The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-28
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

LAST evening an eloquent plea in favor of
the sacredness of the marriage tie and against
the free and easy divorces which too m any of
the advocates of women's rights contend for,
and which are sanctioned by the laws of too
many of our States was made at the Academy
of Music bya young lady who is evidently
as much superior to the majority of female
platform speakers in intellect as she is in
personal attractions. Miss Edgarton i'm
pressed her hearers last evening with the fact
that she was lady in the best and highest
sense of that much abused term, and her
discourse was at once forcible without vulga-
rity, and refined without weakness or senti-
mentality. The good a refined and lady-like
woman who has been endowed by heaven
with the gift of eloquence, and has
common sense in addition, can
do in combating some of the
most dangerous tendencies of the times, and
in promoting reforms which all good men
and women concur in believing to be neces-
sary for the future welfare and safety of the
nation, can scarcely be estimated; and
although Miss Edgartons discourse displayed
the common feminine fault of being able only
to look upon one side of subject when she
merely considered the usual relations of the
sexes apart from the matter of marriage her
remarks on the subj ject of marriage and divorce,
as practical questions of the day, were so true
and just that we give them cordial endorse
ment, and in all sincerity wish her success in
the important and influential field of labor
upon which she has entered.
Miss Edgarton indicated the true remedy
for the present disgraceful condition of the
laws in this country which assume to regulate
marriage and divorce, and that is constitu-
tional amendment which will place the whole
subject of marital relations in the hands of
the Federal Government, and thus ensure
uniform laws for the whole country This
plan has been advocated repeatedly in the
columns of this journal, and it is the only
method by which the root of existing evils
can be reached. The laws regulating mar
riage should be such as will protect the Just
rights of both parties to the marital con-
tract and those of their children, and divorces
should be made difficult to obtain, and should
only be granted in extreme cases where it
would be gross injustice not only to the
parties themselves but to society at large that
the marriage-tie should continue unbroken.
Only by uniform system of Federal laws can
the confusion which now arises from the
divorce regulations of the different States be
overcome, and the time has arrived when the
future welfare Of the nation demands radical
change from the present system, or rather no
system.
A large number of the prominent women 8
right advocates contend that the convenience
of individuals is paramount to all other con-
siderations, that when a couple are un-
happy in the marriage state they should have
the right to sever their bonds at will, and to
form new ones if SO disposed. 1t needs no
argument to prove that such theory as this
saps the very foundation of social morals, and
that If admitted it will be but the prelude to
degrading barbarism. Miss Edgarton elo-
quently and earnestly contended last evening
that society at large had claims superior to
those of individuals; that if persons fool
ishly marry without reasonable fore
knowledge of the probable consequences,
they and not society should be made
to suffer the consequences of their folly; and
that, even in the case of unhappy marriages,
where one or both parties to it are blameless,
it is better that they should suffer than that
condition of affairs should be counte-
nanoed which will assuredly destroy all there
Is good in society, and make our civilization
the disgrace instead of the glory of the race.