These important changes can only be expected to follow a complete departure from the beaten tracks of political parties and their machinery; and this, I believe my canvass of 1872 will effect.
Victoria C. Woodhull
The Public Record
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin, was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency, some disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be president if elected.
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The present administration has been a failure from the beginning; weak, vacillating and deficient in moral courage, it commands neither the respect nor admiration of foreign Powers nor receives the active support of its party.
The general management of our foreign and domestic affairs does not seem to have risen to the dignity of a policy; though it be allowed to have been consistent in its various parts, it has been destitute of that decision and firmness which…
A decided Cuban policy would not only have settled at once the inevitable destiny of that island, but would also have given republican sentiment in Spain an impetus, strengthened the South American republics and exercised a healthy…
But instead of this we have to submit to the consequences of a policy of cowardice.
American citizens abroad are murdered by Spanish cut-throats, our consuls are insulted, and our flag is disgraced.
This is unworthy of the American nation, and the people will hold Grant accountable.
A giant who never shows his strength is neither feared nor respected.
Taxation, whether for the support of the Government or the payment of the debt, should in all cases be general and never special.
No special interest, nor several special interests, should be singled out to sustain an extra proportion of taxation.
Created to save the republic, it must be paid strictly according to both the spirit and the letter of the law.
Charity, with its long cloak of justice escaped, has long enough covered a multitude of sins.