In this petition to Congress, Eliza Jane Christie requests a relief from her political disabilities. This petition was part of a petition drive organized by the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) calling for a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote. The petition closely follows a template provided by NWSA (an example of this type is the Petition of Dr. Clemence Lozier). The organization encouraged women to personalize their messages to Congress by including their personal reasons for desiring the the right to vote. In her petition, Eliza Jane Christie expresses some of her political beliefs, including that there should be an educational qualification to the right of suffrage. This serves as a reminder that while many women believed they should have the right to vote, they did not necessarily believe in universal suffrage.
This petition was referred to to the Committee on the Judiciary in the House of Representatives on February 6, 1878. On January 10, 1878 Senator Aaron Sargent first introduced the joint resolution for an amendment to the Constitution that would ultimately extend the right to vote to women as the 19th Amendment, 42 years later. Petitions like this one from Eliza Jane Christie show how women exercised their rights to bring about change in the decades-long fight for the right to vote.
