Joseph Welch’s Rebuke of Senator McCarthy at a Public Hearing, 1954

Support for Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of suspected Communists collapsed with this rebuke by Army Counsel Joseph Welch: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” Welch was countering McCarthy’s accusation that one of Welch’s staff had Communist ties.

Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.