New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-10
,HE RUNAWAY wREs SELF-JUSTIFICiTION,

~, Of the ousler connection Ergsnd young ch
Db.hed the mother child en, who last year le
~ hu,bsod house and the Continent Of Europe with
her groom The caused deep sensation not only In En-
land Int IN this country where the family is well known In
Me document which ubon the runaway wife attempts to
tustify her II Is letter written TO female friend oil
herr England and has hitherto been circulated IN that eon
Try IN pamphlet form
T.Tr- r. PARIS, Jan. - 1860.
DraREs -: Your name has been always on my |
hps and in my heart and you alone OF all the world |
have never questioned me. l come to you again,
children when you folded me trusully in your az ms
and cay to you: am as was then; and hear you
say: Tell me nothing for believe you always, ana
Sbs re must be no questioning between us.
What shall write TO you will not be TO cast doubt
upon our perfect and entire sympathy by any expiana-
hon bnt to fulfill what feel TO be duty toward you
to put you IN possession OF all tnat may welgn ~ .ne
least degree with ,hote at all understanding my nature
before whom you to justify your steadfsst attach
ment TO me- though the performance OF this duty dear
e., may impose upon me the reveianon OF my III
most life If, IN your Judgment, there Will De mere
presented snght of such justification, show 1T TO them
wholly or partially jurt you think well, RENE mber-
ing that this is for your sake not my own. my Jusc
wider tribunal for have perperated an act when tne
whole conventional world have leagued together IN
ignorance, prejudice and hypocrisy, to denominate
crime and could expect little or no sympathy from
that wide bar of public Judgment that knows nothing
OF me nor of my surroundings, and which never could
be made 10 comprehend my natures or, compre6ending
It, would not even then, at this day. be prepared 70 ac
eept any argument or explanation IN extenualoh OF
my course,
Won remember me at fourteen; you re-
member the time we returned from the Visit 70 Wy
nondham; YOU remember how, repusng the cold IN
fnences overcoming me IN sP'e OI y.Ssx had asked
me 10 wear that day, and stamped on It ana let al my
hair fall down upon my shoulders ana san; am ree.
You remember il we'll And then, at iast, wnen tne
carriage reached the house, how we threw ourselves
into each others arms and had no more courage, ana
feared TO avow the act telling them you sat down on
H-apd you were still; and then how CRED all nlght,
that denied the truth OF my nature-that was not
free.
> that day repeated itself through my
6Se-ip every act in the worship of God, in my mar
rage in the very conception OF my children; ana
looked forward 10 its last repetition only III my deatn
N IN ia past now-my living death is j have
VI chosen between the universal condemnation OF the
world and my own sense OF right not IN any sublime
vay but in the simple, truthful way my nature
crayed / lie down in the evening and rise in the
rf ming for the first time since child, blessing God
for NV existence Nothing can rob me of this now but
death alone. have that treasure 70 woman heart
that woman alone understandable open avowal
of the love that controls her being. With IT part of
it, all of it, is the man. free from prejudice hed with
every noble aspiration who is It's Object. on99la Il l
ask you, have preferred the reputation which the
world secords to Der who, yielding to Its forms, be-
comes daily the living lie it approves
They who go on dlsPospg OF human ann instincts na-
according TO their own sense OF right and wrong,
should 90 further they sh uld change their meeting
houses and churches into monas eries and con,
vents and watch he religious aspirations they would
control by daily and nightly supervision. Into their
homes they should introduce harem espionage that the
bodily instincts which they hold in enforced comp-
ance NAV have opportunity to assert the truth
about themselves. -.
Heresy and adultery the two excommuneatve
words heh social life suspends over the doomed head
of woman who thinks and acts contrary 70 lts rules
of action have not that full power and effect they are
supposed TO have. Nothing but actual physical I'M
prisonment of the b,dy and if it possible, Of the
mind can prevent a woman from becoming the secret
agower of her belief and of her instincts The excom
muncaiye words do not restrain from either ofense;
they Only develop that unquestOnable vice OF womans
The brain, when fnfde is infdel by its own proper
organization and they who assai Its inidety strike
yainy at the God who made it, and implanted 1t in
every new. born soul; the body, when lnndel 10 the
connection in which it is placed is go by Its own proper
instincts and they who attempt 10 control strike, ike
wise, at a law of Its creation.
When will narrow-uinded bigoted men learn that
the one absolute controlling law of woman nature
Ia oye-tbat it is the only good and desirable thing
about a woman--the only reliable thing about her
They can trust her, with her love- 70 live in house Of
prociituuon; they cannot control her, without IT. by
The most absolute social Ostracism.
And this love- what is it? 1t is power present al
WAYS in the world which, recognized by two ike ma
lures thenceforh binds them TO each ohsr beyond the
control and in violation if need be, of any other law
as INV mothers love bound her 10 my father ana my
fathers love bound him TO her. and gave me my being
"a being Graded in the tendsrest, truest passion
that ever existed between two hu nan beings
How long have been in ascertaining and yieldiag
myself ND 10 this divine law! What wasted years
What subjections derogatory to the vllest nature
What bypocrisy, dshonorDg TO God! what suffering
have caused this man. assigned TO me alone since That
dsy on which first in him recognized mysef
seems so long ago. it seems far longer to me than
the time makes it; it seems as If an eternity mad rolled
backward TO that day.
Oh I had ouestioniDgs Of right and wrong IN that
fatholess interval of despair far other far deeper,
than all had been taught could be taught by tnelr
Bpsquestonings that brought me 70 the very orlh 0i
death. 80 WY, J, ",
him What is it love in him AL this have asked
mysef thousand times and there has never been, can
never be, an answer TO all this questioning.
Yet saw no " TO you: Why should not love MIN
What il there not 10 love in him My heart only an
ewers Wha is there in me that should be loved, that
7 should know that 10Y which in its FINEST moment
makes all years of other time mockery
And thete questions do we ask each other daily ana
nightly forever.
And vet there is one reason they say, why should
mot have loved hiu--ons word there Is which the
,Uord places as an impossible barrier between us-a
word that has never crossed my lips till nova msan-
ipoess ord and yet involving in their eyes crime
ss great as that adultery winch 4 commit--Just as
great for both are equally meaningless as touching our
relation. .,..,,
And that word expresses the social position ne bore
me Rather than have been his lawful wife even,
might have been kings mistress, or any no5lemans
pafamour, with less ofense
And l. who was the reputable bawd OF marriage
rites was above him J. daily ofense against De,
cepcy in obedisnee 10 the same social law that would
have forced him 70 lifelong humility Was l above
him How In what way l. sunk In the abase mentor
INV own weak unnatural compliance, below the verlest
psmeless outcast 7 Could be above anything was
he not al least my peer He, who, if we leave too
- ,rand onestions of distinction is Hyperion 10