Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and Eugenics

Chapter Twelve: The Correspondence of the Equal Rights Party

ChapterTwelve The Correspondence of the Equal Rights Party This correspondence was published in Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly on June 15, 1872. The Equal Rights Party convention itself took place in May, and over six hundred people attended, “representing 22 states and 4 territories” (Underhill, The Woman Who Ran for President, 208). The Equal Rights Party primarily consisted of spiritualists and self-described free lovers. letter of notification New York, June 3, 1872 Victoria C. Woodhull—Dear Madam: The National Convention of the Equal Rights Party who recently assembled in Apollo Hall in this city, has instructed the undersigned officersoftheConventiontoinformyouthatyouhavebeennominated byacclamationasitscandidateforthePresidencyoftheUnitedStates. ThePlatformandResolutionsunanimouslyadoptedbytheConvention we alsosubmitto yourconsideration,andrequestyouracceptance of the same as well as of the nomination. J. D. Reymert, President Anna M. Middlebrook, John T. Elliot, Isaac Frazier, Vice Presidents Lavinia C. Dundore, John M. Spear, } | 79 correspondence of the equal rights party Harriet B. Burton, George R. Allen, Ruth W.S. Briggs, Treasurer letter of acceptance New York, June 5, 1872 Hon. J. D. Reymert, President of the Nominating Convention of the Equal Rights Party, and Associates: Gentlemen and Ladies: Yourcommunicationreceivedthisday,conveyingtheformalstatement to me of the simple fact that the Equal Rights Party, recently represented in convention in this city, has nominated me as the chief standard-bearer of the party in the coming conflict, recalls the vivid sensationsofgratitude,renewedresponsibilityandprofoundhumility with which I was overwhelmed on that memorable evening when the spontaneousacclaimofagreat,enthusiasticandadmirableassemblyof maleandfemalecitizens,gavemethesameinformationwithoutwaiting fortheformalitiesofannouncement.Youspeakalmostasifthissimple fact were one of the ordinary events of polities. But to my apprehension it is far more than that. It is not even a common-place historical event. The joint assemblage of all the reformers, of all schools, for the first time in the history of the great transition which human society is undergoing,blendedandfusedintothesamespirit,comingtoagreeto standuponthesameplatformofideasandmeasures,andnominating by an outburst of inspiration a woman known to be representative of themostadvancedandunmitigatedradicalism,andbecauseshewasso known:andanegro,oneoftheboldestofthechampionsanddefenders of human rights, a representative man and a representative woman of thetwooppressedandrepressedclasses,forthetwohighestoffices in thegiftofagreatpeople—suchanoccurrencerisesinmymindintothe sublimity and pregnant significance of the grander class of the events ofhistory.Itisaneventwhichmarksinvarioussensestheclimacteric; and more than that, even; the reversal of the current of human affairs, from the drift towards selfish absorption and class interests, towards Secretaries } 80 | correspondence of the equal rights party magnanimity and justice; from the disposition to impose wrong, to a generous readiness to make reparation: from the low, semi-barbarous greed for the exercise of an authority, to the gallant and truly civilized impulsesofwell-bredgentlemenandladies,tocedetheplaceofhonorto thosewhombruteforcemightotherwiserepress.Itisthefirstredemption in politics of the pledge given in the prophecy, that “the first shall be last, and the last first.”1 In a word, it is the appropriate inauguration oftheEqualRightsParty;which,initslargeraspect,contemplatesnot American polities merely, or alone; but the establishment of justice throughouttheworld.Itisalsothesubordinationofpartystrife,among reformers themselves to the unity of a common cause. This last aspect of the subject cannot be too much insisted on. The reformersintheworldarethestrongestpartyintheworld;themightiestpoliticalpowerintheworldthemomenttheyunite .Theconservativeworldknowsthatfactbetter ,eventhanthereformersthemselves; knows the meaning of such a union and trembles in the prospect or the presence of its actual occurrence. Thereformershavebeenkeptasunderbyvariouscauses;anddivided andweakened,theyhavebeenconquered.Theirintensityintheperceptionofparticularanddifferentevils ,andoftheirremedies,hastended to divide them. But they are coming now to perceive that the greatest of all evils, relatively to their conflict with the common enemy the organized injustice of society, is the diversity in their own views, carried to the extent of defeating their common action. The higher truth isunityinthemidstoftheirdiversity,theunityofacombinedphalanx2 for action; with the freedom of absolute toleration. The organization of the Equal Rights Party is the expression of the fact that the cohorts of reform have at length arrived at this solid center of united activity. Another cause for the division of the ranks of reformers has been the different degrees of radicalism, by which they have been severally characterized. These a little behind have feared to trust those a little in advance; until at length it is clearly seen that they are all travelling alongthesameroad,anddestinedtoreachthesamegoal—theabsolute dissolution of the old order of social managements, and the erection of a totally new order, on the two bases of freedom and justice. | 81 correspondence of the equal rights party Thispointoncegained,everythingisgained.Reformers,insteadof fallingasunderlikearopeofsand,ateverystrainwillbeconsolidated, by their co-operation, into a mighty strength, from the moment that they can no longer be frightened by any other degree of radicalism beyondwheretheyseverallystand.Theyhaveevidentlyreachedthatpoint whentheynominateme.Ithasbeenthepurposeofmylifetoadminister to them that test. I have uttered as radical thoughts in behalf of social and individual freedom (short of encroachment), as I could find the power...