Lessons from Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s fight against McCarthyism – by Angela Zhong. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

Lessons from Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s fight against McCarthyism – by Angela Zhong. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

This is a synopsis of a research paper, which has been recognized at the Texas History Day convention as Outstanding Regional Senior Entry (though not published yet), competing against a variety of formats, and also has been honored by the Colonial Dames as the best Senior Paper as a whole.

The year is 1950. The air weighs heavy with panic as a Soviet nuclear threat brews in the horizon. McCarthyites, desperate to prove their allegiance against communism, eagerly accuse opponents as being traitors working against American liberty. In an era where we need the strength of a united nation most, the divide between liberalism and communism mirrors the growing gap between modern-day Republicans and Democrats. The nation holds a bated breath.

Weeks have passed since McCarthy’s inflammatory “Wheeling Speech,” where he accuses sometimes 81, sometimes 205 members of the State Department as having an affiliation with the Communist Party – the actual number is disregarded (Widmer). No politician dares whisper a word out of line (Meacham). In this time of fear, hundreds are unconstitutionally imprisoned through trial by accusation, instead of trial by jury (Storrs). The only thing they have done wrong is exercise their right to representation (Fitzgerald). The nation gasps for air.

Amidst the frenzy of the Second Red Scare, Margaret Chase Smith, an ambitious Senator from Maine with dreams of the Republican nomination for vice president, rides the subway to the Capitol Building, passing Senator Joseph McCarthy (Congressional Records).

For four months, she has been living up to her namesake of “the quiet woman” as the only female in the Senate (Gutgold). Though the media urges for someone, anyone, to resist McCarthy’s unfair campaign, Smith declines due to her position as a freshman Senator and ally of the fellow Republican (Congressional Records). The nation sigh in defeat.

However, despite her support for the values of anticommunism underlying McCarthy’s message, she cannot help but feel a sense of uncertainty about McCarthy’s allegations. Smith discreetly requests information on the alleged turncoats, only to discover how weak the evidence is. Appalled, she bombards McCarthy and his collaborators with questions, only to get dismissed based on her gender. Suddenly, McCarthy’s committee assignments for her vanish into thin air (Widmer). Something is very wrong.

The nation’s founders would have been appalled. Founding principles of the United States are under assault.

McCarthy interrogates her on the subway, “Margaret, you look very serious, are you going to make a speech?” He stares at her, before adding, “Remember… I control Wisconsin’s twenty-seven convention votes!”

The threat to her entire life’s work does not go unacknowledged (Meacham). Smith knows she must retain her strong stance against communism to be selected as Eisenhower’s Vice President running-mate at the Republican Convention (Widmer). With her frequently rejection of Republican-endorsed bills in favor of aligning herself with Maine’s voter base, she was already on thin ice – dubbed by the New York Times as a “party all by herself” (Fitzpatrick). But a powerful orator like McCarthy who had significant influence in the Northeast could entirely upend the progress she has made. (Severo)

Nevertheless, Senator Smith ducks her head down and clutches her speech tighter to her chest, whispering to herself what will go down in history as the Declaration of Conscience.

President John F. Kennedy (2006) once wrote, “A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality” (p. 265). Echoing his words, Margaret Chase Smith, the “Conscience of the Senate” herself, crosses the partisan Congress and rises to speak, a single trademark rose pinned to her suit (Severo). Senator McCarthy looms three rows behind her, but she not once does she look back (Widmer). Her voice, as unwavering as her beliefs, begins with strength, “Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about … a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear” (Smith). The nation hangs on to every word.

Her address does, in fifteen minutes, what her male colleagues would not do for four months. Her speech denounces the exploitation of the tense political climate for opportunistic career advancement (Smith). Her declamation brings the cool Maine breeze into a political climate burning with unbridled manipulation of truth. The nation lets out a breath of relief and celebrates with an eight to one ratio of support (Congressional Records). Because of her brave decision to denounce the actions of her political party, Americans can once again speak with the freedom the Bill of Rights promised.

McCarthy funds Smith’s district competitors during reelection season. Richard Nixon is chosen as Vice President instead (Widmer). Media outlets like the Saturday Evening Post shame her as “the soft underbelly of the Republican Party” (Boissoneault). Amazingly, she triumphs over the slander and continues her trailblazing path, allowing her record’s consistency with her constituents’ needs to speak louder than empty campaign promises (Congressional Records). Her sacrifices do not go unnoticed: Smith, the first woman in both the House and Senate, becomes the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major political party. “At that moment ‘in heaven,’ the Chicago Tribune surmised, ‘the first woman suffrage leaders of almost 100 years ago, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, must have smiled’” (Fitzpatrick).

But once again, the nation gasps for air. The year is 2019. History seems to be have repeating itself. “[T]he Four Horsemen of Calumny–Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear” are pervasive. A narrow strand of nationalism drives the nation to build walls instead of bipartisan bridges, extremist gridlocks run rampant as legitimate objections are dismissed as “fake news”, and those “who shout loudest about Americanism… ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism… the right to independent thought” (Widmer; Smith). Yet when it seems there is only darkness, Senator Smith’s resolve to speak in the face of political calamity is a beacon of hope. The younger generations are becoming more civically involved (Rolnick). Congress demonstrates more diversity than ever before (Chappell). In times like these, leaders must channel the power of Margaret Chase Smith’s act of courage to cross the ideological divide and, together, champion a just system, not just a system.

Angela Zhong is a rising senior at Cypress Woods high school interested in pursuing business/economics and/or pre-law. She is fortunate to have been able to participate in the Texas History Day through her school, in which she wrote this paper, and is grateful for the support of Mrs. Stephanie England and Mrs. Stephanie Weiss throughout the process of competition and publication.

Works Cited:

Boissoneault, Lorraine. “The Senator Who Stood Up to Joseph McCarthy When No One Else Would.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 13 Sept. 2018, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-who-stood-joseph-mccarthy-when-no-one-else-would-180970279/.

Chappell, Carmin. “The Next Congress Will Be One of the Most Diverse Ever. Now Critics Demand More Diversity on Staff.” CNBC, CNBC, 7 Dec. 2018, http://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/07/next-congress-is-diverse-but-critics-demand-more-diversity-on-staff.html.

Fitzpatrick, Ellen F. The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women’s Quest for the American Presidency. Harvard University Press, 2016.

Gutgold, Nichola D. Paving the Way for Madam President. Lexington Books, 2006. Print.

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

McBrayer, Victoria E. “Margaret Chase Smith’s 1950 Declaration of Conscience Senate Speech: A Stance Against the Exploitation of Fear,” The Corinthian: Vol. 18 , Article 9., Georgia College and State University, Jun. 2017, https://kb.gcsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=thecorinthian

Meacham, Jon. Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels. Random House Large Print, 2018.

Roth, Kenneth. “World Report: The Dangerous Rise of Populism | Global Attacks on Human Rights Values.” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, 19 Jan. 2017, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/dangerous-rise-of-populism.

Severo, Richard. “Margaret Chase Smith Is Dead at 97; Maine Republican Made History Twice.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 May 1995, http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/30/obituaries/margaret-chase-smith-is-dead-at-97-maine-republican-made-history-twice.html?mtrref=www.google.com.

Smith, Margaret Chase. “Declaration of Conscience.” Gleeditions, 17 Mar. 2011, http://www.gleeditions.com/remarkstothesenate/students/pages.asp?lid=411&pg=4. Originally published on Margaret Chase Smith Library, U of Maine, http://www.mcslibrary.org/bio.

Smith, Margaret et. al “Declaration of Conscience”, Congressional Record, 82nd Congress. 1st Session, June 1, 1950

Rolnick, Jillian. “CIRCLE Finds Young People More Civically Engaged than Ever.” The Tufts Daily, 25 Oct. 2018, tuftsdaily.com/news/2018/10/24/circle-finds-young-people-civically-engaged-ever/.

Storrs, Landon R. Y. “McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.” Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 8 June 2017, oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-6.

Widmer, Ted. “How Margaret Chase Smith stood up to Joseph McCarthy — and won” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 7 Feb. 2016, http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/02/07/mccarthy-foil/09B9JdJauoywd9uwswUGyH/story.html

—
Please contact Professor Liang if you wish to write for The North Star Reports — HLIANG (at) css.edu

See also, our Facebook page with curated news articles at http://www.facebook.com/NorthStarReports
–
The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy (http://NorthStarReports.org) is a student edited and student authored open access publication centered around the themes of global and historical connections. Our guiding philosophy is that those of us who are fortunate enough to receive an education and to travel our planet are ethically bound to share our knowledge with those who cannot afford to do so. Therefore, creating virtual and actual communities of learning between college and K-12 classes are integral to our mission. In five years we have published over 300 articles covering all habitable continents and a variety of topics ranging from history and politics, food and popular culture, to global inequities to complex identities. These articles are read by K-12 and college students. Our volunteer student editors and writers come from Nursing to Biology, Physical Therapy to Business, and remarkably, many of our student editors and writers have long graduated from college. In addition to our main site, we also curate a Facebook page dedicated to annotated news articles selected by our student editors (http://www.facebook.com/NorthStarReports). We have an all volunteer staff. The North Star Reports is sponsored and published by Professor Hong-Ming Liang and NSR Student Editors and Writers. For a brief summary of our history, please see the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History, at: http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2013/1305/Opening-The-Middle-Ground-Journal.cfm

Professor Hong-Ming Liang, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, The North Star Reports. Kathryn Marquis Hirsch, Managing Editor, The North Star Reports. Ellie Swanson and Marin Ekstrom, Assistant Managing Editors, The North Star Reports.

(c) 2012-present The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy http://NorthStarReports.org ISSN: 2377-908X The NSR is sponsored and published by Professor Hong-Ming Liang, NSR Student Editors and Writers. See Masthead for our not-for-profit educational open- access policy. K-12 teachers, if you are using these reports for your classes, please contact editor-in-chief Professor Liang at HLIANG (at) css.edu