The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-08-05
Divorces and Domestic Morals.

| Divorces and Domestic Morals.
! The New York Void prints the mater
al portions ola paper on Frequent D
vorces in New England" which appears il
the American Quarterly Church Review 70
July. The statistics are from recent regis
tration reports in several Of the New Eng
land States, and these facts and figures
taken in connection with the low grade o
domestic morals, the general decay Of pub
lie sentiment in respect to religious mat
tiers, the frightful spread of foeticide, ant
number of Legitimate births in that sec
ton Of the country, are calculated, the wri
ter in the Review thinks, "to fiji one Will
CONSERVATION and dismay." 70 these 80
cial evils is added the growing frequency o.
divorce. The World, in the course Of its
analysis, goes on to say iig.
Prominent among the causes for these
frequent divorces is the'law, which is near.
ly identical in all the New England States
and which, while granting divorces for rea,
sons other than adultery, ignores all dis.
tinction between separation and absolute
divorce, by permitting persons divorced
for any reason to marry again, thus viola
ting what the Review writer quotes as the
Divine command on the subject, and actual
~ legalizing adultery and polygamy. Now
unquestionably, marriage is, as the church
considers it, an indissoluble bond, or it is,
as the laws of New England and of other
States view, it merely contract between
parties which may be dissolved as easily as
it is made. The old theory that marriage
is Divinely-appointed sacrament is giving
way in this country to the very general
idea that, individual sovereignty controls
the matter, and that people may marry and
unmarry themselves. It is assumed to be
an affair that effects only those who are i'm
mediately concerned though it reaches far
ther-to society generally, and certainly to
the children of those who are married and
are afterwards unmarried. Bnt society,
assisted by State laws, is striding rapidly
in this country towards greater disregard
OF relations which have heretofore been
held, if not as sacred, at least as essential
to the well being of individuals and com
munities."
The alarmed writer in the Review pro.
poses certain remedies /: 'the State law of
every State should solemnize and dignity
the estate of marriage by preventing all
hasty, secret, illegal and irresponsible mar
riages."
But this (the World tells us)-
ais very much like proposing that the
statute law should see that every child in
the State is sent to Sunday School; and
clergymen should refuse to marry divorced
people to other persons, which would only
be throwing away ten dollars, or larger
fee, since the persons desiring to marry
could go to another clergyman, to q justice
Of the peace, or could even marry themsel-
yes by simple agreement Id tile presence
Of witnesses.
"f'he lamentab1e and fairly shocking
view Of the whole subject is, that there is
actually no remedy for the evils growing
put ofill-assorted marriages. and easily OBJ
aimed divorces+-to society, to families,
to the children of such broken
antilles. These evils obtain most widely
n section which assumes TO be the con-
sentative Of the social and poHtica! MOI ais
If the whole country. Slavery and polyga-
ny were pronounced by New England to
,e twin-relics of barbarism and yet, in
New England, the marriage tie is almost
IS little regarded as it ever was among the
Southern blacks, which the simultaneous |
'olygamy Of Utah is nearly Offset by sue
essive polygamY which the divorce statu-
es OF New England legalize.'