Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-05-17
aflistelIanp.
Miss Lucv's Protest,

A woman has right, upon her wedding
day, TO say or to sign what she pleases, at
home or at church, without amenability TO the
newspapers. Whatever odd things Miss Lucy
Stone might choose to do Sin farmhouse
among the hills of West Brookfeld,' would
be simply her own business; but when the
Rev. Waldo Hgginson, by consent of the
bride, prints it all in the public newspapers,
the affair becomes public property. Indeed,
publicity, we suppose, is precisely what is
sought; and no bride ever displayed her dia-
monds and lace in Trinity Church with half
the pleasure which Mrs. Blackwell Qate
Stone) takes in seeing her Protest in the
Worcester Spy. All these elaborate precau-
lions against being thought like other people,
would be of very little value if nobody heard
of them except the parties who are alone con-
cerned. Hundreds and thousands of fond
couples have protested in the parlor, Just as
Miss Stone does in the newspapers. 1t has
been agreed, over and over again, that, Fred
erick shall not take upon himself airs, shall
not consider himself superior to Fanny, after
the silver knot has been tied. Sharp papas
have done for their daughters what Miss Stone
has done for herself; and by the Stat. Mass,
1916, that lady, by indenture duly signed,
sealed and delivered, could have secured 'to
her sole and separate use, free from thesin-
reference and control of her husbsnd,' all her
estate, real, personal and mixed. But send
in0 for Tonae ha NoSf RrooE6a1d Ia fo
come with his vulgar ink-horn and wafer-box,
and arrange these p-eliminaries, would have
been stupid and commonplace proceeding.
Poor Lydia Langush was heart broken be-
cause there was 10 be no elopement, and she
was obliged to wed Capt. Absolute in hum
drum way and Miss Lucy Stone, if she is
to marry at all, will do it under protest, and
make an event of it in the newspapers. What
has been gained, save notoriety, it is difficult
to see Of course there is great talk about
conscientious ness (poor, abused word,) and
the affair will make much chat at the anniver-
sary tea-tables in New York next week. But
conscience, after all, is despotic master,
and will own no divided allegiance. Miss
Stone is not bit like Mary Dyer. She may
think herself perfect primitive Quaker, but
it is all a pleasing hallucination. The strange
creatures who tormenied the good people of
Boston-who stalked into the churches with
ashes on their heads and bitterer alkah on
their tongues-who were fogged, banished,
and hung-never compromised, never went to
the stee2le house under protest, never apo.o-
gized for wearing ribbons, by card in the
morning journal. A true protest against the
wicked laws of marriage would have been an
obstinate adherence 10 maidenhood, until it
fell into the sere and yellow autumn of con-
firmed celibacy. But Miss Stone takes the
benefit of the laws while declaiming against
their injustice. We dare say tha: the license
was regularly procured, that the town clerk
pocketed his fee, and that he will, in spite of
The protest, make due return of this auspi-
cious union to the Secretary of the Common
wealth. And what. we beg leave to ask, was
the Rer. T. w. Higginson doing at West
Brookield1 1t is true that he wears his frock
under protest, that he is an abolitionist, that
he believes in 'woman's rights, and for aught
we know, in the water cure and the table tip
pings. But for the simple formation of "a
copartnership' (Henry B. Blackwell & Co.,
or Blackwell & Stone,) why was it necessary
to ask for his sanctionl Is this keeping
clear of the mixtures as our friends, the
Quakers, sayl Alas Miss Stone Is, after
all, rather timid reformer. The trousers,
the frock coat, and the lecturing did very well ;
but there is sad backsliding in a wicked
marriage, performed by settled clergyman,
after having been licensed by town clerk,
who holds his office under pro-slavery Con-
stitution. Why, Aaron Burr did better than
this; for the elegant scoundrel, TO serve his
purpose, offered to call his daughter across
the Atlantic and to give her, without bann,
book, or blessing, to a crack-brained philoso-
pher in London.
Still it moves said the old astronomer,
after his extorted recantation. And notwith-
standing Miss Lucy Stones Protest. thous-
ands upon thousands are marrying to-day after
4No Ol0 1uouSduuS upOh hhOuSdHuS
are uniting their hopes, their pleasures, their
sorrows, their destinies, without formal pre-
caution, without provision for arbitrators mu-
sualIy chosen. The cynic may sneer, and
with wormwood visage count the divorces in
ahe distance. But of what human condition
can happiness be certainly predicted We
prefer to anticipate the ful6lment of vows, the
performance of duty, the transmutation of sill
yer hopes into full and golden fruition =
TIhe experience of the world refutes all theory.
This thing which we call custom,this con-
firmed habit of society, this law by which mil
lions of the race please to abide, is not thing
of chance, the creation of day, the whim of
a century. Why, even our uttered words. the
very vowels which breathe from us broken in
to consonan,s upon the lips or the tongue, have
in them meaning, and live by the full con-
sent and general treaty of mankind. And if
this is true of mere sounds, how much truer
is 1t of institutions, established in the child
hood of the race, and transmitted to us, almost
without change, almost in their primitive and
divine simplicity. Solitary reformers, odd
men and vain women, have in all ages, uttered