Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-10
OWNERSHIP In sW0MEN.
A rresh view d avn Ola quesllon

OWNERSHIP In W0lLEN.
A Fresh view OF am ola Question.
In the September Scribner, DR.. Holland
has some thoughts on this subject worthy
| of REPRODUCTION. He takes the case OF
Smith, who recently shot rival in bis al
| fections for woman, and was hung Tor IT,
| A man was recently hanged In Massachu
sets for taking vengeance on one who naa
practically disputed his property in o grl;
| The man was q brute, of course, but be mao
an opinion that girl who had given her
self to him, In the completest surrender
| that q woman can make, was in some
sense his; that her giving herself to an
| other involved his dishonor; and that nis
property in her was to be defended 10 the
extremity of death. A prominent newspa-
per, while recording the facts of the case,
takes the occasion to say that this idea OF
ownership In woman is the same barbarism
out of which grow the evils and wrongs
that the ewoman movement" is intended TO
remove. II we were to respond that own.
ership in women, only blindly apprehended
as it was by our brutal gallows-bird, Is the
one thing that saves us from the widest
doctrines and practices of the free-loYers,
and is one Of the strongest conservative
forces of society, 1t is quite likely that we
should be misunderstood; but we shall run
the risk and make the assertion. There Is
an instinct in the heart of every woman
gives herself, and bis alone-an instinct
which bids her to cling to him while she
lives or he lives-which identifies her life
with his-which makes of him and her,
twain, one flesh. When this gift is once
made to true man, he recognizes its sig
niicance. He is to provide for her that
which she cannot provide for herself; he Is
to protect her to the extent of his power;
she is to share his home, and to be his
closest companion. His ownership
in her covers his most sacred
possession and devolves upon him the
grsvest duties. If it were otherwise, why
is it that woman who gives herself away
unworthiy, feels when she finds herself de-
ceived, that she is lOst?-that she has parted |
with herself to one who does not recognize
the nature of the gift, and that she who |
ought to be owned, Dnored, is disowned
and dishonored. There is no true, pure wo- |
man living, who, when she gives herself |
away, does not rejoice in the ownership |
which makes her forever the property of one |
man. She is not his slave, to be tasked and |
abused, because she is the gift of love and |
not the purchase of money; but she is his, |
in q sense in which she can not be |
another mans without dishonor, to him and |
damnation 10 herself. Our gallows bird was,
in bis brutal way, right. II hs had been |
living In savage society, without laws, and |
with the necessity of guarding his own treas
ures, his act would have been looked upon |
as one of heroism by all the beauties and |
braves Of bis tribe. The weak place in bis |
case was, that his ownership in what he /
was pleased to call s'his grip was not estab-
lished according to the laws under which he
lived. He was not legally married, and had
acquired no rights under the law to be de- |
Tended. What he was pleased to consider
his rights were established contrary to law,
and he could not appeal to law for their de-
Tense. Hetook the woman to himself con-
trary to law, he defended bis property in
her by murder, and he was hanged. He
was served right. Hemp would grow on a
rock for such as he anywhere in the world.
There is no cure for the man who seduces
ard Stays but broken neck. There is
nothing more menacing in the aspect in the
social affairs of this county than the effort
among
A CERTAIN CLASS OF REFORMERs
to break up the identity of interest and
feeling among men and women. Men are
alluded to with sneers and blame, as being
opposed to the interests of women, as using
the power in their hands-a power usurped
to maintain their own predominsnce at
the expense of woman's rights and woman's
vel! being. Marriage, under this kind of
teaching, becomes q compact OF conven-
fence, into which men aud women may
enter, each party taking along the per-
sonal independence enjoyed in single
state, with separate pursuits. In other
words, marriage is regarded simply as the
legal companionship Of two beings OF op-
posite sexes, who have their own indie
pendent pursuits, with which the bond is
not permitted to interfere. 1t contem-
plates no Identification of life and des-
tiny. The man holds no ownership in
woman which gives him right to family
of children, and life devoted to the sacred
duties of motherhood. The man who ex-
poets such sacrifice at the hands of his
wife is regarded as a tyrant and q brute.
Women are to vote, and trade, and prac-
tice law, and preach, and go to CONGRESS,
and do everything that man does, irrespec-
tive of The marriage bonds. Women are to
be Just as free to do anything outside of
their home as men are. They are to choose
their careers and pursue them with just as
little reference to the internal administra-
ton of their families as their husbands eXer-
else. This is the aim and logical end of all
the modern doctrines concerning womAn's
rights. The Identification of woman with
man, as the basis of the institution of the
family, is scoffed at. ANY ownership in |
woman, that comes of the gift Of herself to
him, and the assumption of the possession
by him, with its lifelong train of obliga-
tons and duties, is condemned. 1t is as
sumed that interests which are, and must
forever remain identical, are opposed to each
other. Men and women are pitted against
each other in struggle for power. Well,
let it be understood, then, that men are op-
posed to these latter-day doctrines, and that
they will remain SO. They are determined
that the identity of interest between men
and women shall never be destroyed; and
the sacred ownership of women, bestowed
in all true marriage, shall never be surren-
dered; that the family shall be maintained,
and that the untold millions of true women
in the world who sympathize with them
shall be protected from the false philoso-
plies and destructive policies Of
their few misguided sisters, who seek
to turn The world upside down. Political
conventions may throw their sops to clam
oring reformers, but they mean nothing by
it. They never have redeemed a pledge to
these reformers, and we presume they have
never intended to do so. They expect the
matter to blow over, and if We do not mis-
take the signs of the times, it is rapidly |
blowing over with more or less thunder, and
with very little rain. Ia the mean time, if |
the discussions that have grown out of these
questions have tended to open broader
field to woman's womanly industry, or on
liberated unjust laws from the statute book,
let every MAJ rejoice. No good can come
to woman that does not benefit him, and |
no harm that does not hurt MIN. Human
ity is one, and man and woman rise or fall |