The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-08-20
STUDY SKETCHES.


age; we discuss, investigate and self-examine
until practical deductions have become the
Characteristic instincts Of modern civiliza-
ton. Unlike our fosefathers, we take
nothing for neutrality-suspicious.. and politics,
manners and means, time and eternity, all
alike, are subject to analysis and discussion.
We haze no more Mark Antonys ready to
sacrifice life, fame, and victory for the love
of woman; no more Romeos and Juliets,
Heloises and Abelards immoating life and
happiness, upon the altar of their love.
Hence, our practical lover is young philos-
opher; he counts the cost that will pay the
way, and if he can not find the ideal Juliet,
he is pretty sure to content himself with the
prosaic Mary.
Very few of US would venture to be as
practical as Miss Lucy Stone, native of
Massachusetts, and woman of rare abilities.
She was married, in May, 1856, to one of the
leaders of the Abolition party, and in the
contract this very curious protestation lis
found expressed:
while we acknowledge our mutak af-
lection, by publicly assuming the sacred re-
lationship of husband and wife, yet, in Justice
to ourselves and great principle, We deem
it duty to declare, that this act on our part
| implies no sanction of, or promise of, volun-
tary obedience to such of the present laws OF
marriage, as refuse to recognize the wife as
an independent rational being, while they
confer upon the husband an Injurious and
unnatural superiority, investing him with
legal powers which no honorable man would
exercise and which no man should possess.
| We protest especially against the laws which
| give to the husband:
81. The custody of the wife's person.
-. The exclusive control and guardian
ship of their children.
8. 1.-THE sole ownership of her per-
sonal, and use of her real estate
unless previously set tied upon her, OF
placed in the hands of trustees, as in the
case of minors, lunatics, and idiots.
81. The absolute right in the product OF
their industry.
's5. Also, against laws which give to the
widower so much larger and more perma-
nent an interest in the property of his de.
ceased wife, than they give to the widow in
that of her deceased husband.
&c. Finally, againt the whole system, by
which the legal existence of the wife is sus
pended during marriage, so that in mos
States she neither has legal part in tn,
choice of her residence, nor can she make
will, nor sue or be sued in her own name
nor inherit property.
ave believe that personal independents,
and equal human rights can never be for
feited except for crime; that marriage should
be an equal and permanent partnership, ant
so recognized by law; that, until it is recog
nized, married partners should provid
against the radical injustice of the presen
laws by every means in their power. w
believe that, when domestic difficulties arise
no appeals should be made to existing tribu
mails; but all difficulties should be submitte,
to the equitable adjustment of arbitrators
mutually chosen. Thus, reverencing law
we enter our earnest protest against rule
and customs, which are unworthy of tn
name, since they violate justice-the essenc
or all law
The minister, Reverend 7. w. Higginsor
of Worcester, who married this remarkabl
couple, in writing to friend thus expresse
himself:
Il never perform the marriage ceremon
without renewed sense of the iniquity {
our present system of laws in respect to maj
riage-a system by which man and wife al
one, and that one is the husband 1t Wa
with my hearty concurrence, therefore this
the protest was read and signed, as part
the nuptial ceremony, and send it to yo
l that Others may be induced to do likewise.
There may be those who would regar
! such an act of eccentricity as positively bla
a phemous, and while women may congratl
late themselves upon the many modification
in the above law referred to- and upon tt
success of some of their radical movement
especially in the industrial field, vet v
i know they are not few who would enjoy
little opposition to the laws that not on
l regulate the formation of marriages, but Il
) interests and questions outside of the ma
= riage relation. 1t certainly is sudden tral
y sition-for an American girl particularly
9 this marrying into a state of complete d
u pendence, from one of absolute indepen
! ence, and to become thereby legally incapa
u itated for the exercise of rights, as to pla
: her nearly in the condition of minors,
3 those declared incapable of directing the
: own affairs. Is it not insulting the intel
!. gence she was supposed to possess befo
Z marriage2
, On the other hand, the women of this pa
- of the world are not like those of Pc
= STA and Russia, for instance, where the brid,
! first attention from her lord and master is
4 kick, and then command to pull off
boots as a token of wifely submission.
), Russia, one boot contains whip the other
:, trinket, and should the obedient lady be Il
fortunate enough to disclose the VIII
! first, she gets stroke for h
- trouble; whilst the selection of the trink
- boot, is most favorable omen. So imbu
l. were they with this idea of servitude, that
&c was quite the fashionable custom for brid
to present their lords, with artistic lit
! whips of their own making, with just t
4 same pride and pleasure, as though the g
N were a pair of slippers, or dressing-gow
a. Nor are we, like the Assyrians and Babylo
e ians, sold off to the highest bidder. VIII
the most beautiful were disposed 9TH
were sure to go irst-the money receiv
n for them, was bestowed as dover upon t
10 palmer girls. This method had at least, t
II advantage of providing husbands for a
The Spartan and Dorian maidens were ca
= tured by violence, and carried away on hor.
=, back. The married women of Athens we
never allowed unveiled in the streets, Al
A. was entirely subject to her husbands ru
= "The relation of husband to wife is that
,s master to subject" was the teaching
!. Aristotle, and even Plato somewhere hir
10 that to become q neat and obedient hou
n, wife, should be the highest aim of woms
n, Other Greek writers when abiding to fan
" lies, always considered wives as inferior
y children. 1t will thus be seen, that t