Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 162

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NEW JERSEY.) Petition to the New Jersey General Assembly urging revisions to the state constitution. Document Signed by 14 parties, 13 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches; moderate wear with slight loss at folds. Np, 28 October 1799
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"Your petitioners have for some time past flattered themselves that your honorable body would have before this time taken up the subject of a revision of our state constitution, which appears to be imperfect in many parts, and your petitioners supposing that your honors are only waiting for the signatures of your constituents, we do therefore pray that your honors will be please to call a convention for the purpose of altering and amending the state constitution."
New Jersey's constitution was passed in 1776. Almost uniquely in early America, it gave women the right to vote. This right was clarified and reaffirmed by an act of legislature in 1797. We don't know what grievances these 14 men had with the New Jersey Constitution, but the women's vote is the only point of controversy we are aware of. Although New Jersey did not call a constitutional convention at this time, women lost the right to vote in 1807. Several of the names on this petition--Matthew Lane, John Todd, Daniel Castner, and James Webster--appear on the tax rolls for Somerset County in central New Jersey during this period.