Sunday dispatch. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1845-1854, 1852-04-18
Fate Of the New Divorce Bill.

The Herald thinks that the new Divorce Bill
at Albany, is one of the isms, and should be
smothered by the Legislature as pestilent
thing. A very easy way, this, of settling a seri
Gus and long-needed reform
| Probably of all attempts to regulate morality
| by law, none has been more complete failure
/ than the rigor which, under the English law
has marked the matrimonial bonds. Bonds
they have indeed been, in too many cases
Their excessive closeness has had the very
effect which they were formed to avoid
We believe that the living together of one
man with one woman, in honorable marriage,
is not only the holy estate which the Redeemer
himself pronounced it, but is according to the
| natural condition of things; and any intelligent
community would fall into hatrelation if there
were no law about it, To all reasoning minds,
to all Psychologists and moralists and political
economists, marriage must appear as the start
ing point and chief foundation of. civilised So
ciety. From it arise the most important nte
rests, and interviewer with its results are the
main facts of our lives, our happiness, and even
our characters.
And marriage, properly so called, is as beau
tiful as it is a serious relation. A dark and
leaden cloud would rest upon humanity if this
blessed sunshine, with all that grows directly
from it, were once destroyed out of the world /!
But from the nature of man, and the results
of innumerable circumstances, itcomes to pass
that two people often find themselves yoked
together, by all the ceremonial requirements of
marriage, without the substance and soul of
that J,~l
mount preference of each other over any one
else of the opposite sex in the world. 1t is not
enough to say that this is the fault of the par
ties themselves. So is fever, or almost any
other sickness. We are to take men and wo-
men as we find them, and not according to a
theory OF perfection.
The simple issue is, whether, under this
state of incompatibility and repugnance, the
bonds of what thus becomes only fictitious
marriage shall continue to hold nominally to-
gether, these two people, or whether they shall
be loosed from each other. 1t is plain sailing,
and requires no legal education to grasp the
main points involved in the argument. For our
part, we do not hesitate to say, that as any
marriage is a sham and hollow make-believe,
under such incompatibility-that as all the
genuine ends Of marriage then fail to be effect
ed-we say the parties had better be resolved
back again into their original relations to each
other.
We know well enough that the result Of
greater lberality in the rules for granting di.
vorces, will often be pecuniary trouble and
personal distress. We do not suppose that
such liberality is to prove a universal panacea.
But it would amazingly simplify and reduce the
hitherto excessive complications of this diff
cult question; and would be return to com.
mon sense, not, perhaps, relished by lawyers
and conservatives. For that the principle of
extreme rigor, as applied to the matrimonial
Knot, is a wrong principle, must be evident
enough merely from the fruits it produces. Do |
we need to specify the cases? Is not every |
body aware of plenty Of them?
From what we hear of the doings at Albany, |
he Divorce Bill did not pass the Senate, and |
s not therefore the law, as yet. But the large |
majority which it gained in the Assembly is |
,roof of the favor with which it is regarded by |
he State legislators. 1t will probably have
,etter luck next winter. At Albany, as at
Washington, every thing else has to be attended
o, before matters of real Importance and
hen, if there is time to spare, the questions
ffecting the people, and their interests, stand
chance. This time there were too many per-
onal objects in the field.