North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1870-06-01
Vo. 33 McGREGOR IOWA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE l. 1870
From the New York Tribune, May Is

OANA W.
From the New York Tribune, May IS.
| Apollo hall was completely filed yel
terday morning with women who desire
to hear another woman's opinion Of fugi
tive wives. Many notable people thronge
the platform and mingled with the less n
markable ones in the hall. Mrs. Robez
Dale Owen, Mrs. Benjamin F. Butler, Mr.
Margaret Winchester, Mrs. Laura Bullard
and many others equally noted, listene
to the views of Mrs. Cady Stanton on tn
relations Of the married and the laws 0
divorce. Many gentlemen strove to oh
tain an entrance, Oliver Dyer among th
rest, but were refused. Miss Anthon,
introduced the speaker, after saying sh,
felt very much embarrassed in doing 30
as she had never before faced an audienc.
composed entirely of her own sex.
Mrs. Stanton begun her address BY
saying that she had been accused of On
tertaining free-love doctrines, but having
lived for many years with one man, and
expecting to do SO until the end Of life
she would let her conduct prove her po
sition of that question. She had never
seen either Mr.. Mcfarland or Mrs. Rich
ardson, therefore had no personal inter
est in their affairs, but the principle which
their relations to each other involved wa,
of the greatest importance to woman
and to the world. She had read the
touching story of Mrs. Richardson, and
believed it to be true. 1t carried convic.
ton with it. "As I eat alone one night
and read it, | tried to weigh the load ol
sorrow she had borne through those long
years of agony, through the ordeal of q
public trial in our courts, through the
abuse heaped upon her by the press,
through the garbled testimony and the un.
just verdict which set madman free to
keep her in fear for the rest of her life.
As thought Of these things, and the in
suits heaped on the womanhood of the
nation in her person, resolved that as
have heretofore devoted my life to the en-
enfranchisement of women, so my future
days should be spent in teaching woman
her duties to herself in the FUTURE" She
did not desire the hanging Of Mr.. Nc
Farland, but that he should be confined
as a lunatic. [Applause.l Mrs. Rich
ardson's testimony in court would Ger
tainly have changed the verdict; but
neither women nor slaves are allowed to
testify against their supposed masters.
She claimed that no woman had right to
live with a drunken husband or diseased
libertine, and asked why an insane man
who had committed murder should be
turned loose upon community to CON-
init the same crime again. She believed
that if it were not for the apathy Of
women, a law would he enacted which
would prevent murderer from walking
at largo. A jury should be selected from
gentlemen who understood lunacy, or,
better yet, the case should be tried by
lawyers, judges, and juries, composed of
intelligent honest women. The property
right which men claimed in the persons
Of their wives belonged to the dark ages,
and VIC should have o REVISION in our laws
which would give an equal partnership
in the marriage relation. She knew of
women in this city supporting in asylums,
husbands who had become lunatics
through dissipation, and yet the law COM
PEELED these wives to maintain the rela-
tion, and, moreover, that however happy
some women might be in their domestic
lives, oil of them were wading in deep
water. She said that ex-Gov. Jewell Of
Connecticut told that there was one ap-
plication for divorce to every four for
marriage In that State. She also stated
that there were 10000 divorces granted
in Massachusetts last year. She believed
that divorces should he granted at the
will of the parties. Marriage should be
the outgrowth of intellectual sympathy,
and any other union was one of degrade
ton. She quoted Humbeldt, John Milton,
Jeremy Benthan, Ritter, Charlotte Bronte,
John Stuart Mill, Charles Dickens, and
others, in brief passages, to support her
views, and they were very ingeniously Sc
lected. She declared that when Mrs.
Richardson left Mr.. Mcfarland, she took
the first step toward virtue and self-respect
though her conduct afterward did not al
together meet Mrs. Stanton's approval.
Mrs. Richardson should have been pa
tient, and should have asked for divorce
in New York, where justice would have
been reached at some time. Right always
prevailed, though it was slow in coming
sometimes. She stated that there was
more misery in civilized married life from
the present code of laws than from any
other cause, and that every woman should
utter her protest daily against il, and en-
deaver to have those who contemplated
such relation, make truer, nobler, hap
pier marriage than those which we have
all seen. All the laws Of marriage were
one-sided, and wholly in favor of man,
and they must he changed. No pair could
live happily together unless their
relationship was equal in power and in
luence. Personal excellence on the part
Of individual men was all that preserved
the happiness Of any married woman, and
not the protection of their laws. "Be ye
not uneaually yoked together.n the lectur-