The First Woman to Run for President of the United States
Victoria Woodhull for President, Frederick Douglass for Vice-President
In 1872, the United States held the 22nd Presidential Election. The primary contenders were Ulysses S. Grant of the Republican Party and Horace Greeley, who represented the Liberal Republican Party in alliance with the Democrats. Grant won and retained his presidency. However, the presidential election of 1872 was unique, it included the first female presidential nominee in the history of the United States. Her name was Victoria Woodhull.
The Beginnings of Her Career
Woodhull, born in 1838, was an advocate for women’s rights and universal suffrage and was active in its campaigns and protests. She was notable at the time for her impressive career prior to her political campaigns that contrasted with the idea of the traditional woman’s role in society. In 1869, she, along with her sister, opened a firm on Wall Street and entered into the finance business. A year later, she opened and published her own weekly newspaper that focussed on women’s issues in society and political ideologies. The paper was notable for publishing the first English language translation of the Communist Manifesto.
In 1871, her fights for societal change and women’s rights saw her take her challenges to Washington D.C. where Woodhull gave a speech in Congress to argue for women’s suffrage and for women to be subject to the Fourteenth Amendment, granting citizenship and enfranchisement to women as well as former slaves. She was unsuccessful in persuading the House to allow women the vote, despite Congress acknowledging the increase and growing importance of women’s rights groups in the United States.
This speech did, however, acknowledge Woodhull as a serious advocate and political speaker determined for social reform, making her popular and more reputable amongst her fellow suffragettes who were at the time unsure of her.
The Presidency
Woodhull’s desire for social reform did not stop at being a forerunner for equal rights, starting businesses, and advocating socialist ideologies. Woodhull had desired the role of the ultimate power in the United States that would allow her to enact these reforms, granting the monumental and necessary changes in society. She entered herself in the 1872 race for President.
She ran, not for the Republicans, Democrats, or Liberals, but for the Equal Rights Party, and her campaigns made clear all that she stood for, from universal suffrage to employment.
However, she encountered issues in her personal life that spilled over into the public eye, one of which was a scandal that involved her ex-husband moving into her home with her and her new husband. Woodhull’s questionable reputation was already notorious due to her rather eccentric way of living and her personal beliefs such as free love which made others wary of her, including her fellow women’s rights activists. Mostly, this was used by her presidential opponents to conjure the image of a female with no morals and someone too untrustworthy to be president.
Publications and the media were also quick to criticise Woodhull, her reputation, and policies, making it more difficult to gain serious support from the public who didn’t share her political beliefs. Alongside this, there was also the issue that she was under 35 years of age, the minimum age required to run for the presidency. Nonetheless, she persevered.
The ‘Vice President’
It is notable that Frederick Douglass was Woodhull’s choice for the Vice-presidency. Frederick Douglass was a black man. Not only was he black, but Douglass was also an ex-slave and an advocate for equality, civil rights, and for the abolition of slavery.
Having been physically abused and nearly worked to death by his owner, Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and began fighting for its abolition. His rise as a fighter for civil rights was epitomised in his statement that his:
“battle with (his slave owner) was the turning point in my life as a slave … I was nothing before; I was a man now.”
But this was not enough — he was determined to be a ‘free man’.
However, despite the pair’s compatible political ideologies of equal rights for all and Douglass’s support for women’s suffrage, it came as a surprise to Douglass that he was nominated as Woodhull’s running mate. He didn’t even know she had nominated him.
Nevertheless, this made a highly unique campaign where a woman and a black man were in the competition for the fight for the Presidency, a deviation from the norm where white men had dominated prior.
Results
Woodhull was unsuccessful in the presidential election. As the New Yorker reported in 1928, one year after her death,
‘Even Horace Greeley was no match for Ulysses S. Grant. As for Mrs Woodhull, she received not a single vote in the electoral college.’
That is, of course, not to say that she didn’t receive any votes, however, it is unknown how many popular votes were cast in her favour. Likewise, she was unfortunate in that the demographics she appealed to and advocated for were still unable to vote. If they could have, there is the possibility that Woodhull could have gotten much further in the race and become a serious contender for the Presidency. Yet, this is speculation as we’ll never truly know what may have happened, although it is still highly unlikely she would have won.
Following her defeat and harsh treatment in the United States, Woodhull moved to England to continue advocating for women’s rights and universal suffrage, continued publishing, and began giving lectures on her beliefs and political opinions. She died in 1927.
Conclusion
Victoria Woodhull’s candidacy as the first woman to ever run for political office as President of the United States was extremely important, providing the inspiration for other women of future generations to aspire to roles dominated at the time by men. Hilary Clinton’s run for the presidency in 2016 was far from the first time a woman had become a serious candidate. Likewise, Woodhull’s advocacy for female rights and using her platform to fight for equality was just as important as her fight for the presidency, thus remains a unique figure in history, not only of the United States but of the world.
