Margaret Chase Smith: Not Holding Back

by Linda Harris Sittig

What if you lived during our history when political events tore the nation apart (not referring to now), and ugly rumors and aspirations ruined careers and lives?

Would you have the courage to speak up? Would you denounce the politicians who had become almost demigods? Would you have the courage to say what many others were thinking, knowing that your actions could ruin your career and perhaps jeopardize your family?

Would you point out a grievous wrong that was occurring?

Several references come to my mind: the Holocaust, the lynching of the Jim Crow era, Wounded Knee, and Stalin’s purges, to name a few.

And while I would like to think I’d be brave enough to speak up, I can’t say for sure what I would do.

MARGARET CHASE SMITH

            But I do know that Margaret Chase Smith spoke up with unwavering courage and made her voice heard.

            Born in a small town in Maine in 1897, she was the oldest of six children. Her family was neither rich nor famous. Her father was the local barber, and her mother worked in a shoe factory.

            Between them, Margaret’s parents bestowed upon her the ethos of a strong work ethic, and she started her first job at age twelve, after school at the town’s five-and-dime store.

Following high school graduation, she took a short-term job teaching in a one-room school. Eventually, she applied for a job with the local newspaper and was hired as the circulation manager. During her tenure with the paper, she was exposed to regional politics and quickly became involved with various women’s groups.

Eleven years later, Margaret married the paper’s owner, Clyde Smith. He was 21 years older and supported her efforts to become involved with the Maine Republican State Committee.

Clyde was elected in 1936 as a U.S. Representative from Maine’s Second Congressional District, and they moved to Washington, D. C.  Margaret became his secretary, helping him with his research and his speeches.

However, in 1940, Clyde suffered a major heart attack. He counseled Margaret to run for his seat in the fall of the upcoming elections. Clyde died a few months later, and a special election was held to fill his unexpired term.

Margaret won the election, thus becoming the first woman from Maine to become elected to Congress. In the following regular election, she won again for the full two-year term.

MARGARET ENTERS POLITICS

Over the next eight years, Margaret won again and again.

During WWII, Margaret developed a keen interest in national and military security. Believing in the strength of women in the military, Margaret worked on the legislation that led to the formation of the WAVES program and the legislation that gave women permanent status in the military following WWII.

Margaret served on many committees during her terms in the House. Then, in 1947, when the Republican Senator from Maine announced his retirement, Margaret threw her hat into the ring and ran for a position in the Senate.

She won and became the first woman in America to serve in both houses of Congress.

And then came the year 1950.

Margaret had already voiced disapproval of how fellow Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was conducting an anti-Communist witch hunt in America, destroying the reputations and careers of people he assumed might be Communists.

HER DISPLAY OF COURAGE

On June 1, 1950, Margaret stood up on the Senate floor and delivered a fifteen-minute speech titled “Declaration of Conscience”.

I read it. Wow.

While she unabashedly condemned McCarthy without actually referring to him by name, she called out her fellow Senate members, saying, “I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear.”  

McCarthy rebounded by immediately removing her from the Subcommittee on Investigations and gave her seat to a Senator from California – Richard Nixon.

And try as he might to silence Margaret, he often referred to her as Snow White and the Senators who backed her as the Seven Dwarfs…. Margaret kept her Senate seat and, by 1952, was mentioned as a possible candidate for Vice President of the United States.

I could go on and on. She garnered numerous awards in her lifetime and even campaigned to become President. She finally left the Senate in 1973 but became a visiting university professor for several years.

Margaret died at the age of 96, having moved back to the small town in Maine where her story had started.

HER LEGACY

My favorite quote of hers:

“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.”

Would we have been that brave?

Strong Women define the word COURAGE.

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My books on Strong Women are available online and in stores. Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, and Opening Closed Doors: the Story of Josie Murray. I am currently working on my next novel, set in WWII in Georgia.

~ Linda