View source for Seymour Stedman

{{short description|American lawyer}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Seymour Stedman
| image = Seymore Stedman Trim.jpg
| caption = Stedman in 1920
| order = 
| office = Member of the<br>[[Illinois House of Representatives]]<br>from the 13th district
| term_start = 1913
| term_end = 1915
| predecessor = 
| successor =
<!-- PERSONAL -->
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1871|7|4}} 
| birth_place = [[Hartford, Connecticut]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|7|9|1871|7|4}} 
| death_place =[[Chicago]], U.S.
| alma_mater  = {{nowrap|[[Northwestern University]]}}
| party       = [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist]] (1896–1948)<br>[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (until 1894)
| other_names = 
}}

'''Seymour "Stedy" Stedman''' (July 4, 1871 – July 9, 1948) was an American from [[Chicago]] who rose from [[shepherd]] and [[janitor]] to become a prominent [[civil liberties]] lawyer and a leader of the [[Socialist Party of America]]. He is best remembered as the [[1920 United States presidential election|1920]] vice-presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, when he ran for office on a ticket headed by [[Eugene V. Debs]].

==Biography==

===Early years===

Seymour Stedman was born in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], on July 4, 1871, the son of ethnic Anglo-Saxon parents with ancestors dating back to the time of the [[American Revolution]].<ref name=PG15>Alexander Trachtenberg (gen. ed.), ''A Political Guide for the Workers, 1920.'' Chicago: Socialist Party of the United States, 1920; p. 15.</ref> Financial difficulties forced the Stedman family to move west, settling in [[Solomon, Kansas]], where adverse weather conditions forced the family still further towards poverty.<ref name=PG15 /> Young Seymour was forced to drop out of school in the third grade to take a job tending sheep for $5 a month as a way of helping his family make ends meet.<ref name=PG15 />

The Stedman family moved to Chicago in 1881 and Seymour took a job for a manufacturing company, working as a uniformed messenger boy.<ref name=PG15 /> Stedman later took a job as a janitor for another Chicago firm, an occupation that allowed him ample time for reading. During the course of his reading, he became interested in political ideas for the first time and frequently debated the problems of the world with friends.<ref name=PG15 /> As a byproduct of his reading and discussions, Stedman became an adherent of the [[Georgism|Single Tax system]] advocated by [[Henry George]], a [[reformism|reform program]] then in popular vogue.<ref name=PG15 />

In 1889 Stedman decided that he wanted to be a lawyer.<ref name=PG15 /> He approached the [[Dean (education)|dean]] of the [[Northwestern University School of Law]] and told him of his desires, admitting that he had had only three years of formal education.<ref name=PG15 /> After grilling the youth for an hour to determine Stedman's level of reading capability and intelligence, the dean relented and admitted Stedman to the university.<ref name=PG15 /> Stedman continued to work as a janitor during the day and attended university lectures in the evening.<ref name=PG16>Trachtenberg, p. 16.</ref> He was ultimately admitted to the [[Illinois State Bar Association]] in 1891.<ref name=PG16 />

===Political career===
[[File:National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of America, 1900.jpg|thumb|left|Members of the National Executive Committee of the [[Social Democratic Party of America|SDP]], 1900]]

In 1890 the precocious Stedman decided that he wanted to become a public orator on behalf of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref name=PG16 /> He honed his skill speaking before the public, specializing in matters dealing with [[tariff]] legislation.<ref name=PG16 /> His development as an aspiring Democratic politician came to an end in 1894, however, when the great [[strike action|strike]] of the [[American Railway Union]] headed by [[Eugene V. Debs]], centered in Chicago and which Stedman supported as an official public speaker of the union, was crushed by [[judicial injunction]] and federal troops sent into Illinois by President [[Grover Cleveland]].<ref name=PG16 /> Stedman left the ranks of the Democratic Party in protest over this heavy-handed action of the Democratic president.<ref name=PG16 />

In the aftermath of the defeated strike, Gene Debs was incarcerated for six months at Woodstock Jail in Chicago, where he was turned to the doctrine of [[socialism]] by the jailhouse visits of Milwaukee newspaper editor [[Victor L. Berger]]. Stedman would not be far behind the union leader, following a brief stint in the [[People's Party (United States)|People's Party]] as a radical populist.<ref name=PG16 /> He was an early booster of Debs for President of the United States, helping to establish the "Central E.V. Debs Club" in Chicago on May 20, 1896, and being elected president of the new booster organization by the gathering.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11543796/central_debs_club_is_organized_in/ "Central Debs Club is Organized"], ''Chicago Tribune'', May 21, 1896, p. 7.</ref>

Stedman was elected to the 1896 National Convention of the People's Party, held in [[St. Louis]], where he attempted to start a movement among the delegates to draft Gene Debs as the nominee of the organization for [[President of the United States]].<ref>Trachtenberg, pp. 16–17.</ref> Nearly one-third of the 1300 assembled delegates signed a petition calling for Debs that Stedman circulated.<ref name=PG17>Trachtenberg, p. 17.</ref> His effort was short-circuited by a trick of the supporters of [[William Jennings Bryan]], however, when the gas lights were shut out on the convention.<ref name=PG17 /> The following day a statement by Debs was read to the convention indicating that he had no desire to run for president and the bid was over, leaving Stedman to support Bryan in the 1896 campaign.<ref name=PG17 />

In 1897 Victor Berger decided to work at converting the [[Social Democracy of America]], an organization established with the goal of constructing a [[socialist colony]] in some western American state into a full-fledged socialist political party. He gathered together Debs, Stedman, and others for this cause, which came to a climax at the heated June 1898 convention of the organization.<ref name=PG17 /> The battle over the main question of colonization versus independent political action was won by the colonization faction by a vote of 53 to 37,<ref name=PG18>Trachtenberg, p. 18.</ref> a result that caused Berger, Debs, Stedman, and their co-thinkers to bolt the convention and establish a new political organization of their own — the [[Social Democratic Party (United States)|Social Democratic Party of America]] (SDP).<ref name=PG17 />

Stedman was a member of the governing National Executive Committee of the SDP from 1898. When after much acrimonious debate that organization merged with a similarly named Eastern organization headed by [[Henry Slobodin]] and [[Morris Hillquit]] to form the [[Socialist Party of America]] (SPA) in 1901, Stedman became a founding member of that organization as well.<ref name=PG18 />

In 1904, he was the Socialist Party of America's nominee for [[Cook County state's attorney]].<ref name="Almanac1911">{{cite web |title=Chicago Daily News Almanac |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ERgfAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA510 |publisher=Chicago Daily News Company |access-date=12 February 2025 |page=511|language=en |date=1911}}</ref> Stedman's name was offered for nomination for [[Vice President of the United States]] at the SPA's 1908 convention in Chicago, but he trailed [[Benjamin Hanford]] in the balloting, losing by a vote of 106 delegates to 46.<ref name=PG18 /> That year, he again was the parry's nominee for Cook County state's attorney.<ref name="Almanac1911" /> In 1912, Stedman was elected to the [[Illinois House of Representatives]] as one of three representatives from the 13th district alongside [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] incumbent [[Benton Kleeman]] and [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]] candidate [[Elmer Schnackenberg]]. He was the Socialist's candidate for [[Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives]] in the [[48th Illinois General Assembly|48th General Assembly]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Illinois Blue Book 1913-1914|page=264|url=http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/bb/id/25917}}</ref> In 1914, Stedman lost reelection, finishing fifth of five candidates for three seats.<ref>{{cite book|title=Illinois Blue Book 1915-1916|page=716|access-date=April 10, 2022|url=http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/bb/id/27766}}</ref>

[[File:George-roewer-seymour-stedman-atlanta.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Boston Socialist George Roewer and Stedman leaving Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where they visited presidential nominee Gene Debs, May 1920.]]

In [[1915 Chicago mayoral election|1915]] Stedman was their candidate for [[Mayor of Chicago|mayor]] of [[Chicago]] and in [[1920 United States presidential election|1920]] for Vice President of the United States, running on a ticket headed by Eugene V. Debs. During World War I Stedman was a prominent defender of war opponents indicted for [[sedition]], most notably [[Rose Pastor Stokes]].

During the [[popular front]] period of the late 1930s, Stedman was briefly a member of the [[Communist Party of America]].

===Death===

Seymour Stedman died on July 9, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois.

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Works ==

*''Socialist Senatorial Nominating Speeches: [[Barney Berlyn]] Nominated by Seymour Stedman, Duncan McDonald nominated by C.M. Madsen: A Clear Statement of the Purpose and Policy of the Socialist Party.'' Chicago: Socialist Party, 1913.
*''Issues of 1914.'' With others. Chicago: Campaign Committee of Cook County Socialist Party, 1914.
*''Socialism and Peace.'' With [[Oliver Wilson]]. Chicago: Socialist Party of Illinois, 1917.
*[http://debs.indstate.edu/d288d4_1919.pdf ''The Debs case; a complete history''] (with [[Eugene V. Debs]]) Chicago, Ill, Socialist Party, National Office, 1919.

==Further reading==

* Robert Minor, [https://archive.org/details/StedmansRedRaid ''Stedman's Red Raid'']. Cleveland, Ohio: Toiler Publishing Association, May 1921.

{{United States presidential election, 1920}}
{{Socialist Party of America}}
{{Historical left-wing third party presidential tickets (U.S.)}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stedman, Seymour}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Chicago]]
[[Category:American Marxists]]
[[Category:American socialists]]
[[Category:1920 United States vice-presidential candidates]]
[[Category:Socialist Party of America politicians from Illinois]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party of America politicians]]
[[Category:Shepherds]]
[[Category:Janitors]]
[[Category:Illinois Populists]]
[[Category:Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni]]
[[Category:Progressive Era in the United States]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Hartford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from Solomon, Kansas]]
[[Category:Politicians from Hartford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly]]