Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-14
The Case Of nIary ANN Butler,

in this affair has been seized ppon by the cit.
press and made leading feature for severa
days, and, as usual, it has been regarded a
evidence of newspaper ability and enterprise
to mako 1t rs sensational as possible, ant
initiate the excitement to the greatest posi-.
ble Dimensions.
The case was that of a mother and her hus-
band claiming the custody Of her child, which
during her former difficulties, or dissolute-
ness or both, which led to her Imprisonment,
had been placed at the Orphan Asylum and
aftarward given to Mr.. 7. F. Weightman, in
whose hands she was doubtless kindly taken
cure of and whose family and the child seem
10 be mutually attached. The child is a
prccocious girl of six years.
The mother having married man whose
ability to support the child is not questioned,
they claim its custody, and for some time she
has been importuning its protector for it,
and the Court to interfere. The case was
brought up on habeas corpus issued by Judge
Hilton, of the Probate Court. The natural
and legal right of the mother and her hus-
band to the custody of her child will be. con-
ceded at once. Then the only question is,
have they diyested themselves of either of
these rights? 1t was not pretended in Court
that the step-father has. His counsel chal-
lenged the production of any evidence to
show that he was unfit to exercise his legal
rights in the matter. So far the case at law
would seem clear. But those who contest
the restoration Of the child, do it on the
ground that the mother has been of dissolute
habits and has been arrested several times
by the police.
Has she been worse than hundreds of Grim
inals who are now undergoing penalties for
the most atrocious crimes in our State Pris-
ons? Yet when did the law interfere to de-
prive them of their children? Where will the
law or society stop, if immortality or drunk
enness is to be made a cause for taking chill
dren from their parents and putting them
into the custody of the public? And if So
ciety is to begin practice on this rule, are
there not hundreds of children in the very
depths of degradation and want, in condi-
tions utterly hopeless, whose parents if they
have any, will make no resistance to relief,
on whom society will find abundant scope
for its sympathy, without making a contest
with this woman's affection, and with her
husband, who can support the child above
want?
But she has been in the city prison. and
among the thousands of vagabonds who have
graduated from that institution, this woman
alone is to be robbed of her child, because
she is woman, and society is virtuous.
Also, it is said, she abandoned the child: that
is, she was in prison, and the child was put
at the Orphan Asylum, in which she acqui-
esccd; certainly not an unnatural nor unfeel-
ing abandonment under the circumstances.
II is said that this woman was kept for sew
eral months in the city prison on some charge
which was not substantiated. Perhaps that
should be sufficient cause for robbine her of
her child and proclaiming her an outcast of
the jailsl
But, suppose she has been guilty of gross
immortality; who were there among the SYM
pathizing audience, qualified to cast the first
stone at her? and how large would the mob
have been that was invoked to interfere with
the Judgment of the Court, if none but parents
who, for the like immortality, would consent
to be deprived of their children, were called
on?
If this woman's sins had been as scarlet re-
pentance will make them white as wool, and
fit her for Heaven; and will it be said that it
will not fit her for the care of her own child?
As bad as she can have been, were accepted
by the Savior, in spite of the hootings of So
ciety, and of calls upon the mob to interfere.
1t is not alleged that she is not now reputable.
We do not admit that the question has any
thing to do with the case. Degradation docs
not destroy maternal affection, nor in any
degree its rights.
But religious fanaticism has been stirred
up in the matter, an element more prominent
in the Cincinnati press than in that of any
other city within our knowledge. The
Gazette says:
Beyond the strictly sectarian circle with
which Judge Hilton would seem to be in the
closest affinity, there can hardly be much di-
versity Of opinion as to the character of the
proceedings to which he has lent his official
influence" ....
Judge Hilton is Catholic so is the
mother while the Orphan Asylum and Mr..
Weightman are Protestant; and the Gazette
would have it understood that the eternal
salvation or perdition of this child depends
on the judgment of the Court, and that a
Catholic is disqualified to sit in judgment on
the right Of Catholic mother to her own
child. The Times also after its kind talks of
the mother being ''backed by ecclesiastical
influence" as if ecclesiastical influence was
required to instigate mothers affection for
her child.
The child also shrank from the step-fatber
when he went to take her, according To the
order of the Court. Why should she not2
He was stranger to her, acting on the part
OF her mother who was excluded from the
Court. She had been taught to shun him and
her mother. Who would be willing that
their children should be subject to interested
influences and allowed TO choose in the same
way2 The sympathy of the bystanders broke
out at this, and an excellent citizen said, as is
reported in the Gazette, ~ hope the mob will
prevent it,"
An appeal to force is only to the higher
law. The right always exists. 1t is for each
one to decide when the law becomes unen-
durable and resort to arms justifiable. But
they who appeal to force to resist the law, |