Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-09-17
A SINGLE WOMAN ON MARRIAGE,
A Young Lady Lecturer Reports
Her Own Address-A Novel View
OF the Marriage Question.


Last winter, among the platform lee
turers, appeared for the first time Miss
Lillian S. Edgarton, stately and beau
tiful blonde, who in addition to rare
physical advantages, had a fine voice,
an impressive manner, and lecture
upon the woman question at once novel
and effective. While standing up for
her sex she took strong grounds against
suffrage. The lady and her lecture
were so attractive that she was run down
with applications to address lyceums.
This winter she is in the field with a new
lecture, entitled Whittier Are We Drift
ing?" in which the marriage question
is discussed in an exceedingly novel
manner, as will be seen by the following
letter addressed by Miss Edgarton to
business agents:
DEAR SIRs: You call for an outline of
my lecture, "Whither are we DriftingY
that you may intelligently answer in
quiries from lecture committees. Let
me give you the leading divisions of my
subject, together with few explanatory
remarks: ~ E
A glance at the history Of marriage
reveals two prominent stages of it, fol
lowed, at the present day, by two equally
prominent antagonistic tendencies.
/. The old theory regarded marriage
as a condition of inequality, the wife
being subject to the husband, and the
marital relation deriving its validity
from ecclesiastical authority.
2. The modern theory continues the
condition of inequality, but an ava
kened individualism has practically di-
vorced marriage from all ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, leaving the protection of
the relation wholly to the State.
3. This now seeks good
and bad object--the good purpose OF
securing perfect equality between hus-
band and wife, and the bad purpose Of
emancipating marriage from all State
supervision. 1t would abolish marriage
and substitute an anti-social relation of
the sexes-a relation to be beyond the
relationship of both Church and State
mere affair of the parties to it-a free
love caprice This isunquestionably the
drift" and tendency of modern legis
lation, as fully described in an article
on "The Future of Marriage" published
recently in the Modern Thinker. This
theory would prohibit State laws from
preventing intermarriages between blood
relations, or regulating the qualifications
for marriage, or prescribing the mode of
dssolving it. Mrs. Stanton's doctrines
that marriage should be dissolved at
will" and that "the individual sover-
eighty of woman is more sacred than
any human tie" favor this anarchy.
But her views are perhaps only natu-
raj reaction against the nonstrous and
intolerable assumption that husband
owns his wife.
A. Or what / regard as the true theory
of marriage, wherein absolute equality
should exist between husband and wife,
and the relation be deemed to possess
the highest social significance; husband
and wife to be equals, but both in that re-
lation to be subject to the State; her
labors and cares receiving legal guar
antee that they are recognized as equally
important with those Of the husband.
In this view the State should prescribe
regulations for entering into the relation,
and although it should not interfere with
the interior life Of married parties, ex-
cept to preserve undoubted justice be-
tween them, it should also govern the
method of dissolving the relation. And
although separations should be tolerated
and protected in extreme cases, abso
Lutte divorces should be the final remedies
only when the very substance OF relation
is destroyed. This theory secures the
highest individuality to husband and
wife. and the utmost social advantages.
1t can alone save marriage from its
threatened disintegFation-equal pay for
equal work; higher and more thorough |
general culture; a more SPECIFIC educa- |
ton for home duties as well as for any
industrial pursuit she may wish to fol- |
low. and a cessation of all prejudice |
against her doing whatever she can do
we'll are all woman general wants. But
a reformation of marriage, to which the |
wife must make as radical and impor-
tant contributions as the husband, is her
greatest, her supreme want to-day. Re
form marriage, and soon Indiana di-
vorces will be thing of the past. Re
form marriage by truly honoring it .by
proper preparation for Il, by the exercise
not of the affections only ip entering it,
but also of the instructed reason as sci
ence and sociology require, and by right
conduct in the relation, and the millen-
mum of marriage will dawn.
Hoping that from the above general
statement you can see something of the
drift" of "Whither are we Dlitting, |
remain sincerely yours,
LILLIAN S. EDGARToN.
What spectacle it will be to see a
modaef cuhurad heautif,l unmarried
lady, scarcely out Of her teens pleading