Editing Victoria Woodhull (section)

=== Women's rights advocate ===
Woodhull learned how to infiltrate the all-male domain of national politics and arranged to testify on women's suffrage before the [[House Judiciary Committee]].{{r|Johnson1956_47}} In December 1870, she submitted a memorial in support of the [[New Departure (United States)|New Departure]] to the House Committee.<ref name="Katz" /><ref>[[Benjamin Butler]], while a member of Congress, wrote the memorial for her. Shaplen, Robert, ''Free Love: The Story of a Great American Scandal'', New York: McNally Editions, 2024, p. 144; originally published in 1954 by [[Alfred A. Knopf]] as ''Free Love and Heavenly Sinners''.</ref> She read the memorial aloud to the Committee, arguing that women already had the right to vote&nbsp;– all they had to do was use it&nbsp;– since the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th]] and [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendments]] guaranteed the protection of that right for all citizens.<ref name="Woodhull">[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?rbpebib:1:./temp/~ammem_enxC:: Constitutional equality. To the Hon. the Judiciary committee of the Senate and the House of representatives of the Congress of the United States ... Most respectfully submitted. Victoria C. Woodhull. Dated New York, January 2, 1871]</ref> The simple but powerful logic of her argument impressed some committee members.  Learning of Woodhull's planned address, suffrage leaders postponed the opening of the 1871 [[National Woman Suffrage Association]]'s third annual convention in Washington in order to attend the committee hearing. [[Susan B. Anthony]], [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], and [[Isabella Beecher Hooker]], saw Woodhull as the newest champion of their cause. They applauded her statement: "[W]omen are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights."<ref name="Woodhull" />

With the power of her first public appearance as a woman's rights advocate, Woodhull moved to the leadership circle of the suffrage movement. Although her constitutional argument was not original, she focused unprecedented public attention on suffrage. Woodhull was the second woman to petition Congress in person (the first was [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]]). Numerous newspapers reported her appearance before Congress. ''[[Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper]]'' printed a full-page engraving of Woodhull, surrounded by prominent suffragists, delivering her argument.{{r|Johnson1956_47}}<ref>Susan Kullmann, [http://feministgeek.com/teaching-learning/woodhull/ "Legal Contender... Victoria C. Woodhull, First Woman to Run for President"]. Accessed 2009.05.29.</ref>