Meet the Woman Who Lied, Conned, Cheated and Ran For President

Scores of people don’t know that in 1998 Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives and lost his law license for five years when he was President. Also, multitudes don’t know that Hillary is not the first female presidential candidate in U.S. history.

Actually, over 200 women have sought the presidency, one being a black woman, Shirley Chisholm, who ran 44 years ago!

Yet, of whom was it said, “She lied, conned, cheated, and fought to be a self-made millionaire?”

Actually it wasn’t Mrs. Clinton. Detractors said this about the first woman to pursue the presidency, Victoria Woodhull, over 144 years ago! The precedent-shattering, historic first was notched in 1872.

Being from the state of Ohio, I’m familiar with the historical marker planted there in the ground declaring her “First Woman Candidate for President of the United States.”

She was controversial, but had one quality that should catch the attention of Hillary Clinton and everyone alive today: Mrs. Woodhull protected unborn babies and opposed their dismemberment and premature death through the horror of abortion.

If you ever visit the “National Women’s Hall of Fame” in Seneca Falls, New York, you’ll discover this fascinating female who’s the subject of this commentary. Also, if you recall the 1980 Broadway musical, “Onward Victoria,” you remember it’s the story of her life.

Let’s examine some interesting biographical items from her life before being challenged by her pro-life position.

10 Facts About Victoria Woodhull

1. She was a courageous civil rights activist who lived to be 88 years old.

2. She had a conviction to stand up against the atrocity of slavery and expressed it fearlessly.

3. Victoria was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement to secure their voting rights.

4. She was a change agent who was active in securing labor reforms in her day.

5. Mrs. Woodhull was America’s first female stockbroker and pioneered her own brokerage firm.

6. She was one of the first women in America to found a newspaper, “Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly,” which she did with her sister in 1870.

7. She was astute in business and made a fortune advising America’s richest man, Cornelius Vanderbilt. She amassed $700,000 (a few million today!) and was nicknamed one of the “Queens of Finance.”

8. She was a woman of conviction and not afraid to expose scandals in her day through her publication. She even landed in jail because of her boldness and refusal to be politically correct.

9. She was the first woman to petition Congress, unafraid to speak out for the causes she embraced.

10. She was nominated for President of the United States along with black abolitionist, Frederick Douglass as her running mate (he never accepted!), and repeatedly referred to herself as “Future Presidentess.”

“In Advance of Her Time”

On May 27, 1870, the New York Herald newspaper said of her in an editorial, “She may be elected but it seems she is rather in advance of her time.”

Running against a formidable opponent, Republican Ulysses S. Grant, bore out the correctness of the editorial. Even though she got her toe in the water, her campaign sank dramatically.

Here’s the deal: History records Victoria Woodhull as a woman who was willing to swim against the tide to pioneer moral reforms in society through her courageous work. If only Mrs. Clinton would follow the example of her predecessor and take a stand on behalf of the 4,000 unborn babies being exterminated in the womb every day in America.

I address the following appeal respectfully but forthrightly to Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton:

Hillary, while you speak out regarding the so-called “war on women,” what about the war which takes the lives of little women developing in mommies’ tummies across America? Your daughter Chelsea is one of them along with my daughter-in-law, whose baby is due in a matter of days.

The woman who pioneered this quest for the office you now pursue speaks to you through the quiet corridors of time concerning the fate of these precious and defenseless little lives. Listen, can you hear her trying to awaken your conscience and millions of others who turn a deaf ear to their silent screams?

• “The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the fetus.”

• “The beating of the heart, modern science tells us, never begins; that is to say, there is no time in the whole process of the growth of the human body from the moment of conception until death, that pulsations of life are not present in what is to develop into the perfected body.”

• “Whoever has read the WEEKLY knows I hold abortion … to be just as much murder as the killing of a person after birth is murder.”

• “I am aware that in assuming this point I shall evoke more ridicule than enthusiasm at the outset. But this is an epoch of sudden changes and startling surprises. What may appear absurd today will assume a serious aspect tomorrow.”

Mrs. Clinton, you state repeatedly that you are a Christian. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is impossible to be an authentic Christian and not be pro-life.

In your pursuit of the presidency, will you follow the example of Victoria Woodhull and speak out for social justice and protect the lives of little children?

A number of years ago a good friend of mine, Dr. Michael Brown, and I were awaiting the departure of our flight at the Los Angeles airport. We noticed the presence of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall also in the boarding area.

Like yourself, Mr. Marshall purported to be Christian (Episcopalian), advocated for social justice and repeatedly supported abortion in SCOTUS rulings.

That day in L.A. I spoke with him and later gave his wife my personal testimony tract, which she promised to give him. Mike and I prayed for God to reveal Himself to the Justice through this “divine appointment.”

Shortly thereafter he died of heart failure and went on, like every person, to stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) to give account for his life, including rulings where he supported the taking of human life through abortion.

Mrs. Clinton, when you stand there before the throne of God to give an account for your life, all that will matter is whether or not you are saved and obeyed the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regarding the “least of these” preborn little babies in the womb, what will be your response?

I join Mrs. Woodhull and tens of millions in saying, “Please choose life.”