Declaration of Conscience

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Senator Margaret Chase

The Declaration of Conscience was a speech made by Senator Margaret Chase Smith on June 1, 1950, the height of the McCarthy Era. In it, she criticised national leadership and called for the country, the United States Senate, and the Republican Party to re-examine the tactics used by the HUAC and (without naming him) Senator Joe McCarthy. She stated the basic principles of "Americanism" were:

The right to criticize;
The right to hold unpopular beliefs;
The right to protest;
The right of independent thought.

Smith strongly voiced concern that those who exercised those beliefs at that time risked being labeled communist or fascist.

In the Declaration of Conscience, Smith said,

"The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism and the leak of vital secrets to Russia through key officials of the Democratic administration. There are enough proved cases to make this point without diluting our criticism with unproved charges.

Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country. Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic Administration.

Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.

I doubt if the Republican Party could -- simply because I don't believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest".

Smith made the declaration shortly after having been removed from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations by the new Chairman, Senator Karl Mundt, in order to make room for the newly elected Senator Richard Nixon of California. Mundt and Nixon had served together on the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Mundt sought to continue the work they had begun together. Smith was upset about being removed, and her criticism was widely regarded among Senators and Senate staffers as criticism for having been removed from the Committee.

Widely regarded as a turning point in the McCarthy anti-communism campaign, the fact that a woman was the first to speak out in the Senate against McCarthy and his tactics also holds significance for feminist historians. In 1997, the Republican conference appointed Susan Collins of Maine as the first woman to chair the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Collins holds Smith's Senate seat.