recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. When I decided to work for this Committee, I asked Jim St. Clair, who sits on my right, to be my first assistant. I said to Jim, "Pick somebody in the firm to work under you that you would like." He chose Fred Fisher ... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator ... Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? ... I will not discuss it further. I will not ask, Mr. Cohn, any more witnesses. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness ...
McCarthy-Welch Exchange
"Have You No Sense of Decency"
delivered 9 June 1954 during the Army-McCarthy Hearings in Washington DC
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.htmlThe Jim St. Clair, whom Joseph Welch here says chose Fred Fisher as assistant, later represented Richard Nixon before SCOTUS in United States v. Nixon, where St. Clair famously said, "The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land"... Ostensibly, the Army-McCarthy hearings convened to investigate a convoluted series of charges leveled by the junior Republican Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph R. McCarthy, at the U.S. Army and vice versa. In November 1953, a consultant on McCarthy's staff named G. David Schine was drafted into the Army. Even before Schine's formal induction, Roy M. Cohn, McCarthy's chief counsel, had begun a personal campaign to pressure military officials -- from the Secretary of the Army on down to Schine's company commander -- into giving Private Schine special privileges. When on 11 March 1954 the Army issued a detailed chronology documenting Cohn's improper intrusions into Schine's military career, McCarthy responded by claiming the Army was holding Schine "hostage" to deter his committee from exposing communists within the military ranks ... The afternoon of 9 June 1954 brought the emotional climax of the hearings, an exchange replayed in myriad Cold War documentaries. Ignoring a pre-hearing agreement between Welch and Cohn, McCarthy insinuated that one Fred Fischer, a young lawyer at Hale & Dorr, harbored communist sympathies. Welch responded with a righteous outburst that hit all the hot buttons: "Until this moment, senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or recklessness....Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy tried to strike back, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness." Pausing just a beat, the hushed gallery erupted in applause. The uncomprehending McCarthy, shot dead on live TV, turned to Cohn and stammered, "What happened?" ...
THE ARMY-McCARTHY HEARINGS
U.S. Congressional Inquiry
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=army-mccarthy... Secretary STEVENS. Gentlemen of the committee, I am here today at the request of this committee ... In order that we may all be quite clear as to just why this hearing has come about, it is necessary for me to refer at the outset to Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant of this committee. David Schine was eligible for the draft. Efforts were made by the chairman of this committee, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and the subcommittee’s chief counsel, Mr. Roy M. Cohn, to secure a commission for him. Mr. Schine was not qualified, and he was not commissioned. Selective service then drafted him. Subsequent efforts were made to seek preferential treatment for him after he was inducted ...
“Have You No Sense of Decency”: The Army-McCarthy Hearings
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444/
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