Daily Kennebec journal., 1883-02-10

goes beyond ~ to . lower depth. While in
Knox county last year there was one divorce
to four and four-tenths marriages, in Kenne-
bee in 1880 there was one divorce to four and
two-tenths marriages. Figuring as l have
stated to ascertain the marriages, in Massa.
chusetts. one divorce to 81 marriages; in
Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut,
about one to IA; in Rhode Island, one to l2
in Maine. one to 8.
The license Of this law, the corruption
that 1t breeds. has developed the s'divorce
lawyer" in Maine. all things considered, the
most pestilent wretch society is cursed with.
To his hands are gradually being committed
the interests of one-eighth of the married
people of the State; he is made the arbiter at
once of the destiny of the married, their of
spring, and society. There was an antidote
for estrangment. or family jars, even for in
compatibility between the pair in the chain
which bound them to the throne of eternal
right. the idea nurtured in christian land
that the bond was sacred and eternal, reach
ing even beyond the earth; but the feeling
is not proof against the efforts of the pro
fessional divorcist, he has keen scent for
family unpleasantness, the sacred bond is
melted and dissolved by his breath. Like
satan at the ear of our first mother, he whis-
pers, and conscience and duty swing from
their moorings. the case is pat in his hands,
the mole-hill of discomfort is inflated into
mountain of cruel neglect or wanton incom-
patibility, and there shall be no further
effort for peace and reconciliation and for
bearance. but the twain must part and the
children taught to honor the father by hating
the mother.
1t is well known fact that those crimes
known as licentious are alarmingly on the
increase in New England. We have no sta
tistcs which can be relied on to prove this.
but there is a prevalent opinion and knowl.
edge which can only be based upon the ex
i>tence of the facts; in other words we all
know that vice of this sort is prevalent in all
communities. Now, / do not attribute all
this to easy divorce. Iknow there are causes
at work entirely distinct from this, but |
believe that you go a great way towards cor
recting this vice when yon dignity the mar
riage relation; when you compel the pair
who marry ''for better or for worse" to
adapt themselves to the worse by the insolu-
bility of the bond to take that fact into consid
Grafton before concentrating the contract and
thus enter it prepared and determined to
adapt themselves to each other for life.
rom such u union better results must follow
III thc IuOt al tohS gwen " thc II Is.
it must necessarily be, the worst thing in the
world for children to grow up under a system
of instruction-ave,w worse, under a system of
destroys the stability and
annihilates the sanctity of married life. But
we have positive data. Rev. S. w. Dixie sent
a list of questions to 100 gentlemen in all
parts of the United States, judges, physicians,
lawyers, police officers, touching this matter;
and classifying his replies, he finds the
alarming fact that while the coarser vices
which fifty years ago were prevalent in re
spectacle country towns-such as might arise
from the drinking habit-in three-fourtlls of
the localities RIGHTEOUSNESS has been much in
creased, in one-fourth more licentiousness
than intemperance, and nearly all the increase
in the native population. This vice is not
only an agent disintegrating the family re-
latiOn, but it permeates society in many direc
tions. 1t demoralizes man. 1t is utter ruin
to woman. 1t defeats the proper increase
of healthy offspring, and is the curse Of
luxurious time toward which we are tending.
1t has been well called the great untouched
vice of American society.
Everything that loosens the family tie, that
sinks the sacredness of wedlock has direct
effect on population. There are no divorces
amongst Catholics. In 1877 twas estimated
bv the Catholic World" published in New
York, that nearly 20 per cent of all the births
in New England were Catholics. A writer in
the "New Engander" in March, SS2, SAYS this
estimate is too small. Most divorces are OBJ
tanned within few years after marriage,
when there are but few or no children. For
some cause but few children are born of ma
tive New England parents, compared with
the families of our fathers. For some cause
the patriarc hal family has become we'll
nigh unknown. For some cause the large,
robust and intelligent New England family
is becoming in Maine memory only to the
present generation of men. What grander
work for the legislature than to look for the
cause and apply the remedy! l do not by
any means attribute all our social evils to
easy divorce. Our different mode of life,
fondness for dress and display, so discour-
aging to young men who cannot afford to
marry our increased temptation to evil prac-
tees, and all the evils sure to overtake that
ill-fared land.
"To fastening ills prey
Where wealth accumulates and men decay"
may be fastening the doom of our
State; but believe that a step in the di
rection of arresting its decline is an
attempt to restore the sacredness and stability
Of home. the indis solubility of the tie which
God has ordained for human veal. With
of pardonable pride we have in the
past been led to believe that New England
society had higher standard than prevailed
elsewhere. We glance back on its history.
we see it founded on the purity of family
union. For nearly two centuries the
iignity and loftiness of the conjugal bond;
The veneration of flial respect, were a sure
guarantee of the moral character of the
people. For nearly two hundred years,
in the footsteps of the patr iarchs
the pair welded with sense of the obll
cations they assumed in youth, trod with
assimilating step adown the honored path of
ma.rimony, with no thought of separating
short of the boundary of time; for nearly two
hundred years the land was unsmitten by the
plague of divorce save for the scriptual caus-
es, and the altar promise of union ''for better
Or for worse till death do us part" had a
significance and power. To in some meas
lre recover that healrhful marriage status is
the object of this bill. Its provisions have
been taken from the statutes of Massachusetts,
where their good influence is apparent in the
lower percentage of divorces than occur in
any other New England State.
Mr.. Hall here read paper from Judge
Peters, endorsed by Judges Walton and
Libby, recommending the provisions con-
tained in the bill so f4r as taken from the
statutes.
To remove the inducement to obtain di-
vorce which grows out of sudden passion
for another or a tran sipDt mime M foal da-