Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1850-01-22
Divorces.

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gnia and Maryland especially, numerous
applications for divorces. We never read
such items without experiencing senti'
ments of mingled sorrow and disgust
They suggest trains of thought of the most
unpleasant description, and often put our
human nature under very dark shadows of
laithlessness and depravity. Divorces are
never solicited where grievous fault is not
attachible to one of the parties, generally
perhaps, to both. Cases do occur, no
doubt, when the power Of Divorce is be-
nefcenty exerted, and its denial would be
great hardship, but these really proper
occasions for its exertiOn form but a small
proportion Of the divorces that are granted.
Inexpressibly important as is this, and
every other subject connected with the in
sttution of marriage, it has been in no one
of our States, or by Congress, treated as
question of such delicacy and import
ance demands. In Virginia, for instance,
up to a recent period, the spirit of our
inter-coniugal legislation has been almost
purely English, characterizedby hardness,
difficulty and delay. In other States, in
which far less of English g old dominion"
spirit has prevailed, the French system
has been modelled after, and thus errone-
Gus principles and lax practice have creptin.
Congress, as the Legislature of the
Federal District, has taken the unjustlhabIe
course of denying to the subjects of its
authority all power Of redress whatever,
whilst continuing under its jurisdiction.
The whole subject ought to be recon-
sidered, and put upon a proper basis,
throughout the Union.
If we are rightly informed, the State of
Ohio exceeds every other i'll the facility
and frequency Of divorces. One would
think that sooner or later this great evil
must tell heavily upon society there. The
other young States of the West approx
mate Ohio in this respect. That the prac-
teal results of the erroneous principles
which have obtained on this subject are
not satisfactory, might be fairly inferred
from new regulation Of the Legislature
Of Indiana, affixing proyiso, in all di-
vorces granted, that the party applying
shall not contract marriage, during his or
her life, with any other person than the
one from whom he or she is divorced.
This regulation is calculated TO put a
check upon the prurient and adulerous
desire to break through old engagements
for the purpose Of contracting new ones,
but then it denies justice to the claims Of
those who have been the guiltless victims
of even the grossest conjugal infdellty.
Make the exception in favour of srch vic
tllllS, anu IO just COII Pldlit llCS, O"' III
correcting evil in one direction the Legis-
lature of Indiana has run wrong in the OPP
posite extreme. II must surel y be mis-
taken thing-as contradictory 10 the writ
ten laws of God as abhorrent to all pure
and right feeling-to compel an injured
wife or husband TO struggle on for whole
lifetime unassisted, in support of, perhaps,
large family of children, or to submit to
the foul alternative of receiving back to her
or his outraged bosom a once polluted
partner.
In cases Of infdelity we would have the
marriage bond utterly disrupted, as it had
never been, and the suit for divorce as
simple as suit for debt; but in all other
cases, we would adopt the regulation Of
the Indiana Legislature.
More in our next.