Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-11-21
MRS. PACEARrS ARGUKEyTIy SUP
POET or THIS LAW

I MRS. PAcKARDs ARGUkEyTIy sur
POR7 or THIS LAW
Nh. SPEAxlR AND HoNoRABLE REPRE-
sExrsrrvEs OF rHK TEaKIroRr OF
WAszusroS.
GzfIHheN. Thankful am that,
by ysss courtesy, / am permitted
once mogD TO stand upon this floor
in defense OF my pet bill," the
Emancipation of Married Women
From the commencement of NV
Legislative compsigns, the passage
of this bill has been the crowning
work have aimed to accomplish.
Bot / am sorry and almost ashamed
to add, that no State in this Union,
has, as yet, completely emancipated
their married women from tie slav-
cry OF the common law, by which
all their rights are " suspended dur
ing covertnre," so that in law, they
6fand as chs!tels or nonentities,
not beings. This "nonentity of the
wife, on which marriage is based,
being relic of barbarism, by which
woman became the Lawful slave of
her husband, and woman having
outgrown that slavish position, has
become 80 far developed as to he, as
she is and ought to be, the social
companion of her husband, the
enlightenment of the present age
demands her emancipation; there
fore, we hoped that the Territory of
Washington would be the pioneer
State, not only on the Pacific Coast,
but throughout the entire continent,
in securing to itself the high honor
|of being the first State or Territory
on the American Continent to
I" emancipate their married women"
as, thank God! it has now become
so!
4 There are but two States on this
continent, so far as my knowledge ex
tends, where married woman is not
the slave OF her husband, and these
are Louisiana and California. These
States, unlike all the other Ameri-
can States, took the Napoleon
Code as the basis for their laws.
instead Of the common law, which is
the basis of law in oil the other
States. By the laws of California
and Louisiana, married women are
the partners Of their husbands in
Iesead Of their slaves, as they are
slaves in oil the other States aud
England also. Thus, to-day, with
these two exceptions. this continent
and England hold all their married
women, legally. slaves, as truly and
really as the South held the negroes,
as slaves, before their emancipation
by Lincoln's Proclamation.
True, they are no. socially held as
slaves, by society, as was the negro
slave, but legally their basis is the
same. Indeed, there is no govern
ment in the world where married
woman's social position is better
than it is in America, and if her legal
position corresponded 10 it, she would
then be the model government for
the world SO far as the treatment of
woman is concerned. But her legal
position does not correspond to it.
Now the object of this bill is to SO
emancipate her that her legal and
social position shall, henceforth, cor
respond.
Yes, Hor orable Legislators, you,
who are married men, were yester-
day, all L" Shareholders" To-day you
have freed your slaves! You owned
your wives as truly as the Southern
er owned his slave in 1860. And if
your wife had broken her limb on
the street, yesterday, you must pros
ecute in order to recover damages,
not she, for the limb was your limb,
not hers, therefore the damages re-
covered are yours, not hers, for she
was your property. She had no
right to herself. And every dear
daughter which you gave in mar
riage TO any man, you must have
consigned, legally, into =" slavery"
to be owned, body and soul, by her
husband, just as truly as he owns
his horse, or house, or any other
In Illinois, for example, where
law is modified en- this
as much as any State in the
Union, husband sold his wife. and
the wife feeling dissatisfied with this
arrangement, in some way the sale
was legally tested, and it was proved
to be i" legal SALE" from which de-
cision, the slave wife could make no
appeal, OF get any kind of redress;
for it is impossible to prosecute par.
ties for doing strictly legal acts, as
was this act of selling his own wife.
Two other parties in that State ex-
changed their wives, without their
wives consent, and this transaction
was also sustained by the courts as a
strictly legal act, or, in other words,
il was only a lawful exercise of the
marital power to control the ideDti-
ty of his slave wife; and thus these
two slaves who were dissatisfied with