Victoria Woodhull's Historic Presidential Bid: A Woman Ahead of Her Time

With the 2024 presidential campaign in full swing, it’s time to learn about the first woman candidate for president of the United States, who happened to be in jail at the time of the election.

Victoria Woodhull declared her candidacy in the New York Herald on Saturday, April 2, 1870. Women were not granted the constitutional authority to vote until 1920, and Woodhull would not even reach the required age of 35 before her inauguration, if she won.

Victoria Woodhull, 1882 candidate
for U.S. President against Grant,
preferred wearing purple

Woodhull herself submitted the article, titled “The Coming Woman,” and included her views on home and foreign policy, as well as “new ideas on government.” She stated, “I anticipate criticism,” but said, “having the means, courage, energy and strength necessary for the race intend to contest it to the close.”

Born Victoria California Claflin in Ohio in 1838, she married 28-year-old Canning Woodhull at the age of 15. Her husband, a doctor, was an alcoholic and philanderer, and Victoria divorced him in 1865 after 12 years of marriage. Though she continued to use the name Woodhull publicly, she eventually married twice more.

It was likely the experience of her first marriage that caused Victoria to advocate what she called “free love.” She did not approve of promiscuity but insisted that individuals should be able to stay with romantic partners as long as they chose and then be free to move on. The movement sought to destigmatize divorce and make it easier for women to leave abusive husbands.

She also became involved in the women’s suffrage movement, and in 1871 was the first woman to testify before a Congressional committee. Along with Susan B. Anthony and Isabella Beecher Hooker, she spoke to the House Judiciary Committee, arguing that American women already had the right to vote under the 14th and 15th Amendments. The committee declined to draft legislation clarifying that right, however.

Victoria partnered with her younger sister, Tennessee Claflin, to start a brokerage firm in 1870, making them the first women stock brokers. Newspapers dubbed them “the Bewitching Brokers” and “Queens of Finance.” The women used their financial success to start a newspaper called Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, which supported women’s suffrage, free love, and other political reforms.

In declaring her candidacy for president, Woodhull wrote, “While others argued the equality of woman with man, I proved it by successfully engaging in business; while others sought to show that there was no valid reason why woman should be treated socially and politically as a being inferior to man, I boldly entered the arena of politics and business and exercised the rights I already possessed.”

Newspapers announced Woodhull's
nomination for President in 1872

She remained self-nominated until 1872, when the new Equal Rights Party selected her as their candidate for president. The party also nominated well-known abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass for vice president, but Douglass never accepted the nomination.

The sisters’ newspaper published an article claiming the famous preacher Henry Ward Beecher, one of Victoria’s strongest critics, had an affair with a married woman in his congregation. The ensuing controversy resulted in charges of obscenity rather than libel, and Victoria and her sister were arrested and jailed, remaining there through Election Day. The legal troubles forced them to discontinue publication of their weekly paper.

At the time, political parties, not the government, printed ballots for elections. No records exist of how many people (only men could vote, of course) voted for Woodhull. Anecdotal evidence indicates she received at least a few votes, but not enough to win any electors.

After divorcing her second husband, Victoria moved to England. She returned to the United States a few times and attempted unsuccessfully to run for president again, but she married for the third time and lived in England until 1927, when she died at age 88.

Controversy never stopped Victoria Woodhull from fighting for her beliefs, and she remained politically active until her death.

Sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/victoria-woodhull

Victoria Woodhull announces her candidacy on Apr. 2, 1870 in the New York Herald - Newspapers.com™

Victoria Woodhull & Company | The Spirit to Run the White House (victoria-woodhull.com)

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed third in Inspirational Romance in the nationally recognized Maggie Awards, and is a finalist in the Touched By Love Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glistens,” set in her home region of western Kentucky, was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares historical tidbits, recommended books, "behind the scenes" writing info, and sometimes vintage recipes.

From Farm Wife to Presidential Candidate

 

By Suzanne Norquist

At age eighteen, in 1848, Belva Ann Bennett married Uriah McNall, a farmer in Upstate New York. She lived an ordinary life, giving birth to her daughter, Lura, two years later. How is it, then, that she was a presidential candidate in the 1884 and 1888 elections? Women didn’t even have the right to vote! Yet, her name appeared on the national ballot as a third-party candidate, and she received around four thousand votes in the first election and slightly less in the second.

Never a slacker, she began teaching elementary school when she was only fourteen. When her husband died after five years of marriage, she returned to her educational roots. She attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary to prepare for study at a college in a time when most women didn’t attend universities.

Working as a teacher and school administrator, she supported herself and her daughter. The longer she spent in the workforce, the more she recognized the discrimination women faced. She earned half as much as her male counterparts and grew frustrated with teaching young women to be nothing more than housewives and teachers. In her schools, she expanded the curriculum for girls to include things like biology and exercise. At some point, she met Susan B. Anthony and agreed with her views about women’s rights. 

This led to her interest in law. She took lessons from a local lawyer. In 1866, she moved with her daughter to Washington, D.C., the center of political power. There she opened a school—not a school for girls, but a co-educational school—an unusual move.

When she remarried in 1868, she found a man with progressive ideas. A Baptist minister and practicing dentist, Reverend Ezekiel Lockwood supported her in all her endeavors.

The Columbia Law School denied her admission, but the National University School of Law (now George Washington University Law School) allowed her and several women to study there. However, when she finished her coursework in 1873, they refused to grant her a diploma because of her gender. She wrote a letter to President Ulysses S. Grant and received her diploma soon after.

She was admitted to the Bar in the District of Columbia but not the Maryland Bar or the Federal Bar, which meant she could only practice law in a limited capacity. She worked out of an office with her husband, who had become a notary public and a pension claim agent. He brought in many of the early clients.

She fought for women’s rights and became the first female attorney to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

Since most of her male counterparts used bicycles or tricycles as an efficient means of transportation around the city, she took up the practice. Again, she didn’t care about the criticism she faced.

Her second husband passed away in 1877, and she continued to champion women through her law practice.

Then, in 1884, she ran for President of the United States on the National Equal Rights Party ticket. Some would argue that she was the first woman to run for president. However, in 1880, Victoria Woodhull ran, although she wasn't old enough to serve. Others would say Belva’s political campaign didn’t count because women were not allowed to vote.

Belva continued to champion women’s rights until she died in 1917. Afterward, the U.S. Post Office created a stamp in her honor.

She didn’t allow her start as a farmer’s wife to hold her back from reaching new heights of success. Discrimination didn’t stop her either. Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood was an amazing woman.

***

”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

For a Free Preview, click here: http://a.co/1ZtSRkK

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

She authors a blog entitled, Ponderings of a BBQ Ph.D.