Background+Information

=__**Background of Joseph McCarthy By: Ryan**__=

The first words that come to my mind when I think of Joseph McCarthy.... "Legend of politicians". And I'm sure that many others agree with me. At his speeches, his words would just devour people with there strength. In his early career in politics, only a few hundred people came to watch his spectacular speeches and in his later part of his career, thousands were there to watch him speak.

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born in a small, Irish community in Grand Chute, Wisconsin on November 14, 1908. Joseph was the fifth of nine children and his parents were strongly Catholic. Joseph dropped out of school in his teens and a few years later, he went back to High school and crammed a four year session in only one year.It doesn't sound to smart, but he did it.

In his adult years, he became a politician and was a very good one. First he tried to become a Democrat, but failed so he became a Republican. After WWII, he ran against Robert Follette for the Republican spot for the Senate. McCarthy told the public all these "BAD" statements about Follette and Robert was in so much pain that he committed suicide. In the fifties, he was asked to give speeches about Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February twelfth. He couldn't have imagined his speech would turn out to be so influential.

Some cities that he went to are Nevada, South Dakota,Huron,Las Vegas, Reno, Utah,Salt Lake City, West Virginia, and Wheeling to give speeches. During his speeches, hundreds of people would gather to listen to the great Joseph McCarthy. The words that came out of his mouth were spectacular and they made headlines. The press put the article in the newspaper, and it spread across the country. When he reached Salt Lake City, reporters were all over the senator.

Joseph McCarthy looked up to Franklin Roosevelt his whole life. He wanted to be like Roosevelt, because Franklin was so successful and was very intelligent. FDR attended Harvard University and did very well there. In 1905, he married his cousin Eleanor. In 1910, FDR was elected the New York Senate.

The Republican party was established in 1845, in Ripon, Wisconsin. It had a lot of support in the North and hardly any in the South. That is because the Republicans were against slavery and the Northerners agreed, but the Southerners could care less.

Citations: -Contemporary Authors online,Gale,2007 Reproduced in Biography,Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale.2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC -McCarthy and the Year of Communism, Karen Zeinert, enslow Publishers, Springfield NJ, copyright 1998