter of the space program.[19] NASA administrator James E. Webb once commented that the United States never would have placed a man on the Moon if it were not for Smith. She also supported increased educational funding, civil rights, and Medicare.[20]
Recently retired Republican Maine Senator Olympia Snowe was asked what Senator Smith would think of today’s Republican Party. Snowe responded, “Oh my gosh! She’d be appalled. I don’t think she could conceive of how it’s all evolved today. Even in my own experience, it’s hard to comprehend.”[21]
U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who currently holds Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s seat in the Senate, spoke on the Senate floor to mark the 50th anniversary of the day Senator Smith announced her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Listen to Senator Susan Collins’s tribute to Senator Smith to learn more about her life here:
[1] “The Late U. S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith” The University of Maine at Augusta.
[2] “June 1, 1950: A Declaration of Conscience.” United States Senate
[3] “Margaret Chase Smith Library – Frequently Asked Questions” Margaret Chase Smith Foundation
[4] “Margaret Chase Smith (1897 – 1995)” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[5] “Margaret Chase Smith: The Conscience of the Senate “Digital History”
[6] “June 1, 1950: A Declaration of Conscience.” United States Senate. June 1, 1950.
[7] “June 1, 1950: A Declaration of Conscience.” United States Senate. June 1, 1950.
[8] “June 1, 1950: A Declaration of Conscience.” United States Senate. June 1, 1950.
[9] Severo, Richard. “Margaret Chase Smith Is Dead at 97; Maine Republican Made History Twice.” The New York Times, May 30, 1995
[10] “June 1, 1950: A Declaration of Conscience.” United States Senate. June 1, 1950.
[11] Nichola D. Gutgold. Paving the Way for Madam President. Maryland: Lexington Books, 2006.
[12] Smith later observed, “If I am to be remembered in history, it will not be because of legislative accomplishments, but for an act I took as a legislator in the U.S. Senate when on June 1, 1950, I spoke…in condemnation of McCarthyism, when the junior Senator from Wisconsin had the Senate paralyzed with fear that he would purge any Senator who disagreed with him.” She voted for McCarthy’s censure in 1954.
[13] “Smith’s Declaration of Conscience did not end McCarthy’s reign of power, but she was one of the first senators to take such a stand. She continued to oppose him, at great personal cost, for the next four years. Finally, in December of 1954, the Senate belatedly concurred with the “lady from Maine” and censured McCarthy for conduct “contrary to senatorial traditions.” McCarthy’s career was over. Margaret Chase Smith’s career was just beginning.” (She was a freshman Senator when she made her speech.)
[14] “Current Biography Yearbook VI.” H.W. Wilson Company. 1971
[15] Richard Severo. “Margaret Chase Smith Is Dead at 97; Maine Republican Made History Twice.” The New York Times, January 25, 2010.
[16] “Margaret Chase Smith (1897 – 1995)” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[17] “Margaret Chase Smith (1897 – 1995)” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[18] “Expanded Biography.” Margaret Chase Smith Library
[19] “Expanded Biography.” Margaret Chase Smith Library
[20] “Margaret Chase Smith, Women in Congress” U.S. governmental website
[21] Fried, Amy. “What a Very Candid Olympia Snowe Had to Say About her Party, Women and What Margaret Chase Smith Would Think” Bangor Daily News, December 12, 2013. The article also points out that when Senator Smith wanted to use the restroom in the U.S. Capitol, she had to stand in line with the tourists. After retiring from the U.S. Senate, Senator Snowe founded an organization called “Olympia’s List” whose website declares, “Our future depends on government working. Government can work again, but only when Americans support and vote for individuals who will follow the principles of consensus-building. The purpose of this website is to provide a gathering point for all of us who believe our elected officials need to put the country ahead of politics, to facilitate the distribution of news about activities taking place to further that goal, and to identify and support like-minded candidates and office holders.” (Snowe, Olympia. “Olympia’s List.” Olympia’s List, 2012.)