Margaret Chase Smith

Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (née Chase; December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=congress>Template:Cite news</ref> She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress.<ref name=umaine>Template:Cite news</ref> A Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech "Declaration of Conscience".<ref name=speech>Template:Cite news</ref>

Smith was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1964 election; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention.<ref name=congress /> Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 4, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski from Maryland exceeded her record.<ref name=emkinstitute>Template:Cite news</ref> Smith was ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

Margaret Chase was born in Skowhegan in central Maine, to Carrie Matilda (née Murray) and George Emery Chase.<ref name=yearbook>Template:Cite book</ref> She was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood.<ref name=gutgold>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=wallace>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=hutchison>Template:Cite book</ref> Her father was the town barber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk, and shoe factory worker.<ref name="women">Template:Cite news</ref>

She received her early education at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools.<ref name=gutgold /> At age 12, she went to work at a local five-and-dime store and even bought herself a life insurance policy.<ref name=hutchison /> She also shaved her father's customers when he was busy or away from the shop.<ref name=nytimes>Template:Cite news</ref> She attended Skowhegan High School, graduating in 1916.<ref name=women /> During high school, she played on the girls' basketball team, of which she was captain in her senior year.<ref name=sleeper>Template:Cite book</ref> She also worked as a substitute operator with a telephone company during this time.<ref name=wallace /> In that position she met Clyde Smith, a prominent local politician, who arranged a job for her as a part-time assistant to the tax assessor.<ref name=gutgold />

Early career

Following her high school graduation, Chase briefly taught at the Pitts School, a one-room school near Skowhegan.<ref name=gutgold /> She also coached the girls' basketball team at Skowhegan High (1917–18).<ref name=sleeper /> She was a business executive for the Maine Telephone and Telegraph Company (1918–1919) before joining the staff of the Independent Reporter, a Skowhegan weekly newspaper (owned by Clyde Smith) for whom she was circulation manager from 1919 to 1928.<ref name=yearbook /> She became involved with local women's organizations. She co-founded the Skowhegan chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Club in 1922, and served as editor of the club's magazine, The Pine Cone.<ref name=gutgold /> From 1926 to 1928, she was president of the statewide organization, the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.<ref name=britannica>Template:Cite news</ref> She was a member of the Junior League of Bangor, ME.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=yearbook />

On May 14, 1930, Chase married Clyde Smith, who was 21 years her senior.<ref name=women /> She soon became active in politics and was elected to the Maine Republican State Committee, on which she served from 1930 to 1936.<ref name=yearbook /> After Clyde was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd congressional district in 1936, Smith accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C., to serve as his secretary.<ref name=congress /> In this position, she managed his office, handled his correspondence, conducted research, and helped write his speeches.<ref name=hutchison /> She also served as treasurer of the Congressional Club, a group composed of the wives of congressmen and Cabinet members.<ref name=yearbook />

U.S. House of Representatives

In the spring of 1940, Clyde Smith fell seriously ill after suffering a heart attack, and asked his wife to run for his House seat in the general election the following September.<ref name=nytimes /> He prepared a press release in which he stated, "I know of no one else who has the full knowledge of my ideas and plans or is as well qualified as she is, to carry on these ideas and my unfinished work for my district."<ref name=hutchison /> He died on April 8 of that year, and a special election was scheduled on the following June 3 to complete his unexpired term.<ref name=congress /> Facing no Democratic challenger, Smith won the special election and became the first woman elected to Congress from Maine.<ref name=women /> Three months after the special election, she was elected to a full two-year term in the House in her own right.<ref name=election>Template:Cite news</ref> Smith defeated Edward J. Beauchamp, the Democratic mayor of Lewiston, by a margin of 65–35%.<ref name=election /> She was re-elected to three more terms over the course of the next eight years, never receiving less than 60% of the vote.<ref name=women />

During her tenure in the House, Smith developed a strong interest in issues concerning the military and national security. After being appointed to the House Naval Affairs Committee in 1943, she was assigned to the investigation of destroyer production, and made a 25,000-mile (40,234-km) tour of bases in the South Pacific during the winter of 1944.<ref name=yearbook /> She also became the first and only civilian woman to sail on a U.S. Navy ship during World War II.<ref name="digital">Template:Cite news</ref> She became known as "Mother of the WAVES" after introducing legislation to create that organization.<ref name=uma>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=yearbook /> Smith became a member of the House Armed Services Committee in 1946, also serving as chair of its Subcommittee on Hospitalization and Medicine.<ref name=women /> In this position, she sponsored and ensured the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, a bill to regularize the status of women in the armed forces that was signed into law by President Truman in June 1948.<ref name=women />

Smith also earned a reputation as a moderate Republican who often broke ranks with her party.<ref name=senate>Template:Cite news</ref> She supported much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, as had her husband while he was in office.<ref name=britannica /> She voted in favor of the Selective Service Act in 1940 and voted against the Smith–Connally Act in 1943.<ref name=britannica /> In 1945, she voted against making the House Un-American Activities Committee a permanent body.<ref name=yearbook />

As a member of the House, Smith began wearing a single red rose that became a daily fixture of her attire throughout her career in public office.<ref name=wallace /> She waged a long campaign to have the rose declared the official flower of the United States, which Congress eventually approved in 1987.<ref name=emkinstitute />

U.S. Senate

1948 election

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In August 1947, after three-term incumbent Wallace H. White Jr. decided to retire, Smith announced her candidacy for his seat in the U.S. Senate.<ref name=hutchison /> In the Republican primary, she faced incumbent Governor Horace A. Hildreth, former Governor Sumner Sewall, and Reverend Albion Beverage.<ref name=history_things>Template:Cite web</ref> She ran a grassroots campaign with little money, using the slogan, "Don't change a record for a promise."<ref name=women /> When the wife of one of her opponents questioned whether a woman would be a good Senator, Smith replied, "Women administer the home. They set the rules, enforce them, mete out justice for violations. Thus, like Congress, they legislate; like the Executive, they administer; like the courts, they interpret the rules. It is an ideal experience for politics."<ref name=senate /> On June 21, 1948, she won the primary election and received more votes than her three opponents combined.<ref name=nytimes /> In the general election on September 13, she defeated Democrat Adrian H. Scolten by a margin of 71–29%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She became the first woman to represent Maine in the Senate, and the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.<ref name=congress/>

Early tenure

Smith was sworn into the Senate on January 3, 1949.<ref name=congress /> After a year in office, she gained national attention when she became the first member of Congress to condemn the anti-Communist witch hunt led by her fellow Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin.<ref name=digital /> Smith was initially impressed by McCarthy's accusations of Communists working in the State Department, but became disillusioned after McCarthy failed to provide any evidence to validate his charges.<ref name=declaration>Template:Cite news</ref>

Smith voted in favor of Harry Truman's Supreme Court nomination of Tom C. Clark on August 18, 1949,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> voted in favor of the nomination of John Marshall Harlan II on March 16, 1955,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> was present for the unanimous nominations of William J. Brennan Jr. and Charles Evans Whittaker on March 19, 1957,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and voted in favor of the nomination of Potter Stewart on May 5, 1959.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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."<ref name="auto">Richardson, Heather Cox, On the anniversary of June 1, 1950 speech by Margaret Chase Smith, Letters from an American, Substack, June 1, 2022</ref>

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."<ref name=conscience>Template:Cite web</ref> She said McCarthyism had "debased" the Senate to "the level of a forum of hate and character assassination."<ref name=speech /> She defended every American's "right to criticize... right to hold unpopular beliefs... right to protest; the right of independent thought."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref name=nytimes /> Six other moderate Republican Senators signed on to her Declaration: Wayne Morse from Oregon, George Aiken from Vermont, Edward Thye from Minnesota, Irving Ives from New York, Charles Tobey from New Hampshire, and Robert C. Hendrickson from New Jersey.<ref name=conscience /> Her speech ended with a warning: "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."<ref name="auto"/>

In response to her speech, McCarthy referred to Smith and the six other Senators as "Snow White and the Six Dwarfs."<ref name=nytimes /> He removed her as a member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, giving her seat to Senator Richard Nixon from California.<ref name=declaration /> He also helped finance an unsuccessful primary challenger during Smith's re-election campaign in 1954.<ref name=women /> Smith later observed, "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, when the junior Senator from Wisconsin had the Senate paralyzed with fear that he would purge any Senator who disagreed with him."<ref name=history_things/> She voted for McCarthy's censure in 1954.<ref name=gutgold />

On July 17, 1950, Smith was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, and she served until 1958.<ref>Hope Stoddard, Famous American Women, 1970, p. 394</ref><ref>Josephine Ripley, Christian Science Monitor, The Surprising Mrs. Smith, November 10, 1950</ref><ref>Chicago Tribune, Military Men Numerous on Capitol Hill, December 3, 1962</ref>

In the 1952 election, Smith was widely mentioned as a vice-presidential candidate under General Dwight D. Eisenhower.<ref name=yearbook /> When asked by a reporter what she would do if she woke up one morning and found herself in the White House, she replied: "I'd go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. Then I'd go home."<ref name=nytimes /> At that year's Republican National Convention, a group of women delegates (led by former congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce) had sought to nominate Smith. Smith, however, requested not to be proposed at the convention as a vice presidential delegate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=women />

1960 re-election

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In her successful re-election campaign in 1960, she ran against Democrat Lucia Cormier, the minority leader of the Maine House of Representatives; it was the first time in American history that two women ran against each other for a Senate seat.<ref name=uma />

1964 presidential election

On January 27, 1964, Smith announced her candidacy for President of the United States.<ref name=history_things/> She declared, "I have few illusions and no money, but I'm staying for the finish. When people keep telling you you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try."<ref name=women /> Gladys Shelley wrote her a presidential nomination campaign song, "Leave It to the Girls", which was sung by Hildegarde.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Smith lost every single primary election, but did manage to win 25% of the vote in Illinois.<ref name=women /> At the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, she became the first woman to have her name be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major political party's convention.<ref name=congress /> She placed fifth in the initial balloting, and denied unanimous consent for Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona after refusing to withdraw her name from the final ballot.<ref name=nytimes/> She nevertheless campaigned for Goldwater in the general election, appearing in a television ad in which she defended his position on Social Security.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Later tenure

During the administration of President John F. Kennedy, Smith argued that the United States should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union.<ref name=britannica /> This led Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to call Smith "the devil in disguise of a woman" whose position exceeded "all records of savagery."<ref name=britannica /> Smith later replied, "Mr. Khrushchev isn't really mad at me. I am not that important. He is angry because American officials have grown more firm since my speech."<ref name=nytimes /> The morning after Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, she went into the Senate chamber before it convened and laid a rose on the desk Kennedy had occupied as a Senator.<ref name=nytimes /> A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she supported the Vietnam War but opposed the deployment of the Sentinel anti-ballistic missile.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Smith was the first (and as yet only) woman to serve as chair of the Senate Republican Conference, serving from 1967 to 1972.<ref name=congress /> She was a strong supporter of the space program and served as a charter member of the Senate Aeronautical and Space Committee.<ref name=history_things /> NASA administrator James E. Webb once commented that the United States never would have placed a man on the Moon if it were not for Smith.<ref name=painting>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=women /><ref>To Pass H.R. 6675, The Social Security Amendments of 1965</ref> Smith voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 1960,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 1964,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and 1968,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> She held an all-time voting record in the Senate until 1981 with 2,941 consecutive roll call votes.<ref name=painting />

Smith was present in the Senate when Kennedy's Supreme Court nominations of Byron White and Arthur Goldberg to the U.S. Supreme Court were unanimously confirmed on April 11, 1962, and on September 25, 1962, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Smith was present in the Senate when Lyndon Johnson's nomination of Abe Fortas was unanimously confirmed on August 11, 1965,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and voted in favor of the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall on August 30, 1967.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> On June 9, 1969, Smith voted in favor of President Nixon's nomination of Warren E. Burger as Chief Justice of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynsworth on November 21, 1969,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and a few months later, Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination of Harrold Carswell on April 8, 1970.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=nytimes /> The following month, Smith voted in favor of Nixon's nomination of Harry Blackmun on May 12, 1970.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> On December 6, 1971, Smith voted in favor of Nixon's nomination of Lewis F. Powell Jr.,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

1972 election

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She was defeated for re-election in 1972 by Democrat Bill Hathaway, the only election she ever lost in the state of Maine.<ref name=nytimes /> In her last election, Smith had been plagued by rumors of poor health (she had been using a motor scooter around the Senate). Her Republican primary challenger, attorney Robert A. G. Monks, taunted her for being out of touch; she did not have a state office operating in Maine.Template:Citation needed Smith lost the election by 27,230 votes, a margin of 53–47%.

Awards and honors

She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1973, Smith was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1995 Smith was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the US Navy Memorial Foundation for her support of the US Navy, US 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.<ref name=congress />

Later life and death

Following her departure from the Senate in January 1973, Smith taught at several colleges and universities as a visiting professor for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (1973–1976).<ref name=umaine /> She resumed her residence in Skowhegan, where she oversaw the construction of a library to hold her papers.<ref name=women />

Smith died at her Skowhegan home on May 29, 1995, at the age of 97, after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma eight days earlier.<ref name=nytimes /> She was cremated, and her ashes were placed in the residential wing of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan.<ref name=congress /> She was the last living U.S. senator who had been born in the 19th century.

Legacy

Smith is the namesake for the Maine State Ferry Service's<ref>Maine State Ferry Service</ref> Islesboro Ferry.

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Patricia Neal dramatized Senator Smith's Declaration of Conscience speech in the 1978 television movie Tail Gunner Joe.

In 1965, she was awarded a Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from Whittier College.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Smith's name and picture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Janis Benson portrayed Senator Smith in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

On June 13, 2007, the United States 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On June 8, 2022, a room in the United States 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.<ref name="Smithauto">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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External links

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Template:United States senators from Maine Template:US Senate Republican Conference chairs Template:1964 United States presidential election Template:National Women's Hall of Fame Template:Maine Women's Hall of Fame Template:Authority control

Margaret Chase Smith

Contents

Early life and education

Early career

U.S. House of Representatives