Delaware journal. [volume] (Wilmington [Del.]) 1827-1832, 1829-01-16
From The albany Chronicle.
FEMALE CHARACTER AND FEMALE

A proposition was made in our Legislature some
years since. by, if we rightly remember John w.
Hurlburt esq. then a member from Cayuga county,
so far to alter by statue the Common Law doctrines
in relation to actions OF SANDER, to render amen
able to actions Of that nature those who falsely i'm
peached female chastity. The proposition failed.
In the progress ct the present REVISION OF the laws
we understand that similar provision has been ~
troduced into them. and has received the sanction
of the Senate but has been voted down in the house
Not having been present during the discussions it
ELECTED in the Assembly, we are OF course ignorant
of the reasons which produced its rejection. Upon
principle, however, we confess ourselves at loss to
discover on what ground those who opposed its
atopon could have proceeded. In the received APP
plicaton of common law principles to the particular
case of the injury to female reputation, which arises
from the imputaton OF a want Of chastity, there is
certainly an anomaly, only to be satisfactorily ac-
counted for from the fact that it arose at period
aud ia an age when semi barbarism depressed the
sex beluw that rank aud estimation in society in
which it has been the bDast OF civilization 10 place
them. AID in which ought to be the pride of every
civilized community to sustain them. 1t is the nva-
Iiabe characteristic of barbarsln, to underyalue the
softer sex We see among our own Aborgines
we see it in the Mahometan doctrine which denies
teu soul and we trace it. in characters scarce
~ less legbie or vivid, in that antiquated but vet
by the Saxons and transmitted downward, by the
adherence OF courts 10 precedent rather than to prin.
cples, to our own time, which refuses to the charac-
ter of the softer sex that protection which it SO be-
rally extends to the reputation of our own.
The broad principle upon which tn. common law
doctrine relative To actions for SANDER starts, Isl thai
they are, per Sc, maintanable not only for words i'm
putting crime such as would subject to Indictment
but also for words impung professional or official
all atpu I'm
trade or business, for those which impute to him
the having of eprosy and such other foul diseases as
tend to exclude him from society. Thus we see that
the reputation o our sex is hedged in every side
and guarded at every point upon which the breath
Of Islander could approach or attack it. But by a
strange Inconsistency, when these principles aud
doctrines, SO broad and liberal in the case of men.
women to whom character is gilmore Importance than
life itself, stands unprotected, and liable to the unre
strained assaults Of every malicious unprncipled or
foul mouthed villain. in the very point where her
character is most easily assallabe, and can be as
sal ed with the most blghtng. whitening and dead v
effect No one can call the most miserable attorney
pettifogger without rendering himself liable to an
action but any one may mputc to the most esteem
ed and most spoess female, the grossest want Of
chastity, with perfect legal impunity This may be
all right and consistent but il is at least mis- for
tune not to be able to perceive that It is 81, and il
revision of the statute. would not pass unmproved
for whipping from our civil ccle distinction as dis.
honorable 10 galantry as it is derogatory to the
pIainest principles of equal and impartial Justice
We sorry that this hope is likely to be dsap
pointed, and that if future ages are to Judge by thi,
criterion, they will be compile to pronounce ou
countrymen Of the present day as uncivzed as were
their ancestors in the days of Billy the Norman.
Massachusetts Militia Claims.-'rhe report on thes,
claims which spreads so pages consists of thre,
documents, Mr.. Barbuur's letter Of May 9, Mr.. Bar