Margaret Chase Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of the Senate Republican Conference | |
| In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1973 | |
| Leader | Everett Dirksen Hugh Scott |
| Preceded by | Leverett Saltonstall |
| Succeeded by | Norris Cotton |
| United States Senator fromMaine | |
| In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Wallace H. White Jr. |
| Succeeded by | William Hathaway |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's2nd district | |
| In office June 3, 1940 – January 3, 1949 | |
| Preceded by | Clyde H. Smith |
| Succeeded by | Charles P. Nelson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margaret Madeline Chase (1897-12-14)December 14, 1897 Skowhegan, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | May 29, 1995(1995-05-29) (aged 97) Skowhegan, Maine, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Signature |  |
Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (néeChase; December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995)[1] was an American politician. A member of theRepublican Party, she served as aU.S. representative (1940–1949) and aU.S. senator (1949–1973) fromMaine.[2] She was the first woman to serve in both houses of theUnited States Congress.[3] A Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics ofJoseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech "Declaration of Conscience".[4]
Smith was a candidate for theRepublican presidential nomination in the1964 election; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at amajor party's convention.[2] Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 4, 2011, when SenatorBarbara Mikulski fromMaryland exceeded her record.[5] Smith was ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate,[6] a distinction that was not surpassed until January 3, 2021, whenSusan Collins, who holds the same Senate seat she previously held, was sworn in for a fifth term.[7][8]
Margaret Chase was born inSkowhegan in centralMaine, to Carrie Matilda (née Murray) and George Emery Chase.[9] She was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood.[10] Her father was of English ancestry, a descendant of immigrants to the originalThirteen Colonies in the 17th century; her great-great-grandfather commanded an artillery company during theWar of 1812, and her grandfather served in theUnion Army during theCivil War.[11] Her mother's family wasFrench Canadian, having immigrated fromQuebec in the middle of the 19th century; her grandfather Lambert Morin changed his name to John Murray to avoid anti-French Canadian andanti-Catholic prejudice.[12] Her father was the townbarber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk, and shoe factory worker.[13]
She received her early education at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools.[10] At age 12, she went to work at a localfive-and-dime store and even bought herself alife insurance policy.[12] She also shaved her father's customers when he was busy or away from the shop.[14] She attendedSkowhegan High School, graduating in 1916.[13] During high school, she played on the girls' basketball team, of which she was captain in her senior year.[15] She also worked as a substitute operator with a telephone company during this time.[11] In that position she metClyde Smith, a prominent local politician, who arranged a job for her as a part-time assistant to the tax assessor.[10]
Following her high school graduation, Chase briefly taught at the Pitts School, aone-room school near Skowhegan.[10] She also coached the girls' basketball team at Skowhegan High (1917–18).[15] She was a business executive for theMaine Telephone and Telegraph Company (1918–1919) before joining the staff of theIndependent Reporter, a Skowhegan weekly newspaper (owned by Clyde Smith) for whom she was circulation manager from 1919 to 1928.[9] She became involved with local women's organizations. She co-founded the Skowhegan chapter of theBusiness and Professional Women's Club in 1922, and served as editor of the club's magazine,The Pine Cone.[10] From 1926 to 1928, she was president of the statewide organization, the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.[16] She was a member of the Junior League of Bangor, ME.[17] 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.[9]
On May 14, 1930, Chase married Clyde Smith, who was 21 years her senior.[13] She soon became active in politics and was elected to theMaine Republican State Committee, on which she served from 1930 to 1936.[9] After Clyde was elected to theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's 2nd congressional district in 1936, Smith accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C., to serve as his secretary.[2] In this position, she managed his office, handled his correspondence, conducted research, and helped write his speeches.[12] She also served as treasurer of theCongressional Club, a group composed of the wives of congressmen andCabinet members.[9]
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.[14] 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."[12] He died on April 8 of that year, and a special election was scheduled on the following June 3 to complete his unexpired term.[2] Facing noDemocratic challenger, Smith won the special election and became the first woman elected to Congress from Maine.[13] Three months after the special election, she was elected to a full two-year term in the House in her own right.[18] Smith defeatedEdward J. Beauchamp, the Democratic mayor ofLewiston, by a margin of 65–35%.[18] She was re-elected to three more terms over the course of the next eight years, never receiving less than 60% of the vote.[13]
During her tenure in the House, Smith developed a strong interest in issues concerning the military and national security. After being appointed to theHouse 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.[9] She also became the first and only civilian woman to sail on a U.S. Navy ship duringWorld War II.[19] She became known as "Mother of theWAVES" after introducing legislation to create that organization.[20] 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.[21]
A supporter of PresidentHarry S. Truman's foreign policies, she was mentioned as a possible candidate forUnder Secretary of the Navy in 1945 and forAssistant Secretary of State in 1947.[9] Smith became a member of theHouse Armed Services Committee in 1946, also serving as chair of its Subcommittee on Hospitalization and Medicine.[13] In this position, she sponsored and ensured the passage of theWomen'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.[13]
Smith also earned a reputation as a moderate Republican who often broke ranks with her party.[22] She supported much of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal legislation, as had her husband while he was in office.[16] She voted in favor of theSelective Service Act in 1940 and voted against theSmith–Connally Act in 1943.[16] In 1945, she voted against making theHouse Un-American Activities Committee a permanent body.[9]
As a member of the House, Smith began wearing a single redrose that became a daily fixture of her attire throughout her career in public office.[11] She waged a long campaign to have the rose declared theofficial flower of the United States, which Congress eventually approved in 1987.[5]
In August 1947, after three-term incumbentWallace H. White Jr. decided to retire, Smith announced her candidacy for his seat in theU.S. Senate.[12] In the Republican primary, she faced incumbent GovernorHorace A. Hildreth, former GovernorSumner Sewall, and Reverend Albion Beverage.[23] She ran a grassroots campaign with little money, using the slogan, "Don't change a record for a promise."[13] 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."[22] On June 21, 1948, she won the primary election and received more votes than her three opponents combined.[14] In the general election on September 13, she defeated Democrat Adrian H. Scolten by a margin of 71–29%.[24] She became the first woman to represent Maine in the Senate, and the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.[2]
Smith was sworn into the Senate on January 3, 1949.[2] 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 fromWisconsin.[19] Smith was initially impressed by McCarthy's accusations of Communists working in theState Department, but became disillusioned after McCarthy failed to provide any evidence to validate his charges.[25]
Smith voted in favor ofHarry Truman's Supreme Court nomination ofTom C. Clark on August 18, 1949,[26] but was absent during the nomination ofSherman Minton while Senate Minority WhipLeverett Saltonstall announced that Smith would have voted in favor if present.[27] Smith was present in the United States Senate on March 1, 1954, whenDwight Eisenhower's nomination ofEarl Warren asChief Justice of the United States was unanimously confirmed,[28] voted in favor of the nomination ofJohn Marshall Harlan II on March 16, 1955,[29] was present for the unanimous nominations ofWilliam J. Brennan Jr. andCharles Evans Whittaker on March 19, 1957,[30] and voted in favor of the nomination ofPotter Stewart on May 5, 1959.[31] 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."[32]
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."[33] She saidMcCarthyism had "debased" the Senate to "the level of a forum of hate and character assassination."[4] She defended every American's "right to criticize... right to hold unpopular beliefs... right to protest; the right of independent thought."[34] 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."[14] Six other moderate Republican Senators signed on to her Declaration:Wayne Morse fromOregon,George Aiken fromVermont,Edward Thye fromMinnesota,Irving Ives from New York,Charles Tobey fromNew Hampshire, andRobert C. Hendrickson fromNew Jersey.[33] 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."[32]
In response to her speech, McCarthy referred to Smith and the six other Senators as "Snow White and the Six Dwarfs."[14] He removed her as a member of thePermanent Subcommittee on Investigations, giving her seat to SenatorRichard Nixon from California.[25] He also helped finance an unsuccessful primary challenger during Smith's re-election campaign in 1954.[13] 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."[23] She voted for McCarthy's censure in 1954.[10]
On July 17, 1950, Smith was commissioned as alieutenant colonel in theAir Force Reserve, and she served until 1958.[35][36][37]
In the1952 election, Smith was widely mentioned as a vice-presidential candidate under GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower.[9] When asked by a reporter what she would do if she woke up one morning and found herself in theWhite House, she replied: "I'd go straight toMrs. Truman and apologize. Then I'd go home."[14] Atthat year's Republican National Convention, a group of women delegates (led by former congresswomanClare Boothe Luce) had sought to nominate Smith. Smith, however, requested not to be proposed at the convention as a vice presidential delegate.[38] Noting that Eisenhower's supporters had coalesced aroundRichard Nixon for the vice presidential nomination, Luce withdrew her nomination of Smith in the convention's vice presidential balloting.[39]
On December 3, 1957, Smith became the first woman in Congress to break thesound barrier, which she did as a passenger in anF-100 Super Sabre piloted by Air Force Major Clyde Good.[40]
Exhibiting the same independent nature in the Senate as she had in the House, Smith opposed President Eisenhower's nomination ofLewis Strauss asSecretary of Commerce in 1959.[13]
In her successful re-election campaign in 1960, she ran against DemocratLucia Cormier, theminority leader of theMaine House of Representatives; it was the first time in American history that two women ran against each other for a Senate seat.[20]
On January 27, 1964, Smith announced her candidacy for President of the United States.[23] 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."[13]Gladys Shelley wrote her a presidential nomination campaign song, "Leave It to the Girls", which was sung byHildegarde.[41] Smith lost every singleprimary election, but did manage to win 25% of the vote inIllinois.[13] At the1964 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.[2] She placed fifth in the initial balloting, and denied unanimous consent for SenatorBarry Goldwater fromArizona after refusing to withdraw her name from the final ballot.[14] She nevertheless campaigned for Goldwater in the general election, appearing in a television ad in which she defended his position onSocial Security.[42]
During the administration of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, Smith argued that the United States should use nuclear weapons against theSoviet Union.[16] This led Soviet leaderNikita Khrushchev to call Smith "the devil in disguise of a woman" whose position exceeded "all records of savagery."[16] 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."[14] The morning afterKennedy'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.[14] A member of theSenate Armed Services Committee, she supported theVietnam War but opposed the deployment of the Sentinelanti-ballistic missile.[43]
Smith was the first (and as yet only) woman to serve aschair of theSenate Republican Conference, serving from 1967 to 1972.[2] She was a strong supporter of the space program and served as a charter member of theSenate Aeronautical and Space Committee.[23]NASA administratorJames E. Webb once commented that the United States never would have placed a man on theMoon if it were not for Smith.[44] She supported increased educational funding,civil rights, and the creation ofMedicare andMedicaid, being one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of both health programs.[13][45] Smith voted in favor of theCivil Rights Acts of 1957,[46][47]1960,[48]1964,[49] and1968,[50] as well as the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and theVoting Rights Act of 1965.[51][52][53] She held an all-time voting record in the Senate until 1981 with 2,941 consecutive roll call votes.[44]
Smith was present in the Senate whenKennedy's Supreme Court nominations ofByron White andArthur Goldberg to theU.S. Supreme Court were unanimously confirmed on April 11, 1962, and on September 25, 1962, respectively.[54][55] Smith was present in the Senate whenLyndon Johnson's nomination ofAbe Fortas was unanimously confirmed on August 11, 1965,[56] and voted in favor of the confirmation ofThurgood Marshall on August 30, 1967.[57] On June 9, 1969, Smith voted in favor ofPresident Nixon's nomination ofWarren E. Burger asChief Justice of the United States.[58] Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination ofClement Haynsworth on November 21, 1969,[59] and a few months later, Smith voted against Nixon's failed Supreme Court nomination ofHarrold Carswell on April 8, 1970.[60][14] The following month, Smith voted in favor of Nixon's nomination ofHarry Blackmun on May 12, 1970.[61] On December 6, 1971, Smith voted in favor of Nixon's nomination ofLewis F. Powell Jr.,[62] and on December 10, Smith was absent when Nixon's nomination ofWilliam Rehnquist as Associate Justice was confirmed while Senate Minority WhipRobert P. Griffin announced that Smith would have voted in favor if present.[63]
She was defeated for re-election in 1972 by DemocratBill Hathaway, the only election she ever lost in the state of Maine.[14] 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, attorneyRobert A. G. Monks, taunted her for being out of touch; she did not have a state office operating in Maine.[citation needed] Smith lost the election by 27,230 votes, a margin of 53–47%.
She was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952.[64] In 1973, Smith was inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame.[65] In 1995 Smith was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by theUS Navy Memorial Foundation for her support of theUS Navy, US Naval ReservesWAVES, and the military during her congressional career. She was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush on July 6, 1989.[2]
Following her departure from the Senate in January 1973, Smith taught at several colleges and universities as a visiting professor for theWoodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (1973–1976).[3] She resumed her residence in Skowhegan, where she oversaw the construction of a library to hold her papers.[13]
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.[14] She was cremated, and her ashes were placed in the residential wing of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan.[2] She was the last living U.S. senator who had been born in the 19th century.
Smith is the namesake for the Maine State Ferry Service's[66]Islesboro Ferry.
A large framed painting of Smith hangs in theMaine State House in Augusta.
On February 2, 1952, Smith was the guest on theCBS variety showFaye Emerson's Wonderful Town, in which hostessFaye Emerson visited Washington, D.C., to feature music popular in the nation's capital.[67]
On June 14, 1953, she was the "mystery celebrity" guest onWhat's My Line?
In 1958,Folkways Records released the albumAn 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 theGold Star Wives of America military family support organization.[68]
Patricia Neal dramatized Senator Smith's Declaration of Conscience speech in the 1978 television movieTail Gunner Joe.
In 1965, she was awarded a Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) fromWhittier College.[69]
In 1970, the twin Margaret Chase Smith bridges opened in Smith's hometown of Skowhegan, Maine, connecting Skowhegan Island to either side of theKennebec River.[70]
In 1979, theSupersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Smith's name and picture.[71]
Janis Benson portrayed Senator Smith in the 1998 miniseriesFrom the Earth to the Moon.
On June 13, 2007, theUnited States Postal Service issued a 58¢ postage stamp in itsDistinguished Americans series to honor her.
In 2010, the United States political action committeeMaggie'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."[72][73]
In 2020,Joe DiPietro debuted a play 'Conscience' about Sen. Smith'sdeclaration and her development as a politician.
On June 8, 2022, a room in theUnited 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 theBarbara Mikulski room, which was named on the same day.[74][75]
In 1970, the Margaret Chase Smith bridges were erected and are still the two bridges used on the island today.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's 2nd congressional district 1940–1949 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromMaine (Class 2) 1948,1954,1960,1966,1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of the Senate Republican Conference 1967–1973 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Maine 1949–1973 Served alongside:Owen Brewster,Frederick Payne,Edmund Muskie | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Space Committee 1963–1971 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Armed Services Committee 1967–1973 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Oldest living United States representative (sitting or former) 1993–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Oldest living United States senator (sitting or former) 1993–1995 | Succeeded by |
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| Class 2 | ||
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