John W. Phelps - Presidential Candidate

Presidential Candidate

Leaving military service, Phelps returned to Brattleboro, Vermont where he became President of the Vermont Teacher's Association from 1865 to 1885. He lived in Brattleboro until 1883, when he married Anna Bardwell Davis. They moved back to his birthplace, Guilford, Vermont. He traveled across Europe and the United States, developing a reputation as a scholar and linguist. He authored Phelps Elementary Reader for Public Schools Good Behavior (1876), and translated from the French three books: the Lucien de La Hodde's The Cradle of Rebellions: A History of the Secret Societies of France, The Island of Madagascar: A Sketch, Descriptive and Historical (1885), and The Fables of Florian (1888). He became very active in the Vermont Historical Society.

Phelps was the candidate for the American Party/Anti-Masonic Party for president in 1880. His running mate was Samuel C. Pomeroy of Kansas who four years later in 1884 would seek the White House as the presidential candidate of the American Prohibition National Party. In the 1880 race the Phelps/Pomeroy ticket garnered only 1,045 votes nationwide. They ran on an eleven-point platform calling for such things as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, the prohibition of all secret lodges, justice for Indians, demanding the Bible be a required text in all educational institutions; and the abolition of the electoral college. Until 2004 when Howard Dean ran for the presidential nomination, Phelps was the only Vermont resident to run for president.

He was selected as vice president of the Vermont Historical Society from 1863 to 1885 He died in Guilford on April 2, 1885.