Volume 18 , Issue 29

144 Years Ago (June, 1872) - The Woodhull's Convention

We look back to another time, 144 years ago, When Victoria C. Woodhull, of New York, was placed into nomination, as "the woman's, Negroes and Workingman's Ticket for President and Fredrick Douglass, of District of Columbia, for Vice President.

Found on Newspapers.com The New Northwest, out of Portland, Oregon, dated 7 June 1872, Friday, on page 3, had this to say about Victoria C. Woodhull's Convention, where she was nominated at first women for President, June, 1872.

The party of "equal rights," who had chosen Mrs. Victoria Woodhull as their standard bearer, met again (6 June 1872) in the morning at Apollo Hall, the session of the Convention being continued over the second day for the purpose of allowing debate and discussion on various matters which were not clearly understood the previous day. They assembled at ten o'clock, and a great wight seemed to have been taken off the minds of the members, for the reason that they had a leader at last under whose banner they might fight with some prospect of success.

During the opening of the convention Judge Carter, of Ohio, offered some resolutions, which were full of "humanity' and "equal rights," "brotherly love," sisterly affection." These resolutions made the platform - a very vague and cloudy document by the way - a little more clear to the understanding of the members.

Mrs. Spear (a lady with a blazing blue eye and a heavy waterfall) - I think we ought to agree upon some ticket which we may thrust in the ballot-box election day. My idea of a ticket is soothing like this: "The Woman's, Negroes and Workingman's Ticket - Victoria Woodhull, of New York, for President; Frederick Douglass, of District of Columbia, for Vice President."

We can vote on that easy on election day. Here the old Cokney Indian, Father Peter, with white hair and shaky legs, arose and said: "I 'opes in my 'art that you will add "and the Indian's Ticket.' The old man seemed almost frantic at the thought that the noble red Indian might be left out of the platform.

A short, bandy-legged man with spectacles - "And I have another amendment to offer. Since you include the Indian, the Heathen Chinee and the negro, let us call it everybody's ticket; that will make it pleasant for everybody, and we can all vote upon it."

After this there was an exciting and tumultuous debate, every one pitching in at random. The men with the long hair and the women with the short hair bobbed up and down in the Convention like discarded champagne corks int he surf at Long Branch on a summer's morning. Order was finally revolved out this chaos, and at the close of the hurly-burly a tall lady, dressed in a black empress cloth dress, surmounted by a pink scarf covered with white lace, and wearing her back hair in the tele of 1830, having three bands on each side of her face puffed out, advanced to the rostrum, and was announced by the Chairman as Mrs. Bell A. Lockwood, of Washington, D.C. A Document was then read from a town with an unpronounceable name in Wisconsin, expressing sympathy and condolence with the Convention and its objects.

A white-headed old delegate, seventy years of age, who has six wives in Utah, then got on his legs and offered a resolution, that the party of equal rights adopt as their political banner the Goddess of Liberty, in pure white, with the words "Equal Rights," in large Roman capitols, underneath.

Another delegate, with a green cotton umbrella, said, "I think that - that our banner should be one with a dove, being a representative of peace, with the three charming words in its bid, 'Liberty, Justice and Fraternity.'"

The following resolutions were reported by the committee on platform and resolutions. it was understood they were drawn up by the long-haired Pantarch Stephen Pearl Andrews, and were like most of his productions, full of sound and fury signifying nothing:

Resolved, That the two fundamental principles of government and the life of mankind are order and freedom, which have always hitherto been in conflict, and frequently in fierce antagonism, but which are, nevertheless, destined to be married and reconciled with each other.

Resolved, That there is a crude, primitive and imperfect king of freedom, which consists of casting off the constraint of conscience and legitimate discipline along with the unauthorized invasion of foreign authority, while true freedom contributes to order; and that there is also a false and oppressive kind of order, while the higher kind of order is evolved from the very bowels of freedom.

Resolved, That the lordly arrogance of man in determining the "sphere of woman" or of any one human being in determining the sphere of any other human being, is becoming more and more adverse to the spirit of the age; that the question is not, fundamentally, of the right or wrong of any particular course of conduct, but it is one of jurisdiction, or of the deciding power over the very question whether the thing considered be right or wrong; and that the growing spirit of freedom in the work demands that this deciding over be lodged with the individual himself, or herself, whose conduct is in question; and that assumption of the right and authority to interfere with and regulate the conduct of others is becoming more distasteful to every well informed and well regulated mind.

Resolved, That it is written in the destinies now urgently pressing for fulfillment that society shall pass through the experience of the full participation of woman in political affairs; that the fact will have to be accepted, whatever the previous prejudices, speculations and theories on the subject may have been; and that the future form of society will, therefore, be such as shall be developed out of this hitherto untried condition of things; that the sooner, with the less amount of acrimony, and with the more mutual confidence and helpfulness between the sexes, the transition is effect the better for all.

Resolved, That not only the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments of the Constitution of the Untied States, but the Constitution itself, the declaration of American Independence,the spirit of all our institutions and the law of God written upon the rational constitution of the human mind and evolving itself in this age as the science of society - all concur in conferring on every citizen of a a competent age the equal rights to participation in the choice of the government which they are called upon to obey.

It was at this juncture the inevitable Maddox, of Miane, got upon the platform and commenced to saw the air with his arms, and at the same time articulate sounds came from his mouth. Maddox, of Maine, talked Communism. Maddox, of Miane, talked philanthropy. Then he made another excursion in the air with his arms. Then he condescended to explain to his audience the mode of operation by which the new party were to procure funds. He said it was their intention to issue certificates of indebtedness, to be signed by the chairman, secretary and treasurer of the executive Committee of the new party. This was to be done in the style of the Fenian bonds. Maddox, of Maine, knew that millions of americans were ready to buy the bonds, any amount of money could be procured, and in the ecstasy of the sublime thought Maddox, of Maine, metaphorically embraced the whole world in his arms. Maddox sat down at last, his eyes rolling i pious delirium.

Aged veteran named Spear, "We are going to elect our candidates, we are, and the good and the great people of the united States will crowd around our victorious President, Victoria C. Woodhull, and escort him to the White House, and our national executive committee rally in upon them in perfect showers." Here the aged veteran sat down, his heart beating like a trip hammer.

The names of this National Executive Committee of the new party were read as follows and accepted by the Convention: A. E. Robinson, Massachusetts; Mrs. Caroline H. Spear, Vice President, California; Otis J. Porter, Connecticut; Judge A. J. M. Carter, President, Ohio; Mrs. Abbie P. Ela, New Hampshire; Mrs. Bella A. Lockwood,, secretary, Washington; John F. Underswood, Virginia; Mrs. Richmond, Illinois; Jennie C. Udndee, Maryland; George D. Coleman, Pennsylvania; Mitchele, Maine; Elizabeth A. Mereweather, Tennessee; John M. Spear, Utah; Mrs. Esther Morris, Wyoming; John Helmsley, Idaho; Mrs. E. B. Curtis, Nevada; Mrs. Olympie Higgins, Washington Territory; Robert Dale Owen, Indian; Newman Weeks, Wisconsin; J. S. Graham, New York; J. B. Taylor, Kansas; Anthony Higgins, New Jersey; Mrs. Lonkham, Rhode Island; Moses Hill, Kentucky; A. W. St. Johns, Missouri; Lemuel Parolee, Louisiana; Richard J. Irevellich, Michigan; Mary F. Davis, New Jersey, Treasurer.

The resolution in substance empowered the National Executive Committee of the "Equal Rights Party" to issue certificates of indebtedness, in order that the money could be raised for the coming Woodhull and Douglass campaign. The resolution was passed. Victoria Woodhull, in a letter some three volumes in length, accepted the nomination of the Apollo Hall Convention for the Presidency.
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