Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly Journal

"Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly" was, perhaps, the most notorious publication of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Begun by Victoria Woodhull and her sister, Tennie C. Claflin, on May 14, 1870, it published a variety of articles on such topics as woman suffrage, spiritualism, vegetarianism, and free love. It was the chief propaganda vehicle for Woodhull when she ran for President in 1872. 1872 was also the year that the journal exposed the affair of the noted preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, with the wife of his friend, Theodore Tilton. The topic of adultery in print was ruled obscene by New York Commissioner Anthony Comstock, who had Woodhull imprisoned. Woodhull spent election day in jail.