Margaret Chase Smith was the most influential woman in the
history of American politics. Her goal was to be a United States
senator, not a woman senator, and she succeeded by overcoming
gender, not by championing it. Smith began her political career as
Maine's daughter and demonstrated nationally the New England
virtues of honesty, hard work, frugality, and reticence. She became
America's heroine when she courageously confronted Senator Joe
McCarthy at the height of his power with her "Declaration of
Conscience" speech. In her statement she championed the American
right to criticize, to hold unpopular beliefs, and to practice free
speech. Associating herself with the politics of conscience, Smith
won three more terms in the Senate and sat on the powerful Armed
Services, Appropriations, Space, Government Operations, and
Intelligence committees. Altogether, she was in Congress 32 years
and by the time her career ended she had established an enduring
prototype for female and minority politicians.
This biography of Margaret Chase Smith is the first historical
treatment of Smith to use her voluminous private papers as well as
extensive interviews with Smith and her colleagues in Congress. As
Maine's daughter, Smith was frugal, hard-working, reticent, and
caustic. At age thirty-two she married, in scandal,
state-politician Clyde Smith with whom she had been involved since
she was sixteen and who was twenty-one years her senior. Smith came
to Washington when Clyde was elected to Congress and, against his
wishes, she became his secretary. When Clyde died in office in
1940, Smith played the widoW's game and successfully ran for his
seat. In the House during World War II, Smith sat on the powerful
Naval Affairs Committee and, tutored by committee counsel Bill
Lewis, developed a national constituency, the military, which in
turn allowed her to better serve Maine's interests. Lewis directed
Smith's first Senate campaign in 1948 when she won an upset victory
by an astonishing margin. Overnight she became the darling of the
Republican party, the heroine of women everywhere, and the only
woman in the United States Senate. Immediately, she became
embroiled with Joseph McCarthy and courageously confronted him with
her Declaration of Conscience speech four years before a Senate
majority censored him. Associating herself with politics of
conscience, Smith was elected to three more terms and sat on the
powerful Armed services, Appropriations, Space, Government
Operations, and Intelligence committees. America's heroine was a
political icon by the time she was defeated in 1972 at the age of
seventy-four.
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