Seymour "Stedy" Stedman 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.
23 Facts About Seymour Stedman
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Seymour Stedman is best remembered as the 1920 vice-presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, when he ran for office on a ticket headed by Eugene V Debs.
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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.
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Young Seymour Stedman 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.
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The Stedman family moved to Chicago in 1881 and Seymour took a job for a manufacturing company, working as a uniformed messenger boy.
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Seymour Stedman later took a job as a janitor for another Chicago firm, an occupation that allowed him ample time for reading.
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In 1889 Seymour Stedman decided that he wanted to be a lawyer.
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Seymour Stedman approached the 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.
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Seymour Stedman continued to work as a janitor during the day and attended university lectures in the evening.
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Seymour Stedman was ultimately admitted to the Illinois State Bar Association in 1891.
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In 1890 the precocious Seymour Stedman decided that he wanted to become a public orator on behalf of the Democratic Party.
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Seymour Stedman honed his skill speaking before the public, specializing in matters dealing with tariff legislation.
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Seymour Stedman left the ranks of the Democratic Party in protest over this heavy-handed action of the Democratic president.
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Seymour 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.
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Seymour Stedman's effort was short-circuited by a trick of the supporters of William Jennings Bryan when the gas lights were shut out on the convention.
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Seymour Stedman gathered together Debs, Stedman, and others for this cause, which came to a climax at the heated June 1898 convention of the organization.
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Seymour Stedman was a member of the governing National Executive Committee of the SDP from 1898.
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Seymour 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 for the honor, losing by a vote of 106 to 46.
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In 1912, Seymour Stedman was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as one of three representatives from the 13th district alongside Republican incumbent Benton Kleeman and Progressive candidate Elmer Schnackenberg.
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Seymour Stedman was the Socialist's candidate for Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives in the 48th General Assembly.
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In 1914, Seymour Stedman lost reelection, finishing fifth of five candidates for three seats.
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In 1915 Stedman was their candidate for Mayor of Chicago and in 1920 for Vice President of the United States, running on a ticket headed by Eugene V Debs.
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Seymour Stedman died on July 9,1948, in Chicago, Illinois.