St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-06-04

ers another They belong to totally
distinct species, with totally distinct
moral and sensoral developments
Everywhere we ridicule, gentlemen,
and satirize her whom we call vain,
and slight, and coquctish--she is rid.
iculed and characterized but from
the adulteress, we turn with aversion
and derision. We satirize one as fool
ish, we turn from the other wicked
We hold up one as warning for her.
self, for her own correction of the
other We say:
Oh, no! we never mention her!'
One is giddy and the other is wicked.
1t is fact uot creditable to any of us
that many married women hover. for
the greater part Of their lifetime, in
this region of vanity and flattery, and
yet never dream of taking the dark
descent. Is it not a fattery? How
many wife will futter her plumage
to the music Of flattery, and yet when
the romance is broken by the solicita-
tion of chastity, will start, and with
hands upon her ears, fly as if COB
lin damned stood before her. 1t is a
fact perfectly well established by all
observations Of life, that a woman
may indulge in these sentiments, ac-
cept this treatment, and feel this pleas
ure whose heart is never touched by
illicit love and l submit, that unless
the heart is conquered, adultery is
impossible. l submit that this con-
duct, upon which my learned brother
is about to insist is worthless in the
judgement of the law, as crcumstan-
tial evidence to establish it, and l op-
pose it on that ground and we can
not misunderstood each other so much
as that you should think approve this
sort of conduct
go as far as you, or any one, in
the moral condemnation of it, and l
have no words to defend it, its undue
levity, its frivolity and its danger
but | meet you as lawyer, as an OBJ
server of life, on all we know of the
heart of man, or of woman, and | sub
NIT that tens of thousands of wives
have gone so far, and yet could never
justly be suspected of having taken
the last final step.
Permit me to remind you, under his
Honor's directions, of the decisive ex-
pressions the law gives in this case.
In case much stronger t@"" those
letters make this case, a judgement
has been rendered by one of my broth
er ecclesiastical Judges, a wise man
and good man, who understands life
and the nature of men and women
He knows that ten thousand fashiona-
bic women come home at midnight
from parties to find their husbands
asleep, aye, and to be conscious of a
truer pleasure, when they lie down
by their sides, than from the admira-
ton, from the devotion, Of the flattcr-
ing throng, whose words have been
playing around the head, but came not
near the heart. Therefore l doubt not
we shall all agree upon my brothers
polished denunciations of the vice of
Irritation.
In the case to which have alluded
the Judge said the letters had been
much examined and commented upon
He had read them over and over again,
but he did not intend to follow the
counsel in their comments. They were
written in an ardent, romantic strain,
the man (Bush) soliciting interviews,
criminal purposes-for it was impos-
sible that his object in addressing a
married woman, being himself mar
ried man, could be mistaken for any
thing else-but still they were by no
means conclusive that the woman had
proceeded to the last extremity of
guilt. The court must be satisfied
not only of the guilt of the mind, but
of the body. This cause shows, again,
that woman may be guilty of little
or great sins, and still not plunge into
the lowest depth of crime.
1t is beyond all manner of contro-
versy that women do go further than
all this, or these moral and beautiful
platitudes in which my brother will
by and by indulge, without being
guilty of adultery. To all that we
will answer, We agree with him per-
fectly; but it is worthless for his OBJ
ject, and unless he can go further
than that, and show-beyond the fact
of the intimacy, and beyond the fact
of the alleged Irritation, beyond and
over these-some act of guilt, and
establish it by other and collateral
and strong proof, then I respectfully
submit to you that the libel fails on
this part of the case.