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Abstract
This study seeks to understand the rhetorical tactics of Belva Bennett Lockwood, the first woman to run a campaign for U.S. President. Lockwood attempted to make a female presidential candidacy seem plausible by framing her actions as culturally expected, befitting for a woman, and prototypical for future female politicians. Through her use of rhetorical eikos, she seemed to suggest that female political leadership was not just probable but needed in the political culture of the time. A close reading of her campaign speeches and writings reveals the potential of eikotic logos to present a female presidential candidacy as innate, and thus logical, legitimate, and part of an essential future. This essay will present a historical review of Lockwood’s unprecedented political campaigns, an analysis of the theoretical potential of eikos argument as seen through her rhetoric, and commentary on the state of women and cultural perceptions of presidentiality then and now.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 In addition to running on the ticket with Lockwood, Stow also founded the Woman’s Independent Political party, whose rpose was to “prepare women for political life by giving them confidence-building experience.” She ran for City School Director as a member of the Greenback Party in 1880, Governor of California in 1882 as an independent, was a founding member of the Equal Rights Party, and edited the Woman’s Herald of Industry and Social Science Cooperator, an important progressive magazine for women (“Marietta Stow,” 2017).
2 Lockwood’s papers are primarily housed at the New York State Library and the Peace Collection at Swarthmore College. Although a few original letters and writings are in these collections, most of the primary material available can be found in publications from the time. Julia Hill Winner has compiled a series of writings in a volume with the Niagara County Historical Society in 1969. The Belva A. Lockwood Papers in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection includes letters, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings. The Belva Lockwood Papers in the Ormes-Winner Collection at the New York State Historical Association includes handwritten manuscripts.
3 The New York Times printed excerpts from an 1884 campaign speech delivered at the New York Academy of Music (“A Woman Can Be President,” 1884). Another campaign speech was printed in the Louisville Courier Journal in October of 1884 (“Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech,” 1884). Her essay, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer” ran in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in February of 1888 (Lockwood, Citation1888, February). Although Lockwood was not officially nominated as a candidate for President until May of 1888, this article, published less than two months earlier, can be considered a preliminary piece of campaign rhetoric. She also wrote an essay published in Volume V of The Cosmopolitan in 1888 titled, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question” (Lockwood, Citation1888, March-October). In addition, a campaign address was published in the Boonville Herald of Boonville, NY, in September of 1888 (“Mrs. Lockwood’s Address,” 1888). Finally, Lockwood published the essay “How I Ran for the Presidency” in the March 1903 issue of the National Magazine. In this essay, she interlaced the narrative of her 1884 campaign with copies of a letter to the editor that she wrote, her letters of nomination and acceptance, the platform for the campaign, and a petition she sent to Congress after Election Day in 1884.
4 Lockwood lobbied Congress for many reforms, including pensions, mining rights, Indian affairs, foreign policy, and woman’s rights. See Norgren, Citation2007, Chapter 9.
5 It took an Act of Congress, for which Lockwood lobbied, to effect her admission to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Claims. President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the “Lockwood Bill” into law on February 15, 1879, giving women the right to practice law in federal courts. The first time she participated in oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States was in the case of Kaiser v. Stickney in 1880. See Lashley, Citation1993, pp. 39-41.
6 Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for President in 1872, also as a candidate for the Equal Rights Party. Woodhull was a notorious and controversial figure because of her radical views on free love and her financial woes. In addition, many historians question the legality of her candidacy. She was not the constitutionally mandated age of 35 when she ran for office, her name was not printed on the ballot, and she was in custody for violating the Comstock Act on election day in 1872. For more see Norgren, Citation2002, Citation2007; Underhill, Citation1996; and Gabriel, Citation1998.
7 Mother Hubbard dresses were new pieces of female clothing that allowed for freer movement that was considered inappropriate to be worn outdoors (Norgren, Citation2007, p. 139; “Fun of the Campaign,” 1884, p. 1).
8 According to a petition included in her essay “How I Ran for the Presidency,” Lockwood and Stow received votes in New Hampshire, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, California, Indiana, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Lockwood claimed that the votes received in Pennsylvania were “not counted, simply dumped into the waste basket as false votes” (Norgren, Citation2007, p. 140; Lockwood, 1884, p. 733).
9 The origins of the term eikos has been debated by scholars because ancient Greek theorists disagree about whether it was Corax, his student Tisias, or sophists like Gorgias and Protagoras who first considered eikos arguments and their power (Hoffman, Citation2008, pp. 1-2). For more on etymology and history of the term eikos, see Schiappa (Citation2003), Walton (Citation2001), Grimaldi (Citation1980), and Warnick (Citation1989).
10 Interestingly, this type of rhetoric continues to be present in female political rhetoric today. Dubriwny (Citation2013) writes that Hillary Clinton also used construction metaphors in her 2008 primary bid for the Democratic nomination to make her work more legitimate and relatable (p. 43).
11 Lockwood rode her bicycle almost everywhere in Washington, D.C., and was frequently ridiculed for it in the press. The bicycle she rode was actually an adult’s tricycle. Riding a bicycle was a controversial act for women of the time, and was further proof for many of her contemporaries of her radical ways. For more see Norgren (Citation2007) pp. 94-95.
12 In 1888, The Woman’s Journal published the following statement in light of Lockwood’s Citation1888 nomination: “In view of the announcement made in this morning’s paper that a national convention of woman suffragists has nominated a presidential ticket, it is proper to state that this action does not represent any of the large organizations of woman suffragists in this country…it should be distinctly understood that such a nomination is wholly unauthorized and in no sense representative of the plans or purposes of the suffragists of the United States. Since the women who wish to vote are not yet able to do so, it seems premature, to say the least, for them to nominate an independent presidential ticket.” See “Belva Lockwood’s Nomination,” 1888, p. 5.
13 Lockwood is mentioned in passing in Volumes III and IV, which covered the years 1876-1885 and 1883-1900 and were published in 1886 and 1902, respectively, for her speech-giving, her attendance at suffrage conventions, and her efforts to open the practice of law to women. Her presidential campaigns are not mentioned (Stanton et al., 1881–1922).
14 Frances E. Willard, a national leader in the suffrage and temperance movements, died in 1898, and her organization, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union backed away from her original commitment to woman suffrage. In addition, Lucy Stone died in 1893, Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1902, and Susan B. Anthony in 1906. See Paulson (Citation1997), p. 119 and Graham (Citation1996), p. 8 for more.
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Emily Berg Paup
Emily Berg Paup is an Assistant Professor at the College of Saint. Benedict and Saint. John’s University. A previous version of this study appeared in a dissertation titled “‘A new woman in old fashioned times’: party women and the rhetorical foundations of political womanhood,” at the University of Minnesota in 2012. She would like to thank Dr. Karyln Kohrs Campbell, Dr. Kirt Wilson, Dr. Zornitsa Keredmidchieva, Dr. Aric Putnam, Dr. Catherine L. Langford, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.