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. Financial difficulties forced the Stedman family to move west, settling in
Solomon, Kansas, where adverse weather conditions forced the family still further towards poverty. He was ultimately admitted to the
Illinois State Bar Association in 1891. 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. Nearly one-third of the 1300 assembled delegates signed a petition calling for Debs that Stedman circulated. 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. 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 of America (SDP). 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. In 1914, Stedman lost reelection, finishing fifth of five candidates for three seats. Socialist George Roewer (left) and Stedman leaving
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where they visited presidential nominee
Eugene Debs, May 15, 1920 In
1915, Stedman was their candidate for
mayor of
Chicago. At
their 1920 national convention, they nominated Steadman to serve as its
1920 nominee for vice president of the United States 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. In 1941, Stedman joined the campaign to free
Earl Browder, the General Secretary of the
Communist Party USA imprisoned on charges of passport fraud. The next year, Stedman joined the party himself, believing that the Socialists had lost the support of the working class.
Death Stedman died on July 9, 1948, aged 77, in Chicago. ==References==