Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-09-07
From the Boston Transcript.
Kidnapping.--The Other Side.

both he and " her Harry are sofa, I
Uncle Tom decides it is his duty, to stay |
but he reasons Let Eliza go-it's her |
right l-tan't in natur for her to stay"
Every heart follows that mother on her
perilous night journey with her boy in
her arms. And follows her too in her
mad and dizzy flight over the floating
ice of the river where no courage of
man dares pursue her. Yet the woman
was stealing both herself and her child.
There was certainly case of kidnapping.
A week since our Supreme Court
gave decision which placed ii IN the
poscer of father to separate completely
child from a mother with whom he had
always lived and whom he dearly loved
The father continued to exercise or
perhaps abuse that power, as he had
previously done, by keeping large
black man as a guard over the child to
/ prevent his running to his mother, or
his mother running away with him, max
/ ing the boy, as he stated to the Court,
prisoasr. Three days after that decis-
ion it appears that the boy has been fore
IDLY seized by supposed agents of the
mother, and the boy may now be, where.
he told the judge he longed to be, with
his mother. This abrupt seizure was
certainly not in obedience to any written
law, but it followed the natural law of a
mothers instinct. And its rash defiance
of all risk affords a measure of the IN
calculating and uncontrolled strength of
that mothers love.
We have in this Commonwealth a
statute against kidnapping, aimed chiefly
against the seizure of man to make
him slave, but perhaps broad enough
in its terms to include the forcible i'm
prisonment and carrying away of a man
for any purpose against his agiH That
statute has not yet been judicially inter
preted to cover the case of giving a
young child TO the arms of its mother.
That precise kind of felonious taking has
not yet been punished in this Common
wealth.
In this community, however, to con-
: cede that thing is against the law is to
5 admit its being wrong. 1t is well that
this is so. But we measure our con-
> demnation of illegalities very differently
Has the mothers side of this illegality
been considered? We notice that the
Judge in fixing the bail Of a supposed
instrument of the mother, speaks of the
act as a highhanded outrage. The press
also has no limit of condemnation.
l It will be noticed that we speak of the
L decision of the court as placing it in the
poacer of the father to separate the chile
: from the mother. A careful attention
to that decision gives the following re
suit. There was an agreement between
the parents for the future custody, vel
fare and happiness of their child unde
which they were living. That agree
ment yielded the custody to the father il
= March last, upon the faith and expires
1 understanding that the mother shoult
have access to him at all reasonable time
and the child should pass one-half o
Il each vacation with her. That cour
however, had no power to enforce it
N performance. The father claimed tina
K visits to the mother made the child disc
L bedient to him.
rs The judge found that such was tn
i probable effect of such visits, though nc
y from any direct influence of the mother
1t yet because of the fondness of the chill
: for her and of his desire TO remain wit
Il her. The judge thereupon found tina
=. since the legal custody belonged to til
" father, he could not in the exercise of
- legal discretion order the father to veal
g en- his authority by letting the mothe
p" see the child. He left the fathers agre'
- ment, however, unaffected by his deci
. ion and as binding in honor and col
science as before the decision. And b
had the humanity to state that his deci
ion might cause temporary unhapp
ness to the child" and also that q
would doubtless be hard for the mother
1t seems that it was too hard for Il
mother to bear patiently. And viii
we cannot concede that the forcible sci
ure is even a technical case of kidnal
ping, it certainly does not seem to be
case for Virtuous indignation. The fat
er invoked the law successfully to isola
the child from its mother. The moth
steps without the law to see her chi
- The fathers legal right is undoubted
M invaded. But he chose to attempt to d
prive the mother of her natural and N
he raj right. Let mothers judge this mot
:, er kindly. ".