“The notorious Hughes case never ceases to deserve retelling,” the New Republic commented in a recent review of Up From Liberalism, “but what does [it] prove about Liberalism?” If the Hughes case deserves retelling, one wonders why the New Republic not only doesn’t retell it, but has never yet given its readers a full account of the case they nonetheless call “notorious.” It is not only the New Republic, but the entire world of Liberal journalism which perseveres in its silence about the little confidence man in Washington who made a dozen prominent Liberals jump through his hoop in the course of the anti-McCarthy hysteria in 1954.
national review alone covered the case exhaustively when it came up in 1956. Our readership was then under ten thousand. Even so, we have received repeated requests to review the case. We proceed to do so—on the fourth anniversary of the Hughes trial. We tell it not only because the story is fascinating, but because we do believe, making bold to contradict the New Republic, that the case proves a considerable lot about contemporary Liberalism. As does the continued suppression of the case. We publish herewith an account of the case adapted from Up From Liberalism, by William F. Buckley Jr.
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