The speech was written by Joseph R. McCarthy in West Virginia in February 1950. The reason behind his speech was because he believed that he holded a list of 205 communist that were working for the State Government. “States and localities required loyalty oaths of teachers, pharmacists, and members of other profession…”(733). During the Cold War tensions of high wide spread communist party members were growing and people were fearing these members. The kind of social resentment that are evident in McCarthy’s speech is the part where he mentions “ the reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful, potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this nation” (734). Also, McCarthy mentions how the people who are born with a silver spoon are the worst meaning that the men who are born with everything and are given everything since the start are the traitors, yet they are still helping shape foreign policy and also that the State Government is infested with communists. …show more content…
This speech was written because few political figures didn't want to speak up after McCarthy's speech, but Smith did speak up and created this speech. It was a speech of what she called “declarations of conscience”(733). Although this speech did not mention any names everyone had a clue of who the target of the speech was. Smith believed that the essence of freedom is “not only freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation”(735). Smith believed that those who talk the most about Americanism are the same who ignore the basic principles such as; “the right to criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs;the right to protest; the right of independent