Margaret Chase Smith

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (née Chase; December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. A Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech "Declaration of Conscience".

Smith was a candidate in the 1964 Republican Party presidential primaries; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the U.S. presidency at a major party's convention. Smith was ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 3, 2021, when Susan Collins, who holds the same Senate seat she previously held, was sworn in for a fifth term.

Early life and education

Margaret Chase was born in Skowhegan in central Maine, to Carrie Matilda (née Murray) and George Emery Chase. She was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood. Her father was of English ancestry, a descendant of immigrants to the original Thirteen Colonies in the 17th century; her great-great-grandfather commanded an artillery company during the War of 1812, and her grandfather served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Her mother's family was French Canadian, having immigrated from Quebec in the middle of the 19th century; her grandfather Lambert Morin changed his name to John Murray to avoid anti-French Canadian and anti-Catholic prejudice. Her father was the town barber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk, and shoe factory worker.

She received her early education at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools. She attended Skowhegan High School, graduating in 1916. She also worked as a substitute operator with a telephone company during this time. She was a member of the Junior League of Bangor, ME. She became treasurer of the New England Waste Process Company in 1928 and was also employed as an office worker with the Daniel E. Cummings Woolen Company, a local textile mill. Smith defeated Edward J. Beauchamp, the Democratic mayor of Lewiston, by a margin of 65–35%. She became known as "Mother of the WAVES" after introducing legislation to create that organization. Although Congresswoman Smith was a strong supporter of women in the armed services, she did not write the legislation that created the special female military units during World War II. She did, however, champion the legislation that gave women permanent status in the military following the war.

A supporter of President Harry S. Truman's foreign policies, she was mentioned as a possible candidate for Under Secretary of the Navy in 1945 and for Assistant Secretary of State in 1947. She supported much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, as had her husband while he was in office. She ran a grassroots campaign with little money, using the slogan, "Don't change a record for a promise." She became the first woman to represent Maine in the Senate, and the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

Smith voted in favor of Harry Truman's Supreme Court nomination of Tom C. Clark on August 18, 1949, but was absent during the nomination of Sherman Minton while Senate Minority Whip Leverett Saltonstall announced that Smith would have voted in favor if present. Smith was present in the United States Senate on March 1, 1954, when Dwight Eisenhower's nomination of Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the United States was unanimously confirmed, voted in favor of the nomination of John Marshall Harlan II on March 16, 1955, was present for the unanimous nominations of William J. Brennan Jr. and Charles Evans Whittaker on March 19, 1957, and voted in favor of the nomination of Potter Stewart on May 5, 1959. She opposed the tactics being used by members of her party, such as Joseph McCarthy, and spoke out saying, "As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves."

Declaration of Conscience

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 but denounced "the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle." She said McCarthyism had "debased" the Senate to "the level of a forum of hate and character assassination." While acknowledging her desire for Republicans' political success, she said, "I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear." In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Smith was widely mentioned as a vice-presidential candidate under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Noting that Eisenhower's supporters had coalesced around Richard Nixon for the vice presidential nomination, Luce withdrew her nomination of Smith in the convention's vice presidential balloting. On December 3, 1957, Smith became the first woman in Congress to break the sound barrier, which she did as a passenger in an F-100 Super Sabre piloted by Air Force Major Clyde Good. Exhibiting the same independent nature in the Senate as she had in the House, Smith opposed President Eisenhower's nomination of Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce in 1959. Smith lost every single primary election but managed to win 25% of the vote in Illinois.

Later tenure

During the administration of President John F. Kennedy, Smith argued that the United States should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union.

Smith was the first (and as yet only) woman to serve as chair of the Senate Republican Conference, serving from 1967 to 1972. She supported increased educational funding, civil rights, and the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, being one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of both health programs. Smith voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She held an all-time voting record in the Senate until 1981 with 2,941 consecutive roll call votes. Smith was present in the Senate when Lyndon Johnson's nomination of Abe Fortas was unanimously confirmed on August 11, 1965, and voted in favor of the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall on August 30, 1967. On June 9, 1969, Smith voted in favor of President Nixon's nomination of Warren E. Burger as Chief Justice of the United States. Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynsworth on November 21, 1969, and a few months later, Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Harrold Carswell on April 8, 1970. On December 6, 1971, Smith voted in favor of Nixon's nomination of Lewis F. Powell Jr., and on December 10, Smith was absent when Nixon's nomination of William Rehnquist as Associate Justice was confirmed while Senate Minority Whip Robert P. Griffin announced that Smith would have voted in favor if present.

1972 election

She was defeated for re-election in 1972 by Democrat Bill Hathaway, the only election she ever lost in the state of Maine. In 1973, Smith was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In the 1980s, she was presented with the Daughters of the American Revolution's Medal of Honor by President General Patricia Walton Shelby. In 1995 Smith was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation for her support of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Naval Reserves WAVES, and the military during her congressional career. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush on July 6, 1989. A large framed painting of Smith hangs in the Maine State House in Augusta. On February 2, 1952, Smith was the guest on the CBS variety show Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, in which hostess Faye Emerson visited Washington, D.C., to feature music popular in the nation's capital. On June 14, 1953, she was the "mystery celebrity" guest on What's My Line? In 1958, Folkways Records released the album An Interview with Margaret Chase Smith, in which she spoke of women in local and national politics, and addressed the youth of the nation. In 1961, Smith published her favorite family recipe, Maine Clam Chowder, in support of the Gold Star Wives of America military family support organization.

Patricia Neal dramatized Senator Smith's Declaration of Conscience speech in the 1978 television movie Tail Gunner Joe. In 1965, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from Whittier College. In 1970, the twin Margaret Chase Smith bridges opened in Smith's hometown of Skowhegan, Maine, connecting Skowhegan Island to either side of the Kennebec River. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Smith's name and picture.

Janis Benson portrayed Senator Smith in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. On June 13, 2007, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 58¢ postage stamp in its Distinguished Americans series to honor her. In 2010, the United States political action committee Maggie's List was founded, named after Smith; it works to "raise awareness and funds to increase the number of conservative women elected to federal public office." In 2019, Time created 89 new covers to celebrate women of the year starting from 1920; it chose Smith for 1950. In 2020, Joe DiPietro debuted a play 'Conscience' about Sen. Smith's declaration and her development as a politician. On June 8, 2022, a room in the U.S. Capitol was named after Smith (the Margaret Chase Smith room). It is one of the first two rooms in the Capitol to be named after women who were senators, the other being the Barbara Mikulski room, which was named on the same day.

References

External links

Brief biography at the US Senate
Margaret Chase Smith Library
"Declaration of Conscience" ~ Audio clip ~ (PDF)
An Interview with Margaret Chase Smith at Smithsonian Folkways
Sherman, Janann. No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith (2000)