Victor Astor

Victor Astor of the Northern Confederation.

Victor Astor was the Governor of the Northern Confederation in the 1860s and 1870s and the Liberal Party's nominee for Governor-General of the Confederation of North America in the 1868 Grand Council elections.

Astor was the protégé of Governor-General Kenneth Parkes, and he resembled Parkes in being charming, well-spoken, and thoroughly corrupt. When Parkes chose to retire from government in 1868, he picked Astor to succeed him, and through bribery was able to ensure Astor's nomination at the Liberal Party's national convention in Burgoyne. In his speech accepting the nomination, Astor vowed to "carry on the fine work begun by Kenneth Parkes, and to bring our nation to new heights of glory and respect among the peoples of the world." At the time it was thought that Astor was hinting that he intended to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy as governor-general. Only later was it learned that the speech had actually been written by William Conrad, a Northern Confederation party boss, and that Astor had not seen it before delivering it to the convention.

At the time of his nomination, Astor owned at least fifteen brothels in New York City and Philadelphia. Conservative Party nominee Herbert Clemens was able to make the 1868 campaign a referendum on the corruption of the Liberals in general and Astor in particular. This, together with considerable vote-buying on Clemens' part, enabled the Conservatives to win a 20 seat majority in the Grand Council.

Sobel does not mention the name of the Liberal candidate for Governor-General in the 1873 Grand Council elections, but it is possible that Astor was again the nominee, despite the fact that his ownership of the brothels was made public in 1872. By 1878, however, Astor was no longer in the running for the nomination.

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Sobel's source for the political career of Victor Astor is Milton O'Casey's I Never Told a Lie: The Political Career of Victor Astor (New York, 1950).