Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1870-02-11
The Rlgh.. of Married Women.

The exposition, by Mrs. Lucy Stone, Of the
wrong. to which women are exposed under
the laws of Vermont, as given in her speech
on Thursday evening, would have been
Quite effective. if it had only been CORRECT.
IS it was. it was as pretty piece %. a7-
sumption and unsupported assertion as
we have listened to in some time. We fear
that taking fancies for facts and jumping to
conclusions has become a habit with the little
lady. She ayerred in one breath that she
did not believe the editor of dis paper knew
that the women Of Vermont did not want to
vote. and in the next breath Dc Jared that
she did not know how that was, which wac
admitting that she had no gcound for chars-
ing the editor with ignorance on the subject
She expressed the opinion that the taLe
Pass did not know what the condition OF
married women was under our statutes, and
then proceeded to demonstrate her own IL
norance on that subject. She had consulted
a LAWYER. she said. and gave the results Of her
inquiries. Well IRE have consuiteia lawyer OF
two. as well as the Statutes. in addition 20 lit
lie knowledge gained by number Of years Oh
seryation of the actual working of our laws.
And we say that Mrs. Stone is entirely mis-
taken in her statement that woman cannot
retain control Of her property after marriage.
On the contrary, the woman CAM sic
chooses. and We have in mind several cases
where she has chosen 50 to do,-Tctain entire
control Of her property AMI she can draw
her income from it and let it accumulate ii
she chooses, even while she is compelling her
husband to support her, and contracting
debts which he must Iay. nder our
laws. none of the rents, issues and products
of the real estate Of the wife and none of the
moneys and obligations arising from the sale
of the same con be taken for the debts Of the
husband. Thus in the case of woman
having real estate who marries a man also
having property, if she owes debts, he be
comes liable and is obliged to pay them oul
or his own estate-not hers. II he dies
without issue she takes one thousand dol
lars and half the residue Of his estate IN al-
ditio- n her own. # she dies without issue
her property goes not to her husband bat
Immediately to her relations. II he dies
having children she takes one third Of his
estate in addition to her own as before. II
she dies having children, he has the use only
of her estate land this only because he has
the support Of the children), which upon his
decease descends to the children.
If husband improves his wife's land by
building upon it or otherwise, without any
agreement that such expenditure of his
money or labor shall vest in him any inter
est in the land or entitle him to a claim upon
her property for compensation for services,
he gets not even an equitable claim upon
the estate, and has no legal right even to
claim compensation for services 50 rendered.
ANY betterments made by him do not dur
ir- his life give him any interest therein
that can be reached even for his debts, Meth
er can the rents nor profits thereof be SO
taken.
Furthermore all property consisting ct
stocks. bonds, dividends, &c, given to mar
ried woman, is exempt from her husband
debts and may be disposed of by her as 1t
she were unmarried. Married women may
devise by Will their lands, tenements and
Entertainments or any other interest therein
descendible to their heirs, Mrs. Stone to the
contrary nevertheless. Under our laws, If a
married woman does business in her own
name and manages it in her own discretion
her husband having nothing whatever to dc
with tin such case the stock and pro
pcrty is treated as the separate property o
tie wife. 4 husband is bound to support
his wife no matter whether she has money
OF her own or not. She may be ten times a
wealthy as he, yet she need not employ {
penny of her money upon her own support
but may run him in debt for that purpose
And she cannot be required to contribute ii
any way to her husbands support, or even t
pay the cost of keeping him in the poo
house.
All this is different enough from Mrs
Stones description cf the case but 1t Is cor
rect 1t doubtless occurred to many OF he
LADY hearers, that they had never heard O
anv case of such hardships as she described
and perhaps that even these inhuman stat
utes could be endured, as long as an intelli
GENT community never succeeded in discover
ing their inhumanity. But the truth is tina
the laws. and the rulings of the courts unde
a them, in Vermont. do not bear hard on VIC
o men. In cases of divorce, as regards al
q lowances of alimony and care oil children