Women’s Suffrage Advocacy in Washington D.C., H.C. Ingersoll Petition to the 41st Congress, 1870

H C. Ingersoll

Handbill

Ingersoll, H.C. Petition of H.C. Ingersoll Praying that the Right of Suffrage be Granted to Women in the District of Columbia, 1870, advancing a formal appeal to the 41st Congress during the Reconstruction period to extend voting rights to women in the nation’s capital. Issued at a moment when federal authority over the District of Columbia made it a testing ground for suffrage expansion, the document contributes to the legislative history of women’s enfranchisement debates following the Civil War. The text outlines a restricted suffrage framework grounded in literacy, property ownership, and moral qualifications, stating “we ask that the suffrage be given to those women of the District of Columbia who can read and write intelligently; who are possessed of property enough to provide a substitute in war; have never been convicted of crime, and pursue no unlawful vocation as a means of living.” This language situates the petition within contemporaneous arguments that linked political participation to education, economic status, and civic virtue, reflecting divisions within suffrage advocacy and the broader Reconstruction-era discourse on citizenship and voting rights.

Ingersoll, H.C. Petition of H.C. Ingersoll Praying that the Right of Suffrage be Granted to Women in the District of Columbia. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870. Two-sided handbill presenting the full text of Ingersoll’s appeal to Congress, printed for circulation and legislative consideration, and associated with early efforts to secure women’s voting rights at the federal level within the District of Columbia.

Minor edge wear along the left margin and light cataloging markings, not affecting text; overall very good condition. A concise printed articulation of Reconstruction-era suffrage arguments that documents the contested criteria for women’s political inclusion in the immediate post-Civil War United States.

Item #17525

Price: $550.00