Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-03-10
BLISS & SON, Editors
Mrs. Eiizabsth Ca6y Stanton on the
Naperville Tragedy.

/ Mrs. Stanton gives her views ia
the Revolution, in speaking OF TIE
/ NaperviIle I'll. tragedy follow
\ beautiful, innocent girl, on the
| prairles Of Illinois, loved and pledged
her tEoJh to a poor young. man, v 40
Loved EeF "a return. Woridfv con-
sideratiOn of family or opposition
had attracted them to one another,
but love had bound their young
hearts together. A man OF wealth
! and promise now presented himself,
and pressed his sui, which was
strongly favored by tire parents, and
| their persistency at last induced her
to yield against her strong desires,
and she WAS le arried to the man she
did not love zz1
Against this Iegaiized prostitutio
/ Of womanhood, the press, the pulpit,
the people have nothing to say but
| Gods laws are memorable, and in the
most refined, loviDg, spiritual ma
| lures. woman s indifference to Il huS-
band ;lw;tys eliminates in aver
| sion, hate, deLestaLion, while in more
| polite. material characters married
| 'ife IS preserved by q cold, calculat-
! ing word}lymindedness
The first wrong stepindueed many
Others The starved and bleeding
soul prayed for the love, the friend
| ship, she could not lind al home.
/ As home is W0nau's sphere, and
marriage the only legitimate pursuit
| OF iier iite, when Sfle Is wrecked in
| dissertations, she as launched with
out chart or compass on a troubled
sea. plis young victim has shared
the fate Of multitudes just like her.
4 miserable marriage was followed
by It's legitimate results, paramours,
eIOpement5, aS5aSSinationS, the huS
band ia prison, the lover dead, and
she who, a few short years ago,
roamed over her native prairies with
the youth she loved. is exposed in
our daily journals, her name disgrac-
ed, and all the reV@lting scenes of
her unhappy downfall heraldeti from
Maine, to California. All this viii
be finished by a mock trial of the as
S;tSsin, and his speedy release as a
martyred hero. Although such trag-
cdic5 8s these are being acted every
day in the first families Of the land,
our wise men lecture on ''Christo-
pher Columbus,n - ''Ihe Lost Arts, -
Or against woman's suffrage, while
none are ready to grapple with these
fearful social problems, before which
We all stand appalled,.
Until men and women are sufii-
GENTLY develoIed for harmonious
households, for true relation, it is
folly to talk of marriage as an indis-
soluble tie TO keep laws on our
statute books that no one regards,
brings all law into contempt. To
have one code of morals for men and
another for women, one for wives
and mother for mistresses, makes
all virtue and morality sham and
mnckery.
70 compel TWO human beings that
/ hate each other, by law and public
sentiment, to live together, is to per
pctuate vice and crime from genera
/ ton to generation. Mans one-sided
/ legislation on this whole question of
marriage and divorce has been thor
| oughly tried and proved a failure,
| and justice viii never be done, harmo-
ny viii never be brought out of this
/ discorl, until woman has voice in
making the laws and moral codes
! that govern our social relations.
| Ia the meantime, let Us have done
with this ~ wholesale assassination of
| paTamours- This grows out of mans
property III woman as Mr.. Train
says, HAS not a woman the same
| right TO a paramour that 4 man has
| to a mistress. !" and is not her honor
! equally insulted, and her offspring
| tainted, by these wrOnged relations
The sins of the fathers are visited
upon the children to the third and
| fourth generation. Suppose all jeal-
Gus wives like Mary Harris, should
begin a wholesale shooting of suSpi-
cious women, what social anarchy
we should have at once ? Emerson
says, we cannot have unions until
we have units. All this violence is
the result Of mans idea that his wife
is property, if once married, no mat
ter whether her affections are his or
another's; his honor is touched if
any one else has dared To call out
what lie never cCrIld. Oh what =
sham is the marriage we see about
Us. though sanctioned in our
courts and baptized at our al
tars, where cunning priests take toll
for binding virtue with vice, angels
ju grace and goodness with devils in
malice and malignity beauty with
4 defurmity, Joyous youth with gIlded
old age, palsiGd, blasted, with moth
| thing - give its victim i'm white veil
/ or orange blossoms, bat a life OF lux
/ uFy and seusualIslu. i on may shoot
/ paTamours, hang girls for iulanticide
/ tili your courts and Journals with di-
/ VurCe trials, while the press, the pull
/ pit and the people pour hot shot on
/ these victims OF society, but all these
crimes Uill go steadily ON, mothers
1 viii straugle the children Of force,
( disgust and Indifference, and betray
the husband they loathe.
Nature is mighticr than human
law, and true marriage like true re-
ligiun dwclls s. the sanctuary of The
soul beyond the coguizance or sane
ton of State or church. The only
remedy we see for all these social
evils i 10 educate and eXalt woman,
make her an Independent, self-sup-
I porting being, give her voice in the
. laws, place her ia a position where
/ She can choose the father of her
I child-theu and then only will she
be loyal 10 the one ANA the proud
. Protector IF the otner.
As lady was walking in New