Lecture on Constitutional Equality, A" pamphlet.
Woodhull, Victoria C. Pamphlet: A Lecture on Constitutional Equality, Delivered at Lincoln Hall, Washington, D.C., Thursday, February 16, 1871. New York: Journeymen Printers' Co-operative Association, 1871.
Pamphlet , 9x5-7/16", 28pp; self-wrappers (sewn); disbound with tiny stab holes at left margin (not affecting text); with Library of Congress duplicate stamp at rear (overlapping, but not obscuring, 1" square or so of text); 1" closed tear at last leaf (bottom edge); about very good in custom-made letter case.
First edition. Victoria Woodhull galvanized American suffragists by her assertion that women had already been given the right to vote by the 14th and 15th amendments which she had made before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in January, 1871. In fact, this strategy, called "the New Departure" had been outlined in 1869 by a husband and wife team of Missouri suffragists, Francis and Virginia Minor. It was adopted by the NWSA in 1871 and unsuccessfully tested that and subsequent years by the Grimké sisters, Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull, Dr. Mary Walker and Myra Bradwell (among others). Mrs. Woodhull was not the first in her demand for equality; she was certainly one of the most vociferous and visible. Although the suffragists had broken with her by 1872, the one year when she and they were joined in a common cause marks one of the most important in the history of the suffrage movement. Woodhull, notorious and attractive, drew packed audiences as a lecturer. Her biographer reports that an "auditorium of female hands waving fluttering handkerchiefs greeted Victoria's call for revolution" and from Ohio, Susan B. Anthony wrote, “Dear Woodhull, I have just read your speech of the 16th. It is ahead of anything, said or written—bless you dear soul for all you are doing to help strike the chains from woman's spirit' .” This copy likely came to the Library of Congress as part of the NAWSA collection.
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