Former Republican US Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) was a clear-headed, unapologetic national security conservative. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and have her name placed in nomination for the presidency. She is recalled for her 1950 “Declaration of Conscience,” where she decried “hate and character assassination” in politics. But there is more. She was a leader.
These days, looking for leaders with integrity, conscience, and authenticity, we are often disappointed. Missing are those who speak bluntly, grew up “the hard way,” think independently, respect, and are respected – while also possessing grace.
Five years before she died – in 1990 – I interviewed the Senator. She told me stories about having to let President Eisenhower know she loved her country –a LT Colonel in the Air Force – but prioritized the People of Maine. That was her job.
She told how she wrote a newspaper column five days a week for many years. I read many of them, on potatoes, manufacturing, national security, and diplomacy.
Even then, she commented on how politics was “meaner” than when she served, how “comity,” or people getting along, was slipping. One wonders what she would say about today. Then 92, she spoke affectionately of Senator Ed Muskie (D-ME), and worried aloud that he – then in his 70s – was “looking old.”
Vividly, I recall – beyond her quick wit – her elegance, simplicity, and grace. She carried herself like a lady, diplomat, and Mainer, but – like Margaret Thatcher – was “a steel hand in a velvet glove, not a velvet hand in a steel glove.”
Incredibly, Margaret Chase Smith carried on years of correspondence with world leaders, Churchill (Great Britain), Nehru (India), Europe’s leaders, and Lady Chiang Kai-shek, with whom she exchanged gifts for decades. Their letters are still right there to be read, in her library, Skowhegan, Maine.
But if we know and like candor, independence, authenticity, and respect, what about grace? Where is that quality Margaret Chase Smith exuded, why missing?
My mind jumps to a quote, pondered when I missed the mark and need reminding, by William Wordsworth. He wrote: “The best portion of a good man’s life… is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” That is grace, I think.
She had it. Margaret Chase Smith worked for years to make the “rose” our national flower. It now is. The morning after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, she quietly entered the Senate early, placing a rose on the desk that had been his. For years, she wore a red rose on her lapel, the day we talked.
This many years later, it is hard to part the curtain, penetrate the veil of time, and recall all the nuances, but her grace remains vivid, defining, splendid.
History books portray her as that resolved Senator from Maine who gave a history-making address one June day in 1950, speaking about the need for integrity, decency, and conscience, less hate and hubris, but there was more.
As we look around for leadership examples – not just wit, clarity, and resolve but poise, purpose, and leaders with grace – she comes to mind. With her are some of the poets, especially the New England ones.
The exact nature of grace, that ingredient too often missing in modern leaders, is hard to pinpoint, but perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson is a good bookend – to Margaret Chase Smith, Margaret Thatcher, and William Wordsworth.
Emerson wrote, “Successful is the person who has lived well, laughed often and loved much, who has gained the respect of children, who leaves the world better than they found it, who has never lacked appreciation for the earth’s beauty, who never fails to look for the best in others or give the best of themselves.” That was Margaret Chase Smith. Perhaps we have it in us, too.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
