Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1171 |
| AUTHOR: | Joseph Nye Welch (1890–1960) |
| QUOTATION: | Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gaged [sic] your cruelty or your recklessness…. 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? |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Welch, counsel for the Army, was responding to Senator McCarthy’s charge that a member of Welch’s law firm had once belonged to a Communist front group. Many believed that Senator McCarthy’s downfall began with this exchange. |
| SUBJECTS: | McCarthyism |