New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-18

dydual standpoint, and that the experience
the Judgment and the instincts OF MANKIND
shall be regarded in framing the decision.
Poygamy is rot an experiment TO be hrSt
tried in our day it is some thousands Of years
ed its condemnation is inscribed on the IT,
bets of Oriental history it is manifest in the
comparative debasement Of Asia aud Africa
The Liberty OF Divorce has been recognized
BIZ great historians as as one main cause oil the
corruption and downfall of the Roman Empire
The sentiment OF Chastity becomes ridiculous
where a woman is transferred from husband
TO husband as caprice or safety may dictate
Two persons desire to be joined in Marriage
and invoke the sanction of the State-n other
words, the appreciation and respect OF the COM
munity-for their union. The State Suostan-
tally asks them-"Is there no impeachment TO
.such union in she existing engagements OF
"one or both of YOU ? No Does your
knowledge of and affection for each other
warrant you in promising to love and cherish
each other exclusively as husband and wife
till death shall part you 2 Yes Then we
pronounce and consecrate you man and wife,
and epjoin all persons to honor you as such.
And this is Marriage, honorable In all, and
always honored accordingly, because it recog-
nizes and provides for the permanent claims
of Society, in the preservation OF Moral Pu-
rity and the due maintenance and education OF
Children; while any sexual union unsanctlhed
BY the mutual pledge of perpetuity or CONT
nence ever has bean and ever must be es-
teemed ienoble and dishonOrng when con
trasted with this for its aims are manltesty
selfish ard its character undistnguishable from
the purely sensual and brutal connections of
undsguised lewdness, where no pretense OF
affection or esteem is set up, and whose sole
object is animal qualification. la other words:
Society, by the institution of indissoluble Mar
riage. exacts of the married the strongest
practicable guaranty of the purity and truth
of their affection, and thereupOn draws the
broadcast possible line of demarkation between
them and the vile crew whose aspirations are
purely selfish and whose unions are dissolved
renewed and varied as versatility or safety
may dictate.
We have no doubt this wise law, while essen
tial to the Progress OF the Race in Intelligence
and Virtue, is eminently conducive 20 the hap
piness of individuals. True, there are unhap-
Ply marriages, discordant neutrality-suspicious.
sanctioned by law which lack the soul of Mar
riage-but these occur, not through any inhe-
rent vice or defect in the institution but
through the leyity rashness, ayarice or over
mastering appetite OF one or both OF the par
ties, who marry in haste, or from the impulse
of unworthy motives when the law counsels
deliberatiOn and demands pure affection. If
general proclamation were issued tomorrow,
with the sanction OF all our civil and ecclesas-
teal authorities, authorizing every married
couple to obtain divorce by merely applying
for il within two months and, in default of such
asking to remain undiyOrced ever afterward,
we do not believe one couple in ten would ap
ply for divorce. But let it be understood that
Marriages would hereafter be sanctioned and
honOrcd, binding the parties to regard each
other as husband and wife only SD long as
should be mutually agreeable, and leaving them
at perfect liberty to dissolve this tie and form
new ones at pleasure, and we believe mar
rages ,couid be contracted and dissolved with
a facility and leyity now unimagined. Every
innocent young maiden would BE- sought in
marriage by those who now plot her ruin with
out marriage, and the facility Of Divorce would
cover the arts and the designs of ths.ibertine
with all the panOply OF honorable and pure al
lection. How many have already fallen vic
tins to the sophistry that the ceremony of Mar
riage is of no importance-the affection being
the essential matter How many are every
day exposed to this sophistyl Marriage in
dissoluble may be an imperfect test Of honor
able and pure alfection-as all things human
are imperfect-but il is the best the State can
devise andits overthrow would result in
general prOfligacy and corruption such as this
country has never known, and few Of our peo-
pie can adequately imagine.
We are intlexibly opposed, therefore, to any
extension of the privileges Of Divorce now ac-
corded BY our laws but We are not opposed to
the discussion of the subject. On the contra
ry, we deem such discussion vitality necessary
and already too long neglected. The Free
Trade sophistry respecting Marriage is already
on every libertine's tongue it has oyerrun the
whole country in the yelow-cOyered literature
which is as abundant as the frogs OF Egypt and
a great deal more perniciOus. II is high time
that the Press, the Pulpit, and every other az.
enue to the public mind, were alive to this SUBJ
ject, presenting, reiterating and enforcing the