{"id":1692,"date":"2019-08-01T09:09:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/?page_id=1692"},"modified":"2019-08-01T09:09:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:09:14","slug":"senator-margaret-chase-smiths-declaration-of-conscience-1950","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/25-the-cold-war\/senator-margaret-chase-smiths-declaration-of-conscience-1950\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Margaret Chase Smith\u2019s \u201cDeclaration of Conscience\u201d (1950)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senator\nMargaret Chase Smith of Maine condemned the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy in\na congressional speech on June 1, 1950. She attacked McCarthy\u2019s conspiratorial\ncharges and broken lives left in their wake. She blamed political leaders of\nboth parties for failing to corral McCarthy\u2019s wild attacks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that it is high time that we remembered that\nwe have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high\ntime that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of\nthe freedom of speech, but also of trial by jury instead of trial by\naccusation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it be a criminal prosecution in court or a\ncharacter prosecution in the Senate, there is little practical distinction when\nthe life of a person has been ruined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in\nmaking character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own\nwords and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right to criticize;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right to hold unpopular beliefs;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right to protest;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right of independent thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise of these rights should not cost one\nsingle American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should\nhe be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he\nhappens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn\u2019t?\nOtherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control\nwould have set in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American people are sick and tired of being afraid\nto speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as \u201cCommunists\u201d or\n\u201cFascists\u201d by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in\nAmerica. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American people are sick and tired of seeing\ninnocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed. But there have been\nenough proved cases, such as the Amerasia case, the Hiss case, the Coplon case,\nthe Gold case, to cause Nation-wide distrust and strong suspicion that there\nmay be something to the unproved, sensational accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Republican, I say to my colleagues on this side\nof the aisle that the Republican Party faces a challenge today that is not\nunlike the challenge that it faced back in Lincoln\u2019s day. The Republican Party\nso successfully met that challenge that it emerged from the Civil War as the\nchampion of a united nation\u2014in addition to being a party that unrelentingly\nfought loose spending and loose programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today our country is being psychologically divided by\nthe confusion and the suspicions that are bred in the United States Senate to\nspread like cancerous tentacles of \u201cknow nothing, suspect everything\u201d\nattitudes. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to\nsuffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic\nadministration. \u2026 Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a\nphilosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove\nequally disastrous to this Nation. The Nation sorely needs a Republican\nvictory. But I don\u2019t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory\non the four horsemen of calumny\u2014fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I doubt if the Republican Party could\u2014simply because I\ndon\u2019t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts\npolitical exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren\u2019t\nthat desperate for victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to see the Republican Party win that way.\nWhile it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a\nmore lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be\nsuicide for the Republican Party and the two-party system that has protected\nour American liberties from the dictatorship of a one-party system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As members of the minority party, we do not have the\nprimary authority to formulate the policy of our Government. But we do have the\nresponsibility of rendering constructive criticism, of clarifying issues, of\nallaying fears by acting as responsible citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a woman, I wonder how the mothers, wives, sisters,\nand daughters feel about the way in which members of their families have been\npolitically mangled in Senate debate\u2014and I use the word \u201cdebate\u201d advisedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a United States Senator, I am not proud of the way\nin which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible\nsensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved\ncharges have been hurled from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the\nobviously staged, undignified countercharges that have been attempted in\nretaliation from the other side of the aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t like the way the Senate has been made a\nrendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of\nindividual reputations and national unity. I am not proud of the way we smear\noutsiders from the floor of the Senate and hide behind the cloak of\ncongressional immunity and still place ourselves beyond criticism on the floor\nof the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is with these thoughts I have drafted what I call a\nDeclaration of Conscience. I am gratified that Senator Tobey, Senator Aiken,\nSenator Morse, Senator Ives, Senator Thye and Senator Hendrickson, have\nconcurred in that declaration and have authorized me to announce their\nconcurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statement of Seven Republican Senators<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It\nis as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that\nthreatens the security and stability of our country. Democrats and Republicans\nalike have contributed to that confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Democratic administration has initially created\nthe confusion by its lack of effective leadership, by its contradictory grave\nwarnings and optimistic assurances, by its complacency to the threat of\ncommunism here at home, by its oversensitiveness to rightful criticism, by its\npetty bitterness against its critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Certain elements of the Republican Party have\nmaterially added to this confusion in the hopes of riding the Republican party\nto victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry,\nignorance, and intolerance. There are enough mistakes of the Democrats for\nRepublicans to criticize constructively without resorting to political smears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. To this extent, Democrats and Republicans alike\nhave unwittingly, but undeniably, played directly into the Communist design of\n\u201cconfuse, divide and conquer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. It is high time that we stopped thinking\npolitically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking\npatriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom.\nIt is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian\ntechniques\u2014techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what\nwe have come to cherish as the American way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Source: “Declaration of Conscience”\nby Senator Margaret Chase Smith and Statement of Seven Senators, June 1,\n1950, Congressional Record<\/em>, 82nd Congress. 2nd Session, 7894-95.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available online via the United States Senate (https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/artandhistory\/history\/common\/generic\/Speeches_Smith_Declaration.htm<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine condemned the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy in a congressional speech on June 1, 1950. She attacked McCarthy\u2019s conspiratorial charges and broken lives left in their wake. She blamed political leaders of both parties for failing to corral McCarthy\u2019s wild attacks. I think that it is high time that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":816,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1692","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1693,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692\/revisions\/1693"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}