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Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)
Born in Homer, Ohio, Victoria Claflin was raised in an abusive family and received little formal education. To escape her family she married her doctor at age 15, but it was not a successful marriage. She worked a variety of jobs–including one as a spiritual medium–and spent time advocating for reform of divorce laws that made it difficult for her to leave her marriage.
After the Civil War, she relocated to New York City. She and her sister became acquaintances of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided them investment advice. His stock tips allowed them to make almost $700,000 in six weeks. She used the money to open the first female-owned brokerage house on Wall Street. She also started a newspaper that advocated for women’s suffrage. Massachusetts Representative Benjamin Butler sponsored a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote, and Woodhull became the first woman to testify before Congress in 1873.
Woodhull parlayed the fame she gained from her testimony into becoming the first woman to run for president, even though she had not yet reached the minimum age of 35. Her running mate was Frederick Douglass, who became the first black to run for vice president. Woodhull gained the endorsement of the Equal Rights Party, but failed to garner much popular support. She moved to the UK four years after her unsuccessful candidacy and lived to see both the UK and US grant women the right to vote.
On Constitutional Equality (1873)
I have no doubt it seems strange to many of you that a woman should appear before the people in this public manner for political purposes, and it is due both to you and myself that I should give my reasons for so doing.
On the 19th of December, 1870, I memorialized Congress, setting forth what I believed to be the truth and right regarding Equal Suffrage for all citizens. This memorial was referred to the Judiciary Committees of Congress. On the 12th of January I appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and submitted to them the Constitutional and Legal points upon which I predicated such equality. [On] January 20th Mr. Bingham, on behalf of the majority of said Committee, submitted his report to the House in which, while he admitted all my basic propositions, Congress was recommended to take no action. February 1st Messrs. Loughridge and Butler of said Committee submitted a report in their own behalf, which fully sustained the positions. I assumed and recommended that Congress should pass a Declaratory Act, forever settling the mooted question of suffrage.
Thus it is seen that equally able men differ upon a simple point of Constitutional Law, and it is fair to presume that Congress will also differ when these Reports come up for action. That a proposition involving such momentous results as this, should receive a one-third vote upon first coming before Congress has raised it an importance, which spreads alarm on all sides among the opposition. So long as it was not made to appe