The Devil and Joseph Welch
 Joseph Nye Welch, Special Counsel to the US Army confronts Senator Joseph McCarthy during congressional hearings |
On this day in 1954 Joseph Welch faced a political devil named Joseph McCarthy who was actively engaged in a personal witch hunt for communists in the United States of America. The "Red Scare" he originated has been the chagrin of constitutional proponents since it's advent in the 1950s. At congressional hearings to determine if communism had infiltrated the United States Army, Mr Welch in the capacity of special counsel for the Army took Senator McCarthy to task regarding his blanket condemnations of citizens in search of communists who simply were not there ...
This practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence had cast a dark abiding fear over the United States and subsequently many citizens of the country were forced into a sense of angst and forboding with it's blacklists, accusatory rhetoric, and drastic consequences for those so wrongfully accused until Mr McCarthy went after one young man too many and finally met his match.
"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness."Thus began the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries which subsequently became known as "McCarthyism" with it's resulting mass hysteria often compared to the witch hunts of colonial Salem.
... When McCarthy indicated relentlessness, Mr Welch angrily interrupted ...
"Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Joseph Nye Welch, Esq
Special Counsel to the United States Army
Public rebuke of Senator Joseph McCarthy
June 9, 1954
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