Rhetorical Devices in Remarks to the Senate in Support of a Declaration of Conscience

The noun “concurrence” means agreement. For the six other senators to concur means that they agree with Smith’s sentiments. This enhances the ethos of Smith’s speech since her words do not merely present her own opinions and expertise, but also those of six other Senators.

The phrase “divide and conquer” historically refers to a military tactic that seeks to break up larger, more powerful entities into smaller ones. Smith’s implication is that, rather than effectively fighting Communism, McCarthy is actually supporting Communist goals by creating mistrust and division in the United States. She reaffirms the importance of a united resistance to Communism and portrays McCarthyism as not only misguided, but also dangerous.

The noun “vilification” refers to abusive disparagement. A “rendezvous for vilification” is therefore a place where people meet to slander others. This characterization is a direct continuation of Smith’s assertion that the Senate has become a “forum of hate and character assassination.” She surrounds these descriptions with the repeated phrase “I am not proud,” adding a tone of shame and embarrassment to her criticism. In Smith’s eyes, being a Senator is no longer something to be proud of if the Senate is a mere “rendezvous for vilification.”

Smith uses anaphora to express her embarrassment over being associated with the Senate’s tactics. By repeating the phrase “I am not proud,” her speech takes on a tone of shame and frustration. She uses words such as “irresponsible,” “reckless,” and “undignified” to further criticize the Senate’s behavior, emphasizing the institution’s decline in respectability. “As an American,” Smith is “shocked” by the Senate’s behavior, linking her sense of individual shame to that of the American people, implying that the Senate has become a disgrace to its constituency.

Smith once again invokes her identity as a woman to provide a unique perspective on the Senate’s actions. She has already established herself as a Republican and a patriot, so now she appeals to the values and traditions of the family. She uses her identity as a woman to remind her audience that it is not only the lives of the accused that McCarthyism ruins. By invoking empathy for the families of the accused, Smith creates a pathos appeal that encourages the Senate to consider their actions in light of the unseen damage they are doing.

With this remark, Smith establishes her primary identity as a patriot. Though she is a Republican, she refuses to put the needs of her party over the needs of the American people. Though she is anti-Communist, she refuses to allow fear-mongering and “the Four Horsemen of Calumny” to erode the country under the guise of guardianship. By emphasizing patriotism and the good of the United States above all else, Smith enhances her own ethos and also protects herself from accusations of holding Communist sympathies. She grounds her arguments in the Constitution and the “basic principles of Americanism,” associating herself with the values of “Americanism” while painting McCarthy as a reckless and dangerous influence.

“Campaign issues” refers to the topics and causes that parties base their platforms around in order to win elections. In the mid-20th Century, the mounting threat of the USSR and the spread of Communism was a controversial issue. Democrats preferred the containment method proposed by Truman, which sought to stop the spread of Communism while allowing it to continue in places where it was already established. Republicans felt that this was a show of weakness and believed that a more aggressive approach was needed; Smith disagrees. Smith’s continuous references to the wellbeing of the Republican Party serve to enhance her ethos, reminding her audience that she is not criticizing her party on partisan grounds but rather moral ones.

The noun “prudence” refers to the quality of being cautious or careful. It is often associated with conservatism, since both outlooks take a cautious approach to change. For the Republican Party to be the “champion of unity and prudence” would further align them with the reputation of Abraham Lincoln, who fought to keep the United States together during the Civil War. By emphasizing the connection between the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln, Smith appeals to the sense of pride that her fellow conservatives draw from the highest achievements of their party’s history. They are not the party of division and recklessness that McCarthy is trying to make them, but rather the party of “unity and prudence” that Lincoln established.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the first US President to identify as a Republican. He took office as the United States was on the brink of civil war. During his tenure, he kept the country together through the war and abolished slavery. In his 1865 Second Inaugural Address, delivered 36 days before the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln said, “With malice toward none; with charity for all [... ] let us strive on to finish the work we are in.” By evoking the American Civil War, Smith reminds her audience of the dangers of a divided nation. By citing Lincoln, she appeals to their sense of national pride, offering them the chance to emerge as the “champion[s] of a united nation.” She directly associates unity with victory and glory.

Smith uses a rhetorical question to remind her audience that everyone is connected to someone with “unpopular beliefs” in some way. Rather than establishing this reality as something to change or fear, she emphasizes the importance of diverse thoughts and beliefs, framing them as natural. She includes herself in the question by using the pronoun “us,” universalizing the sentiment and challenging anyone to imply that they don’t know someone with controversial beliefs.

Though McCarthy’s crusade against Communism remains his best-known campaign, he also ruined the reputations and careers of many others who were deemed subversives. Communism was linked with liberalism, so Hollywood was a prime target for accusation. This led to the creation of “blacklists,” unofficial documents that listed suspicious individuals who were then ostracized. McCarthy also targeted homosexual government employees, stating that they were security risks because they were more susceptible to blackmail. This crusade became known as the “Lavender Scare.” Smith removes the sensationalist aspects of Communism and homosexuality from the mix and instead reminds her audience that it is people whose lives are being ruined. She rejects McCarthy’s tendency to polarize and instead appeals to a sense of common humanity.

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, guarantees the right to a trial by jury. By evoking legal precedent, Smith appeals to logos. The US government, as Smith points out, is “sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution.” However, rather than properly trying people for crimes, McCarthyism instead relied on the societal fears around Communism in order to try people by accusation, typically without evidence or due process. By emphasizing the disparities between the Senate’s purpose and its actions, Smith makes a logical case for curtailing McCarthyism on the grounds constitutional breaches.

Smith notes the double standard created by congressional immunity, whereby the Senate can make whatever accusations it wants and civilians have no way to seek compensation or legal action for libel damages. She also notes the further hypocrisy in that Senators can slander non-Senators however much they want, but if they attempt to criticize a colleague, they can be stopped on the grounds of being disrespectful. Smith appeals to pathos by emphasizing the inherent injustice of this dynamic, evoking anger and indignation from her audience.

Smith uses anaphora—or the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses—to build an appeal to ethos and pathos. Through the use of repetition, Smith emphasizes the different identities and expertises she carries. Smith presents herself as not only a politician, but also as a citizen and woman. Her status as a Republican emphasizes that she is not criticizing McCarthy as a partisan issue, and her status as a US Senator and American emphasize that her criticism comes from a place of patriotism and national concern. Her identity as a woman makes her a unique voice within the Senate, as she was the only female Senator for much of her career.

One of the primary criticisms of McCarthyism was that it created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. No one was safe from McCarthy and his supporters’ accusations, and their political detractors were common targets. Rather than focusing on the Cold War and what was perceived as an external threat of Communism, McCarthyism sought the threat within the United States. Rhetorically, the phrase “national suicide” enforces the idea that McCarthyism is self-destructive and ruinous to American values. Smith highlights the threats that “fear and frustration” pose to democracy and the country at large. Rather than being threatened from the outside, the country is committing “suicide.”

Smith sets the tone for her speech by describing it as “brief and simple,” a divergence from the impassioned, pathos-driven anti-Communist speeches that grew increasingly common as the Cold War began. Smith instead establishes herself as a logical and “simple” voice, while also adopting a humble tone in acknowledgement of her place as both a newly elected Senator and the only woman in the Senate at the time. Both of these identities set her low within the Senate hierarchy.