Remembering an Act of Conscience and Courage

Remembering an Act of Conscience and Courage

Sen. Margaret Chase Smith at the Capitol in June 1950. (Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images)TODAY MARKS THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY of the death, at 97, of Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. And in three days comes another important date for Smith: June 1 is the 75th anniversary of her “Declaration of Conscience” speech denouncing her colleague Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for alleged Communists in the U.S. government—an extraordinary act of political…