Margaret Chase Smith’s political life began with the fact that she was secretary to her husband, Clyde Smith, who was a congressman from Maine. While they were living in Washington, Clyde Smith passed away after two heart attacks. Before Clyde died on April 7th, 1940, he wrote a letter saying that if he did not make it through, he wanted Margaret to run for him in the House Of Representatives. When Clyde died, she did not have any time to mourn because she had to get right down to business with whatever it would take to win and get into the House of Representatives. With a little motivation from her family, Margaret won the election. She knew that by winning she had made Clyde happy.
In 1944, Margaret Chase Smith went to inspect the South Pacific military bases as a member of the Naval Affairs Committee Subcommittee on congested Areas. Margaret had always wanted to fly. When she went into this committee she knew that it would better help her understand what was going on in World War II. She knew she would be able, one day, to fly in a jet.
She became a member of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 1941. In 1948 Margaret won the election to the Senate. She won with 71% of the votes. Her slogan during the campaign was “Don’t trade a record for a promise.” Margaret was the first woman to be elected to the Senate .
In 1950, Margaret delivered her Declaration of Conscience speech which was directed toward Joseph McCarthy. The speech was about how McCarthy was accusing people of being Communists without any proof. He was attacking many of the American people verbally no matter what they had for an occupation. When Margaret would stand up against him, he would then attack her verbally. He would try and keep her off committees, embarrass her, and even tried to get rid of her from the Senate. He tried to get other members from the Senate to go against her, but instead they turned against Joe McCarthy himself. Margaret was the only Senator that would stand up to him at that time.
In 1955, a very very famous person came to Skowhegan. President Eisenhower came to Maine to go fishing, but along with going fishing, he stopped at the Skowhegan Fair Grounds. Then, after he had made a speech, he went to Margaret Chase Smith’s house and had a big cookout. The menu included lobster and steak. Later on in he afternoon, President Eisenhower got tired and asked Margaret if he could lay down. So, Margaret led him into one of the spare bedrooms where he lay down for a couple of hours.
In 1956 she debated Eleanor Roosevelt during a presidential campaign on "Face The Nation." This was a very heated debate. They debated whether or not Margaret should run in the presidential campiagn. Margaret protested that it was not against the law for a woman to be in a presidential campiagn. Margaret ended up defeating Eleanor Roosevelt but she eventually dropped out of the presidential race.
In 1968, Margaret had to undergo hip surgery and miss he rvery first vote to Congress in thirteen years. But she still held the record for consecutive roll-call votes with 2,941 votes. Not once did she ever miss a vote but that day.
In 1970, Margaret Chase Smith delivered a second Declaration of Conscience speech in reaction to antiwar protests. This speech was delivered in Washington D.C.
This was near the end of Margaret Chase Smith’s political life. Her life was very eventful and kept her busy all the time. Margaret tried to come home and visit Skowhegan or just come back to Maine every other weekend. She always made it back to check on her family and see how they were doing. Whether it was by person or letters, she always made the attempt. That was the kind of person that Margaret was, busy but always keeping her promises. I think that Margaret was a very brave woman for going up against Joe McCarthy and bravely facing all the challenges that came up during her political life.