Litchfield enquirer., 1868-12-03
WASHINGTON Ct., Nov. 25th 1868.
Ep1roR oF THE L1roHFrELp ENouIREa

WASHINGTON Ct., Nov. 25th 1S6S.. I EDITOR OF THE LIrcHFIELD ENQUIRER. I SIR:-Now that the smoke o the last political contest has cleared away. will you oblige reader of your paper by lre-publishing the abstract of the Connecti
 cut laws relating to married women, which Iappeared in the ENQUIRER some time in June last, together with your own excel lent comments thereon. I make this re- quest because am unable to find either a woman or man, who even knows what our laws on this subject are. I think eve ry paper in the State should publish them each week, as long as they remain on our statute books, or at least until the people are fully aware that our code contains laws which make it virtually an insult. for man to ask the woman he loves, to become his Wife, because in so doing. he really asks her to put herself in position relatively inferior to his, as far as justice and equal rights arc concerned. While no honorable man will contend that it is is right for him individually to treat woman with more harshness than he would man, if the sim pie proposition were put to him, yet some | of our laws sustain men in doing this very thing; for they draw dividing line in ca ses when the interest of both are equally concerned, leaving man and the law on one side, and woman unprotected on the other. Surely in our practice, we lag far behind our belief. Must every woman wait till she feels in p1opria persoaa the terrible injustice of such laws as these, before she can be induced to utter remonstrance against them; or have we some among us, who are magnanimous enough to do battle for others less fortunate than themselves2 l believe we have many if they only un- derstood the necessities and bearings of the case; but most of the objections made by women against putting the ballot into their own hands. and thus securing the power of making themselves the equal of men before the law, have nothing really to do with the subject, and only servo to show that they need educating up to the point of understanding their just rights. While So many of them remain satisfied with their present legal status, we can hard ly expect men to undo their unjust work WOMAN. We reprint the following extracts from the article referred to in the foregoing com munication-
 l. A married woman, guilty of infidelity, is punished by imprisonment in the States Prison not Jess than two years. A married man, guilty of infdelity, (except with a married woman) is punished by fine uot ] e.cceeding seven dollars, or by imprisonment in the common jail ,aol erceeding thirty days!
 2, The husband can in this State convey away all his real estate without his wifes consent, and cut her off at his death from every cent of his property. In no other State in the Union can this be done.
 B. While the wife has no right to any portion of her husbands property during his life, and may be cut off from any DOT tion of his estate after his death, the hus- band, immediately on the marriage, takes possession of all her property and keeps possession during his life, only giving over the principal thereof to her or her heirs on f. The property which may be acquired by their joint exertions during wedlock be- l longs to the husband alone, she having no | legal interest therein whatsoever.
 | 5. The children, fruit of the marriage, belong to the husband, not to the wife. In case of separation, he is entitled to their 1 custody.
 The only remedy at present open to mar ried women against laws reducing them to condition nearer slavery than freedom, is divorce. We are not surprised, therefore, that two thirds of the divorces granted in
 this State, are granted to wives, who have thus obtained restitution of their own prop erty, control of their own children, and a share of their own earnings.
 What is really needed is a thorough re-
 modelling of our whole law of marriage and divorce A woman tied to husband who has been guilty of ''such misconduct as permanently destroys her happiness" is now in virtual slavery of 8 most revolting
 description We believe that ill such case a full divorce is not unscriptural. If our ministers think differently, and the legisa- ture reverently decree that the ''irrepressi- ble conflict shall go on, at least let them unite the hands of the weaker party, and
 make the fight something nearer equal.