The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-05-18
From Fraaeris Magazine
Letter OF Advice from am Experienced NJ :
tron TO Young Married Lady.

Letter OF Advice from am Experienced Ma
tron 10 Young Married Lady.
Let other women say what they will, !
for my part will ever maintain that wife
should always keep before her mind the very
words Of the marriage ceremony; and among
others, the promise she has made to " love,
honor, and obey" This last word, know,
sounds ugly to many Of my own sex; but
that is entirely from misapprehensior.
They suppose it TO mean that wife is to be
a siave to her husband And, to be sure, il
T. you lived in a country Of savages, and were
fool enough to marry one Of them, you might,
! admit, be considered as fairly bound by
your own act to be his slave; because among
savages wife is so regarded. And so again,
JIG you took an oath Of allegiance to the au-
tocrat Of Russia, you would make yourself
his slave, because such is the Russian con-
sttution.
But when we in this country swear allie
glance to the king, we do not bind ourselves
10 take his proclamation for law, but only to
obey him according to the constitution and
custom Of this country. And on the same
principle you promise to obey your husband
agreeably to the institutions and customs Of
a civilized country in the nineteenth century.
The king, we know, is in all causes and
over all persons, within these his dominions,
supreme - that is, no act Of Parliament is
valid till il has received the royal assent, and
no minister Of state, or Judge, &c, can hold
office except under the kings :" sign manu-
al !" but we know, also, that in practice the
king never thinks Of refusing the royal as
sent to any bill that has passed both houses
Of Parliament, however distasteful il may be
to him. And whatever papers his ministers
put before him, he must sign; else they
would not remain in office. And lie cannot
really appoint any ministers he may fancy /;
because no man could continue in office who
could not command majority in Parliament.
He may, perhaps, sometimes wish his "serv-
ants, the Minister'S" at the bottem Of the
sea, and his g faithful commons" along with
them; but still he must do what his minis
tiers bid him, and they must do whatever
Parliament insists on. The "royal suprem-
acy" consists, as all the world knows, in
this: that he is required not only to let hin
isters and Parliament do what they please,
but also to issue his "royal commands" to
that effect. They must act according, to
their own will, and he must declare it to be
his will also, and must back it by his au-
thofity, even though his own private incli-
nation should be quite another way.
Such, as we all know, is our glorious con-
sttution. And somewhat like i is the con-
stitution Of the marriage-state That is, the
husband is to be in all things supreme, you
being virtually the ruler in the wile's pro-
per department, but taking care, as far as
possible, that your husbands sanction, and
indeed command, should support whatever
you do. You are, in your own proper sphere,
his representative, just as Judge represents
the king; and you are to show your loyal
obedience to him by doing your utmost to
enforce compliance with all that he, in your
person, shall decree and direct, and to bring
him to give his sanction, as he is in duty
bound to do, to all your decisions in your
own department.
And what isthe wife's proper department.
Evidently her household. Domestic man
agement, almost all would say, belongs to
the woman; as the trade or profession, or
public business, belongs to the man. By
domestic concerns do not mean merely the
Office Of a housekeeper, but all that relates
to home the servants, the children, social
intercourse with friends and neighbors; all
this, as well as the house and furniture, and
the management Of expenditure, belongs to
the wife.
In the humber walks Of life all people UNI
derstand this. A carpenter, for instance, or
a bricklayer, is reckoned good husband if
he keeps to his chisel or his trowel, works
hard all the week, and regularly brings home
his earnings 10 his wife. And it is her bust
ness to see that he and the children are fed
and clothed, and lodged as they should be.
If he spends part of his earnings at the ale
house, the poor wife may be forced to sub
nit but she is not bound in duty. On the
contrary, If she can scold him or scratch him
away from the alehouse, she is bound, in
obedience to him, to do SO because she re-
presents him in her own proper department,
and is acting by his authority-that is, by
the authority Of his right reason in opposi-
ton to his folly. And if he should stop part
Of his wages to buy a pair Of shoes, without
first consulting with her whether he wants
them more than she does new cap, she is
to put stop to this irregular proceeding if
she can. He is rebeling against his oun
lawful authority, which is, in these matters,
vested in her.
Now it is just the same. in all situations in
life. Let the physician attend to his pa
tents, and the lawyer TO his clients, and the
squire receive his rents, &c; aud let each Of
these confine himself to these his profession
al duties, and let his wife manage the ex-
penditure Of his income in all particulars.
What can be palmer than the words, with
all my worldly goods | thee endow'" Hav-
ing once made over all that he has, or ever
shall have, to the wife, il is most unfair that
he should seek to recall any pat Of it. And
the wife, though she may sometimes be un-
Justly resisted, is bound to obey her husband
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