Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-09-20

Gaolors are of various kinds. There ne goalcrs
of criminal prisons-men Of square heads and
powerful shoulders, who carry colossal keys IN
their mighty hands, and look as # they lived over
IL gunpowder hahn with the match burning, and
they knew it; gaolers Of financial prisons, jovial
and lynx-eyed, who pry sharply into feminine
pockets and baskets, and direct trembling women
to the six-in-ten aud eight-in!Iour they came to seei
goaiers of political prisons--of an apocryphal or
der these in England--whoso romantic daughters
tile of chains ~ dead Of night, drug guards with
brandy and laudanum-a fine thing in cholera
times-and, with a tear and n blessing, and lots OF
money stolen from the till, set the captive hero free
to the indefinite disgrace of their gapler relatives;
and there are gaolers %parochial and gaolers luna
tic-nautical gaolers and scholastic gaolers; Tut
the worst gaoler of all Is the marital gaoler, as
constituted by the laws of our illogical merrie old
England.
An absolute lord Is this martial gaoler. lie
holds the person, property, and reputation, of his
conjugal prisoner, in as fast a goal as ever WAS
built Of granite and iron. Society and law are the
materials, unsubstantial enough, out OF which he
has built his house Of duresse; but in those airy
i cells lie more broken hearts than ever tho sternes.
s dangeca held. More injustice is committed there.
q than in the vilest Austrian prison known. II the
gaoler-marital be a decent fellow, and in love with
his prisoner. things may 20 on smoothly enough:
But if he be Il man of coarse or tickle passlons-lf
r be be a man without conscientiOusness or honor
if he be "A man of violent temper. OF d~epraved hab-
its. OF reckless life, he may ill.trest, ruin. and
destroy his prisoner, at his pleasure-all in the
D nature Of the law, and by virtue OF his conlugal
: rights. The prisoner wife is not recognized by the
law; she is her gaoier's property, the same as his
: not openly sell her; and if he MAIN or murder her,
y he is liable to punishment. as no would be prose
cution by the Cruelty to Animals Society. If he
e manned or ill-tIeated his dog or his horse. As
h 1.-The very legal Icing of the wife is suspended dur
ing the marriage. or at least Incorporated and con-
solidated with tina: of the husband" tcide Black
stone, IL is therefore simply a assentient animal
Ie not as a wife, nor as a cltizeness, that she car
- CLAIM the protection of the laws, and then only il
cases Of personal and distinct brutality whicf
threaten her life. The same protection, and onll
h the same, as is granted to slaves in the United
1t States-as is granted to all sentient and domesti
"a Gated animals in most civilized communities. Tht
- prisoner wife has no property. all that she pos
Sessed before her marriage, and all that she may
D earn, save, or inherit, after her marriage, belongs
>, tie her husband. lie may squander her fortune a
the gaming table or among his mistresses; he may
bequeath it to his illegitimate children leaving hi,
Z vile and her children to beggary; he may do i
with a will; the law makes him lord and gaoier
n and places the poor ~tremblinS victim unroservedly
in his hands. The like he may do with the earn
ings, the savings of his wife, during his incarcera
ton. if he have committed a crime; during hi
NJ d%esertion. if he have taken a fancy to desert heI
" for sohe one else; during n separation. forced OF
- him by her friends. to protect her from his bruta'i
w " ~ ~ ShhcC "biSb hdh LII
n wife on her own resources, and made her work ant
at gain, nc may swoop down like a bird of prey OF
he the earnings gained by her own work while sh
m WAS alone; he may seize them and carry them OF
unhindered, leaving her the same terrible round o
toll and spoliation. until one or the other may die
s. That this il no; mere defamation, three authenti
instances of the exercise Of such marital rights ar
- given in a certain admirable. wise. and witt,
= amphlet.* recently published; Of which we will
say no more in the way of criticism, than that i
worthy OF Sidney Smith.
"a widow, with a small personal property ant
three young children, was induced by a scoundre
lurking under the garb OF a preacher, TO MARI,
him without a settlement. lie then threw off tn
mask. treated her and her children most scandal
ously, and INDUCED in the most disgraceful drunk
enness and debauche'y. Still. his career was 8
short. that when he sunk under his excuses, tn
vi liwle property was not seriously i'm paired, and tn
IS poor woman, though again in a state Of pregnancy
,r was nntin actual despair. In a few days she wa
40 driven TO madness, when she discovered that thi
man. shortly after the marriage. had made n vii
by which he had bequeathed her little all to an j
legitimate child Of his own"
A second case gwen is that of a young girl VIII
married somewhat against her fathers consent.
young man Of Indefinite character. "Iler fathe
died suddenly. without having made a will or a Sc
et Element of any kind; and very shortly after, til
husband. in a moment Of drunken fury, commit
ted a felonOus assault on his unhappy wife. II
was tried and convicted of the felony, and III
property of the wretched wife, which upon its d.
scending TO her. was instantly transferred by tn
n law to him, became forfeited TO the Crown, b
reason of n felony of which she was not the per2t
traitor, but the victim"
In the third case, the hundred of a very decen
woman was convicted Of a crime in his own fam
n. ", too horrible to particularize. He was sent t
prison for three years. The wife removed to a dis
;, tant part of the country, where, under an assume
name. she supported herself and her children i
IT. comfort. and was even enabled to save out of he
earnings. One evening, her husband came sue
denly to the house. inAamed with drink, and burr
ing with evil passions. He came in the name
the English law to claim his marital rights owe
EN- her person and her earnings, to take his place
ut the family whose virtue he had outraged an
he -
ng Remark. upon I'll. Law Of Marriage and Divorce, suggest.