The First Woman to Run for President

With the charges, Woodhull fell as ferociously as she rose. She lost her home twice and once found herself living on the streets. Judges set bail at $16,000 for the sisters, an absurd amount for the day. Her former friends ignored her plight, underscoring the verity that the way you treat people on the way up affects how they treat you on the way down. Woodhull spent Election Day in Cell 11 at the Ludlow Street Jail.

After the election—in which she received thousands of write-in votes—Woodhull prevailed in the obscenity case and resumed her lucrative speaking career, giving speeches titled "The Naked Truth" and "Moral Cowardice and Modern Hypocrisy."

And then in 1877, she left the stage. With $100,000 Vanderbilt left Woodhull and her sister in his will, the sisters moved to England to begin a new life. Victoria lived until she was 90, beloved by all who knew her there. Toward the end, she denied that she had ever espoused the free-love ideas that caused such controversy in America. In her new life, she reinvented herself the way she once tried to reinvent American politics.

Victoria Woodhull and Hillary Clinton are completely different women from different times. But the way they stirred ideas and emotions tells us something important about American politics. Both were charismatic stars and the subjects of rampant gossip. Both were hated by their opponents and subjected to constant personal attacks. Both were ridiculed for their attitudes about monogamy—Woodhull for her "free love" notions and Clinton for "standing by her man." Both embraced a goofy spiritualism—remember Clinton's séances with Eleanor Roosevelt--and radical new theories about the family.

Both were driven politically by their husbands and were attacked for those relationships. They were both criticized for shady-looking stock deals. Both bemoaned the hypocrites of their time who preached rigid moral codes but could not uphold those values.

The sturm und drang of their lives came from wanting to live both ways. Both wanted to be part of the establishment, surrounded by luminaries, living in lavish homes, enjoying easy access to power. At the same time, they were radical critics of every aspect of society. That's not a contradiction so much as a reality for people trying to break barriers. To make change requires living in the worlds of both the powerful and the weak.