| Joseph Nye Welch | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 22, 1890 Primghar, Iowa |
| Died | October 6, 1960 (aged 69) Cape Cod Hospital Hyannis, Massachusetts |
| Education | Grinnell College (1914) Harvard Law School (1917) |
| Known for | Army-McCarthy Hearings |
| Spouse(s) | Judith Lydon (c1890-1956) |
Joseph Nye Welch (October 22, 1890 – October 6, 1960) was the head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities. This investigation, which was known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings, was underway when television was first becoming a common fixture in United States households. This was the first time many Americans were able to see McCarthy.
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He was born in Primghar, Iowa on October 22, 1890 as the seventh and youngest child of English immigrants.[1] He attended Grinnell College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1914, then attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 1917, with the second highest GPA in his graduating class.[1] Welch married in 1917 and had two sons, Joe and Lyndon.[2]
On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the hearings, McCarthy accused Fred Fisher, one of the junior attorneys at Welch's firm, of association (while in law school) with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group which J. Edgar Hoover sought to have the U.S. Attorney General designate as a Communist front organization (see Army-McCarthy hearings). Welch wrote off Fisher's association with the NLG as a youthful indiscretion and went after McCarthy for dragging the young man's name before a nationwide television audience with no prior warning or previous agreement to do so:
| “ | Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your 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. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think that I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me. | ” |
When McCarthy tried to go on the attack once more, Welch stepped in again and famously rebuked:
| “ | Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? | ” |
McCarthy tried to ask Welch another question about Fisher, and Welch cut him off:
| “ | Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could ask - could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out. And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further. I will not ask Mr. Cohn any more questions. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness. | ” |
At that point, the gallery erupted in applause. These proceedings have been recorded in the documentary film Point of Order! (1964). The title is taken from a phrase that was uttered often by McCarthy during the hearings.
His wife, Judith Lyndon, died in 1956, and he married Agnes Rodgers Brown in 1957.[2] Welch was a partner at Hale and Dorr, a Boston law firm, and lived in nearby Walpole, Massachusetts for nearly three decades. After remarrying, he moved to Harwich Port, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he lived out the final years of his life. Welch played a criminal court judge in northern Michigan in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). He took the part "because it looked like that was the only way I'd ever get to be a judge."[1] He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture and a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer for the role.[3] He also narrated the television shows Omnibus and Dow Hour of Great Mysteries.[1]
He died on October 6, 1960 at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.[4][1]
   | McCarthy-Welch Exchange: "Have You No Sense of Decency" (transcript and sound file) - American Rhetoric: McCarthy-Welch Exchange During the Army-McCarthy Hearings |
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