Declaration of Conscience Persuasive Speech
Margaret Chase Smith • June 1, 1950 • U.S. Senate
Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear
and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a
condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership either in the legislative branch or the executive branch of our
government.
That leadership is so lacking that serious and responsible proposals are being made that national advisory
commissions be appointed to provide such critically needed leadership.
I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness
and selfish political opportunism. I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by
eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.
Mr. President, I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an
American.
The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But
recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character
assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.
Surely the United States Senate is big enough to take self-criticism and self-appraisal. Surely we should be able to take
the same kind of character attacks that we “dish out” to outsiders.
I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our
consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which
we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.
I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it
is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also
of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.
Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those
who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism—the right to criticize. The right to
hold unpopular beliefs. The right to protest. The right of independent thought.
The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor
should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds
unpopular beliefs.
The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as
“Communists” or “Fascists” by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so
abused by some that it is not exercised by others.
As a Republican, I say to my colleagues on this side of the aisle that the Republican party faces a challenge today that
is not unlike the challenge which it faced back in Lincoln's day.
Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty
would prove equally disastrous to the nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I do not want to see the
Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.
I do not want to see the Republican party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican party, it
would be a more lasting defeat for the American people.
As members of the minority party, we do not have the primary authority to formulate the policy of our government. But
we do have the responsibility of rendering constructive criticism, of clarifying issues, of allaying fears by acting as
responsible citizens.
As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for
irresponsible sensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled
from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the obviously staged, undignified countercharges which have been
attempted in retaliation from the other side of the aisle.
As an American, I am shocked at the way Republicans and Democrats alike are playing directly into the Communist
design of “confuse, divide, and conquer.” As an American, I do not want a Democratic administration “whitewash” or
“coverup” any more than I want a Republican smear or witch hunt.
As an American, I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. I condemn a
Democrat Fascist just as much as I condemn a Republican 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.
It is with these thoughts that I have drafted what I call a Declaration of Conscience. I am gratified that the senator from
New Hampshire, the senator from Vermont, the senator from Oregon, the senator from New York, the senator from
Minnesota, and the senator from New Jersey have concurred in that declaration.
The declaration reads as follows:
We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing
confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country. Democrats and Republicans alike have contributed to
that confusion.
The Democratic administration has initially created the confusion by its lack of effective leadership, by its contradictory
grave warnings and optimistic assurances, by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home, by its
oversensitiveness to rightful criticism, by its petty bitterness against its critics.
Certain elements of the Republican party have materially added to this confusion in the hopes of riding the Republican
party to victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance. There are enough
mistakes of the Democrats for Republicans to criticize constructively without resorting to political smears.
To this extent, Democrats and Republicans alike have unwittingly, but undeniably, played directly into the Communist
design of “confuse, divide, and conquer.”
It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking
patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being
tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have
come to cherish as the American way of life.
