06/03/2026
“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…Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own.”
In her speech, she laid out the fundamental principles of "Americanism"::
On June 1st 1950, Margaret Chase Smith, a freshman Senator from Maine, delivered her "Declaratin of Conscience" speech on the Senate floor. In that speech, Chase Smith condemned smear tactics and fearmongering and denounced bigotry and ignorance.
In her speech she laid out the fundemental principles of "Americanism":
The right to criticize
The right to hold unpopular beliefs
The right to protest
The right to independent thought
“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.”
Margarte Chase Smith proves that courage is, indeed, contagious.
