The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-02-22
LAW REPORT.
CoMMoN PLEAS

Judge Tilden proceeded to argue the case.
It was one, ho thought, calculated to excite
emotion and, perhaps, to justify little elabo-
ration but in addressing a deiberative tri-
bunal he felt it would be more becoming to
present an unimpassioned enumgration of the
grounds, both as to the law and facts, which
would Justify the court in granting the prayer \
Of the petition, and which, IL appeared to him,
were too clear and indisputable to need very |
much the aid of argument
The charge of extreme cruelty the counsel |
then discussed at some length, contending that |
the evidence fully established it, and, under |
authorities which he cited to the Court, that, |
(without the inAiction of actual blows upon !
the person of the wife) it might be perpetrated |
by indgnities addressed to her mind, by
groundless and malicious charges against her
chastity-thc physical and mental symptoms
being so interviewer, that unpleasant emotions
will bring on bodily diseases far more disas-
nous than the result Of any sudden act Of
violence on the person. ..
In advertilg to the history and character of
the petitioner, the counsel remarked that VIXEN
Mary Ann McNieOll, she was not only the fa-
voritc of the family circle at home, but of her
associates and acquaintances. She came from
n respectable family; her father, money maker
certainly, as the world goes, ambitious in day
of vigor to lay something up against one of de-
cay was not parsimoniouS, but wise in the ad-
ministration Of his estate, living comfortably,
and affording to his children the advantages of
polite and polished education. When married
by this respondent she wss the owner of u large
inhertance-the real estate was limited to her
for life, the personal estate was hers absolutely,
and, taken together, she brought to her husband
Il solid capital of from 500 to $50, 900. In
a moment of female caprice-it may be of pas
sion, of imagination--she forms an attachment
for Mr.. Duhme that that attachment was rcal
none could doubt--for he was foreigner, speak
ing to her an alien tongue, and introducing her,
so far as his friendships were concerned, to those
who only, or chiefly, spoke that language. He,
though generally respected in his business ca
rccr, and in the ordinary intercourse with his
associates and business friends, manfesting an
honorable perception of social duties, was, new
erthclcss, of II naturally suspicious and jealous
disposition, violent when his passions wero
aroused; and this jealousy may have been
founded on the conscious fact that he had mar
ried into II circle not his own and though his
own was reputable, and the incongruity did not
arise because his condition was less elevated
respectable, cultivated or refned--as the eleva-
tons of the two may have been on the same
plane--the difference of nativity and of Ian
guage formed II barrier almost insurinountable
to any thing like genial flow Of sentiment be-
tween the two circles and he becomes instantly
the victim of his own morbid, unfounded, irri-
table, unjustifable suspicious and jealousy; and
when the intensity of the original affection be-
gan to subside, the parties find themselves grav-
itating to their respective spheres and circles,
and to tastes and feelings which could then only
be pursued at the expense of peace and happi-
ness and hence, referring to the disposition Of
! the petioner, he urged that though subjected to
! these influences, and under circumstances of
provocation, her sentiments of indignation, or
of conscious wrong, may have found utterance
for he did not claim she was denuded of the pas
sons of her nature; her character would well
support the test Of a critical examination.
One witness had testified that the parties
when together seemed as ifinviting some third
person to introduce them. What was the res
pendants duty under such circumstances He
was the stronger vessel the party who could
afford to make concessions; and if he did il
would require no intermediate party to intro.
! duce them. What woman could bear to live
through such n period, on such relations
| This cold, reserved manner would solve a great
many matters; it lay at the bottom of the
difficulties. 1t was an insane, miserable dys
poetic jealousy it was your Loefner in a miti-
gated form--it was your jealous man-the
green-eyed monster-without that animal
feature which Loefner possessed-without tha
portion of the man called the brute, to impe
him to imbIue his hands in the blood Of hi
wife-but cohtenting itself with occssiona
sallies OF rage and resentment, and OF the mort
frequent course of a cold, inscnsible neglectfu
bearing to his wife-and he Judge Il. wouli
here say, by way of parenthesis, that if court
of justice wished to administer the law %
divorce in way calculated to subsetSe III,
real interests of the parties they swotildf no
withhold their relief-they WOULD not wal
until act of desperation lead the final consum
nation portended by such manifestations,
NJ, nrbn,a ,r . kIa s1.,,x.,E &c m iooo,,,o
corresponding to ready capital nearly a
large-an income certainly greatly beyond any
amount that would be involved in the persona
expenditure of a wife. The truth is that
vile by the discharge of her duties earns fully
her subsistence, ever, in these days of crino
line.
Mr.. Lincoln.-Yes, when she stays at home
Judge T1lden, ,--Qpe that stays at home suf
ficient for all the duties required Of her; he
income was greatly beyond any demands sh
could make on the exohequer of her husband
and he was in the receipt also Of an ampl
revenue; and the court in determining I'm
question of gross neglect of duty would taxi
this fact, iii connection with the relations the,
sustained in their social intercsurse-and tn
fact, too, that she was an educated and refneC
lady, of a respectable faI9ily ip good standing
Mr. Dahme himself, in his occupation also
reputable, and in everything else, excepting
his relations to his Wlte, entitled 10 respect
but here Re had been seized on by an incura
BILE disease-the disease Of jealousy.
: Counsel then reviewed the grounds in detail
{ upon which this petition for divorce was based
, and proceeded to remark, that as it was utterl
beyond hope that these parties should agai
live together under the restored relations O
T husband and wife, it was reasonable expcc
tation, even if the Court should withholda a de
) cree for divorce, that the petitioner shoul
3 obtain n restoration of her estate, and be In
| demniRed for the expenses she had incurred j
the prosecution of her rights. The able argu
I ment of Judge Tilden occupied nearly fy
hours. ... 10.
Mr.. Warnock, on the part of the responder
% next addressed the court lie said he belonge
$ to the old sohoOl-regarding marriage if not
sqorapent, Gs vt least thing equally saGrel
c ind, therefore, utterly opposed to iud 60 I'll
den's theory Of extending and enlarging tn
J causes of divorce. In referring to the charg
4 of jealousy" brought against the respondan
b he said that that entertained by Mr.. Duhm
was no other jealousy than such as husban
ought to feel ltwAs not al MI that suspicion
q his wife as had been imputed to him; but
y was that anxious jealousy or solicitudc whiC
became the head of family, during his wife
. Voluntary absonce, that no breath of suRpi0iC