The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-04-10
The Marriage Relation.

Amid all the cant with which American
journalism at this moment abounds, touch
ing the respective rights, duties and obliga-
tons arising under and growing out of the
marriage relation, we do not remember to
have read anything more thoroughly abb
horrent to all proper notions Of what those
rights, duties and obligations should be, than
the fippant remark made by contempt
rary journal in regard to young Dumas
new book, that " an injured husband has
no more right TO constituse himself the
avenger OF his wife's lost innocence, and
his own outraged honor, than the injured
wife has to wreak her vengeance on the
guilty paramour Of an offending husband
1t is with this proposition, SO apparently
incontrovertible by its terms, and yet UNI
derneath which lies any amount of palpa-
Bile fallacy, that we propose to deal in this
article. iie.,. ,-,..s,,, ..,..5 f,...sss
OF the three divinely ordained institu-
tions upon which all human society rests,
the family spre-eminently the first and
most important. 1t is, in fact. the founda-
tion-the chief and solemnly consecrated
cornerstone on which the whole super
structure Of society is based, and on which
the happiness and social welfare Of all civ
ilized races and nations depend. The
home, wherein these duties are imposed,
constitutes the moral sanctuary of all our
earthly existence, and is that upon which
Gods first and earliest blessing rested.
It is seemingly all that is left to us of that
once blissful paradise which our first pa
rents occupied-the only blessing, in fact,
which survived the fall. 1t is from
this sanctuary that emanate all
the strong and holy influences Of a mothers
love, all the sacred ties of paternal affec-
ton and regard, all the filial and fraternal
relations, obligations, and duties OF. life,
upon which not only the well-being, but
the very existence Of society depends. 1t
is through the sacred privileges and immu-
mites OF this sanctuary that, according to
the divine dispensation, the race itself is TO
be perpetuated- merely brought into
existence, but nurtured, protected, educa-
ted, reared up to mans estate. And it is
for the protection Of this sanctuary, thus
consecrated and walled about by the fam.
ing messengers Of the law, that the quick
wrath and bloody hand Of the husband is
invoked against the treacherous invader.
1t is not the naked act oflinfdelity on
the part Of the wife, but the shameless
desecration of the rights and immunities
OF this sanctuary that constitutes the higl
offence demanding the swift vengeance o
the husband. This sanctuary is not only
invaded, but the sacred casket of mater
nifty, intrusted by God to the wife apt
imposing upon her higher and more sa
cred duties OF guardianship than it is pos
slble for the husband to take upon him
self, is snatched from its consecrated plac,
g in the family--the true marital altar Oh
which it is placed-and turned into
sepulchre of damning lies, in which lnno
cent offspring are cruelty deceived and be
trayed, and such a mockery made of hu
man affections and relations as would turf
heaven into hell by their hideous deformity
b Incur judgment, the wife assumes
far higher obligation, when she consecrate
herself to the duties of maternity by he
marriage vow, than it is possible for III
husband to do under any circumstances
q lie can infict upon her no such transcer
,dant wrong. no such vile imposition, q
that of robbing her of her natural affec
tons for her own offspring, or fastenin,
them by deception upon an object {
utter loathing and adherence. He ca
"a practice upon her no such living and per
i petually danning lie as a spurious issu
from his own loins.t re he is false, it
not afalsehood that invade
tue sanctuary of the family, br
one which necessarily excludes itself fror
it - hides its head in its own guilt
place. If she is false, damning lie sits ,
the family altar; not only sits there hid
ously betraying the face Of innocence an
purity, but Haunting itself in the eye /,
heaven as perpetually deceiving and b
traying lie; a lie not to be disclosed in LII,
nor in death, nor in eternity, except (
the guilty soul shall stand aghast at its ow
persistent falsehood. Then the lie, for ii
first time, will out, as the most hideol
i4a thing that can stalk eternity. aA4I :.
That the offending husband is guilty of
gross and wanton wrong, most cru
violation of his covenant engagement
there is no room for denial. But /
does not, and cannot, in the natul
of things, SO thoroughly desecrate and pu
down the holy sanctuary Of wedlock
the wife does when she permits the adu
terer to cross her husbands threshold an
polute the very air that is ibreathed by il
nocent. prattling childhood. It is then tn,
she practices the foulest imposition not on
upon her husband. but upon his and h
own entire kindred and blood. She Gu
up and divides his Inheritance among Il
most detested objects Of his earthly ex
tence; whips the hearts best blood and
lection out Of her own children, and rende
the sacred decalogue, "honor thy father
afarce and nullity in the sight Of HEAVIER
We pity the man or woman who is m
rally incapable of pcrceiviug no higher 0
legation to conjugal fidelity in the wife tn