Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-11-25
THE MARRIAGE TIE.
:. Divorce and Divorce Laws In the
TnIHad Gsafpsy

Divorce and Divorce Laws in the
United States"
This was the subject Of paper read by
Rev. T. w. Woolsey, D. D., of Yale Col
lege, New Haven, Connecticut, before
the Western Social Science Association,
which recently met in Chicago. This
subject, which concerns the very fOunda-
tons Of public morality, has Of late years
assumed in this country an increasing
interest, from the portentOus facility with
which the marriage tie, under the laws
Of many Of the States, may be dissolved,
and is, in fact, actually avsiled Of for
that purpose. Although the statistics of
this social evil are by no means complete
or satisfactory, yet from what is known,
nr. WOolSey considers it safe to conclude
that it is increasing in frequency, and
that the veneTatiOn OF the marriage tie is
already greatly lessened. He says, it is
found that the ratio Of annual divorces to
annual marriages in Massachusetts,, dur
ing the years for which we have the ma
terials for calculation, are as l TO Al 4;
in Ohio, about I to p; in Vermont, TO
2Lj; in Connecticut, as to ll.4O. Again,
comparing annual divorces with popu-
lation, and taking 100000 inhabitants as
the standard or unit, we have in Ohio, in
1865, SO l-3 divorces to that number; in
Vermont, about 80; in Massachusetts,, in
different years, from 1872 to 2LS; and
Connecticut. from GA to S7.5. These
last estimates, however, are basel on
probable increase Of population since the
general census, and therefore do not de-
serve to be called entirely accurate, al
though they are supposed to be sufi-
GENTLY so for all practical purposes.
Even these results, however, are con-
sidcrcd by the professor as too favorable,
for reasons which he gives, as follows
d" For these results the Catholic popu-
lation, from whom there are few petitions
for divorce presented on account Of the
doctrine which their church has always
maintained concerning the sacrament
of marriaga-has not been deducted.
For instance, the marriages in Connecti-
cut in 1867 were 4,779, and the divorces
4j9, or one divorce to 1910 marriages.
But inasmuch as in l.l9J cases both par
ties were foreigners, and, without ques-
ton, Catholics, in many instances our
dividend will need to be considerably
lessened Deduct for this purpose 500,
and we have the ratio Of one to eight
such marriages as can end in divorce, a
very frightful ratio, to be paralleled no
where in the United States, nor in any
other country, unless, indeed, Indiana or
some other Western States wins the
shame Of this bad eminence from Con-
necticut. And the gravity Of this result
is scarcely diminished by the fact Of ex-
perience that nowhere in the better
classes Of society are there purer morals,
more religion, more observance Of the
sacred laws OF family life. For We must at
once conclude that the lower stratum Of
society is the more corrupt, and surely
very serious danger impends over a COM
munity where there is a worm gnawing
into the life Of the family in its lower
classes, unless a remedial power can
counteract the evil.
We have made some comparison be-
tween the frequency Of divorce in this
country and in other parts Of Protestant
ism. Prussia had the reputation Of the
lowest system Of divorce laws anywhere
10 be found But the ratio there Of an
nual divorces to annual marriages in
1855 was, among non-Catholics, l to 30,
or about 80 per cent. less than in Yer
mont or Ohio, and far less than in Con-
necticut, where it is go per cent The
greatest ratio nearly thirty years ago in
the judicial districts of Prussia was 81
divorces to 100000 inhabitants the
least 10 TO 100000; nay, more, in the
Prussian RhenISh Provinces, where the
law is based on the code Napoleon, and
where the Catholic inhabitants being nu-
merous, must have some influence on
the social habits Of Protestants, there
were but four fair divorces 70 10000
ProtestantS, or n in all among pOpula.
ton of 100000 of that class of inhabi
tauts. ! write this in pain, being Prot
estant, I', as the Apostle Paul says,
may provoke to emulation them which
are my flesh, and might save some 0
them
Itappears also that the ratio of diyor
ces to marriages Ia increasing and this j
remarkably the case in Connecticut sine
law passed in 1913, which authorize