Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-01-03
The Divorce Question.


the nation is drifting through the facility of
securing divorce from marriage. / can
think of no reason why such an ulcer as
Mormonism should have been suffered to
develop itself in this nation, except to fix
its attention upon the sacred value of the
family. Mormouism is the denial of the
family in one form our present divorce
laws are denial of it in only a slightly diff
ferent form. In one system, man is mar
ried to several wives simultaneously under
the other system, he marries them success
lively both are destructive of the family
and therefore of the state. For this nation
rests on moral basis it rests on God and
on the sacredness of the individual in
two-fold relation-namely, to the nation and
to the family. If the relation of the indi-
vidual to the state is not kept righteously
just, the state is endangered. That lesson
the nation learned in the civil war. Are
we to learn the other by process as bitter
1t would not be strange if the armies of the
Union were yet to march through Utah
nominally for the preservation of the Union,
but in reality for the redemption of the fam
ily-to be followed by another amendment
of the constitution, prohibiting divorce ex-
cept for.that cause which destroys the mar
riage relation. For the family is an institu-
ton that falls more naturally under the care
OF the nation than of the states. 1t is an
imperfection of our political organic alton
that divorce can be more easily secured in
one state than another. 1t is fatal mis-
take that in any it can be secured with ease,
and for any cause except that which destroys
the divinely-constituted bond. For divorce
is not merely an awkward disturbance of
social relations; it is setting human law
against Gods eternal laws; it is law legal
izing adultery it is law putting ssunder
what God has Joined it is law breaking up
the family that God has created it is law
removing stone from the foundations of
the nstion-a stone built by God into the
structure of every nation. History tells no
story palmer than that frequency of divorce
is one of the last and most fatal signs of ma
tional decay. 1t operates in many ways and
each way is disastrous. Its chief fatality
lies in its uprooting of all pure and noble
sentiments, in the destruction of self-re-
spect, in that decentralization that follows the
breaking of Gods fundamental laws, in that
weakened sense of law that springs from a
selfish and lustful use of it, in the moral
and social confusion that ensues when rela-
tons intended to be permanent ars made
shifting, in feeling that nothing is to be
patiently endured in this world, in belief
| that we must not bear the consequences of
our own mistakes, in weak feeling that
| bad estate is to be fled from rather than
cured, and most of all and as the sum of all,
that desire may control life and use law as
its instrument, "making the will the scope
of justice" 1t is thus reversal of the
whole order and duty of human life, and
| literal prostitution of the civil laws. When,
as in Connecticut, in period of fifteen
| years, one-twentieth of the families were
disbanded by divorce there is let loose a
mass of disorganized conscience and senti-
ment that must go far towards corrupting
the whole. The attitude of the laws needs
to be changed in many states they render
divorce easy, whereas it should be matter
subject to sharpest scrutiny and governed
| by the most stringent rules. 1t is evident
also that legislation should be by the general
government, or be made uniform by inter-
state comfy. But the subject lies much
nearer us and may we'll considered on this
festival of the home. How happens it that
so many divorces are wanted Why does
marriage which is entered into for life, seek
to annul itself ultimately? The greater
part of divorces still are granted for just
cause, but vast number bear no ustifca-
tion. Why are they sought ? The chief
causes seem to me to be these Marriage
is often entered into in a hasty, ill-consid-
| eTeu, lIlpulSlVe anu beullInenudl way. IL Is
not made an important matter; it is left
too much to the young people themselves.
1t is relation demanding for its formation
the highest wisdom and longest experience;
it is often formed with the least, and on the
lowest physical or sentimental grounds.
There is much to be said in favor of the
French method, which places it in the hands
of the parents. Doubtless a union of that
method and ours would be the wisest. When
persons are married without consideration
and WISDOM it is not strange that the fruit
of folly is soon reaped. The freedom
granted to young American boys and girls
has been much vaunted, but its outcome is
divorce in Just about the proportion of the
freedom. Joined to this is the influence of
the novels of ths day. Nearly all turn on
marriage, and in way to hurt its sacred
ness. There is no way in which poison so
easily gets into the heart as through the
imagination. Let an unhappy wife find her
case set down in book, and her course is
well nigh decided. The subject comes
very close home to parents Look to the
social relations of your children. Look to
the books they read. Teach them that feel
ing is not to be set against wisdom and ex-
perience. Teach them that marriage is
relation invested with the highest human
dignity and that it is also a relation to God.
From Rev T. r. Munger'S Thanksgiving
| Sermon