A Lecture The Review of a Century, The Fruit of Five Thousand Years

by Victoria Claflin Woodhull

"A hundred years ago, in an upper room in Philadelphia, five men were gathered—men of noble bearing, of brilliant intellects, of undoubted character. Their faces wore a look of stern determination, as if the theme of their consideration was of matters of grave import; was of matters destined to be the beginning of the most important era that had ever dawned upon the earth. A century and eighty years before, a single ship-load of men, women and children, had landed on this virgin soil at Jamestown in Virginia; and a few years later, another one at Plymouth-Rock in Massachusetts. To these, additions had been made until the thirteen States then numbered fully three million souls, upon whom “the king” had imposed onerous taxation, and over whom he had placed obnoxious rulers. The tea had been destroyed in Boston 4harbour, and the people were wrought up to the intensest pitch by their oppressions. They had come from their native lands to escape from tyranny, and were not disposed to brook it here. In this wild, free land, they had become pregnant of liberty, and were even then struggling in the throes of travail. These five men had met to find a way in which the delivery might be safely made, so that both the mother and the child should live to bless the world."

74 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 3, 2021

About the author

Victoria Claflin Woodhull (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was an American suffragist who was described by Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement in the 19th century. She became a colorful and notorious symbol for women's rights, free love, fighting corruption, and labor reforms. The authorship of many of her speeches and articles is disputed. Many of her speeches on these subjects were not written by Woodhull herself alone but also by her backers and husband. Either way, her role as a representative of these movements was nonetheless powerful and controversial. She was the first woman along with her sister to operate a brokerage firm in Wall Street and then open a weekly newspaper. She is most famous for her declaration and campaign to run as the first woman for the United States Presidency in 1872. Many of the reforms and ideals espoused by her for the common working class against the corrupt rich business elite were extremely controversial in her time though generations later many of those implemented are now taken for granted. Other ideas and reforms still remain controversial and debated today.