Litchfield enquirer., 1870-03-17


 23dii! % The Legal Disabilities of Connection
 Married Women.
 We finish, on our first page, this week, series of articles on the legal disabilities of Connecticut married women. While VI have made no pretence of indifference te the manifest injustice and harshness of ex. isting laws. we have, nevertheless, endeav- ored to exhibit them fully and fairly, as they are, and, as far as space would admit, in the language of judges and law writer, rather than in our own. We have tried, also, to avoid the nse of technical terms, and the citation of authorities beyond what was strictly necessary to enable law yers to verify. or disproye, our statements We should be pleased to have legal friends send us corrections of such errors as they may discover, and to receive from any oi our readers their views regarding this i'm portant branch of our law, whether those views are in accordance with, or in opposi. ton to, our own. l>Gr -=-3~z -ss
 The question at the root of the whole matter if this: the present marriage tie has the legal effect of indenturing servant to 8 master, for life: ought it not to be so changed as to make 1t a life partnership between two equals? If it were question between males, the theory of servitude would have few advocates in the year oi grace 1870. Nothing but the notion that such rule of subiection was of divine or dinance could ever have blinded our eyes to it's monstrous injustice. In neither of the three branches of the marriage law that we have examined do we fud any sort of necessity for departure from the rule of equality of rights on which modern so- ciety is based. Few husbands dare exer. else the absolute mastership over the per sons of their wives which the law gives them. Occasionally tyrant is found bru- tai enough to enforce his legal preroga. tives, but he must do it in opposition to a public opinion that has happily learned to hate any open exercise of oppression. We can see no reason why the husband should alone control the place of residence, the social intercourse, and the mode of life, of the married pair. Those are matters to be settled in the first place by mutual agree ment, and which ought not to be changed afterwards except upon common consent So, too, as regards children, the present absolute authority of the father is based on no practical necessity. While young, the mother usually has full control over them. After they grow older, any exercise of the authority of one parent contrary to the wishes of the other, cannot but be mis chievous. Above all, neither father nol mother ought alone to assume the grave responsibility of shaping the whole future career of their children, by educating or ap pren ticiug them to trades or professions in opposition to the wishes of the other parent. When we come to the property branch of the marriage law, we see many reasons why the wife should have legal in terest in the control, as we'll as in the pro ceeds,o of the marriage venture. If husbands were compelled to let their wives into theil confidence, to make them real ''help-meets, fthere would be fewer cases of thoughtles extravaganza on one side, and of selfisE personal expenditure on the other. In nc other partnership does the law deem i necessary to give single member of th' firm absolute control over the common property, and, with the bond of affection existing between husband and wife, there seems still less necessity that the marriag' partnership should form an exception to the general rule.
 One of the strongest proofs of the evils o the present marriage law is to be found il our divorce records. During the three years embraced in the three last reports O the State Librarian, fourteen hundred ant twenty-five divorces were granted in Con necticut In 1,28s of these cases the SC:
 
 of the successful party is given, and o these, eight hundred and Jyly eiohl,o or within two of two-thirds, were granted to wives against husbands! No one who has reat our summary of the laws will be at a loss t account for this astounding exhibit. Di vorce is, at present, the wife's only refug from oppression. If the well-meanin clergymen who have been making such
 stir about the law of divorce for few year past would take the trouble to inforn themselves about the law of marriage, the would discover the real cause of muc seeming immortality. We hope. too, tha they would endeavor to make that law jus before they made it permanent: In Christ time, the law of divorce oppressed and de graded the wife; in our time, it is her onl relief against oppression and degradation If Christ's ministers will note this differ ence, and will follow the spirit instead ( sticking in the letter of the divine law ] they will no longer be found crying ou for the wife's legal coercion, but for her le gal emancipation-they will make divorce infrequent, by making them unnecessary