Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-11-21

mandates of their marital slave own
ers.
Legislators and Fathers, you have
averted such fate from your be-
loved daughters, by giving your
votes for this bill, and thus emanci-
pating them from such legal liabili-
ties.
Now it is simply to elucidate this
fact, so that every member will have
full realization of this most shame
fui truths of which every American
ought to blush to know, that have
asked the liberty of presenting my
argument for your intelligent con-
sideration, that you may clearly
understand what you have voted for.
You have voted for the emancipa-
ton of your own daughters, from
the slavish position your laws con-
sign them, should they ever venture
to marry, at the price of losing their
identity AS citizens OF this Govern
lnent by having their rights Z" sus-
pended during coverture," and be-
coming slaves by SO marrying.
Husbands aud tatters! AN fully
aware that tnis startling announce
ment ;hat your wives were your
slaves, will be received by majority
of this body with incrcdulity, al
though for intelligence you may rank
high, and by some, perhaps, with a
sneer Of disdain, as the foolish utter
ances of q fanatic. And it is not OF
all strange that this should be the
case, for the Supreme Court of Illi-
uois told me that, "not one man in q
hundred knows that his wife is his
slave. He supposes she is his part
ner. And because she is treated,
as such, socially, he supposes, of
course, she is SO, legally. But she
is not"
Notwithstanding all the "modi-
fications" of common law by statute
laws, throughout this country, made
within the last twenty years. there is
no State, to my knowledge, except
Louisiana and California, where .
married woman can 60 into partner
ship with her husband, on legal ba-
sis. In Illinois, for example, the
property rights Of married women
are SO commercially I" qualified" by
their now liberal statutes laws Tor
married women, that ! can 60 into 4
legal. partnership business with any
man ID. That Stats, except A1y hos
band! For we two are still one, and
that one is the husband! In this
marriage firm I am nothing but a
nonentity," while he is an identity.
And this is so simply because they,
as yet, have not had the moral cour-
age to "face the music" by emanci-
pating married women by the passage
of this bill.
"Subjection of woman" is still
their marriage law. while, generally
the protection of woman" is their
practice. But because they dare not
make protection by the law to CORES
pond with this their noble practice,
the loop-hole is left open, by which,
subjective, tyrannicol husbands can
still legally control the identity of
their wives, as my husband did me,
by impris oning me three years in that
State, simply because he could not
subject my reason to human dicta-
ton. Had 1 been a citizen, as he
was, and protected in my rights of
religious belief, as he was, he could
NOT thus have subjected me to his
views. But, being without an in.
dividuality of my own, in the law
being his slave by law-I had no law,
but the will of my husband to shield
my individuality and as I could not
be made to believe, with him, that
all men were devils, or " totally-de-
praved" humans, he used this slav-
ish marital power to subject my con-
science and opinions to his will, in
this way.
Another point in my experiences
illustrates this slavish position of
the nonentity" of the wife. The
friends OF free speech rallied to res
cue me from my prison, by a writ Of
" babeas corpus" but were defeated
in this their laudable attempt, by
finding that I was nobody" in
the law. And as q nonentity" or
a nobody" could not be handled,
no law could reach me, but through
the consent of my slave-owner.
They could no more handle me, but
by his consent, than they could his
horse, but by his consent. He was
my owner and keeper, and his
property, as much as his horse was.
Again, when, after a burial OF
three years in one of our living Gem
eteries, outside the pale OF justice,
and beyond the reach of the laws, l
secured my deliverance by means OF
my SO called, love.letter" to DIR.
and obtained a fair jury
trial, through the manly influence of
those whom my prosecutors style,
" the Infidels" OF the age. Christ
ianay has occasion to rejoice that
this class is rapidly supplantlng