Daily Kennebec journal., 1883-02-10

extend the charter Of the Livermors Bridge
Corporation; an act to incorporate the Bruins.
wick and Harpswel Telegraph and Telephone
Co. an act additional to and amendatory OF
chap. l59 Of the special laws of 1866. entitled
an act to supply the city of Portland with
pure water; an act to amend sec. II of chap.
80 of the revised statutes of 1871; resolve
changing the valuation of the towns of Ber-
wick and South Berwick in the county of
York resolve in favor of St. Elizabeth Or
phan Asylum of Portland.
PASSED TO BE ENACTED.
An act to incorporate the Penobscot River
and Dam improvements Co. IAN act to amend the
charter of the Dirigo Telephone Co. of Maine
an act to prevent the taking of trout in Tufts
and Grindstone ponds in the town of King
field for the term of three years an act for
the incorporation of the Central Wharf Co. of
Islesboro; an act for the better protection of
black bass in Pennesseewassee and Hobbs
ponds in Norway; an act to incorporate the
Little Wilson Falls and Dam Co. /;
an act additional to an act to incorpor-
ate the Central Market House Co: an
act to authorize the Edwards Manu-
featuring Co. to increase its capital stock to
81 900, 900; an act to amend the articles
of association of the Lincoln Pulp and Paper
Co. and to increase its capital stock; an act
to authorize Samuel C. Lord to rebuild and
maintain Shepherds wharf in Union river
within the city of Ellsworth; an act in rela-
tion to corporations; an act to enable cities,
towns, cemetery corporations and trust COM
panies to receive title to private cemeteries
and hold funds for the repair of the same; an
act to incorporate the Bar Harbor and Els
worth Telegraph Co.; an act to annex the
town of Maysville to the town of Presque Isle.
FINALLY PASSED.
Resolve in favor of Lola Cola. rep
resentative of the Penobscot tribe Of In lians ;
resolve making appropriations for Passama-
quOddy tribe of Indians for the years lSS5-S4
Mr.. Hall of Rockland called up bill an act
to amend chap. 60 of the revised statutes
relating to divorce, the question being on its
passage to be engrossed.
Mr.. Hall said:
The Judiciary Committee having entrusted
to me the presentation of this bill | regret that
l have been unable to give the subject the
study its great importance demands-an i'm
portance which arises to the domain of the
most exalted statesmanship, for it has to do
with the foundations of government-the
very holy of holies of New England society.
For many years there has been growing
feeling among the people that the sanctity of
marriage is being slowly destroyed-the sta
bility of the family institution undermined.
Petitions from thousands of our best people
were before the Goth legislature, but action
upon then was reached too late in the session
to admit OF that careful consideration its i'm
portance demanded, and nothing was done.
In the two years that have interviewed more
than 1000 homes have been demolished in
Maine by the laws the petitioners ask to have
amended, the members of those homes sew
ered scattered, with how much of positive
injury to society, none can know. The
cause, however. has not been allowed to
slumber. The public conscience has been
aroused. and to-day the bill before us speaks
the united voice of power the legislature of
Maine cannot ignore. Church organizations,
numbering over 69, 900 members and as many
more parishioners, speak through this bill.
The church has peculiar right of voice here.
The family institution is her special care
through her sacraments founded: by her
guardi anship protected; through her teach
ings hallowed and nurtured; the institution
Of the family was planted on these shores as
the type of all that is exalted in govern
ment and sacred among men; direct in
heritance from a noble Christian ancestry.
The church in its solicitude for the well being
of her peculiar ca re claims with reason to be
heard on this questi on and not the church
alone, but the bar of the state, through its
leading members and brightest ornaments in
almost every court, are among the petitioners.
Men who understand much of the springs of
human action. who have administered the
laws for a period covering the whole e ra of
hasty divorces in the State, and are most
competent to judge of their effect on society
and more than all, the judges of the Supreme
It'd; I;,,a al nd rte hav
diction of divorce, unite in recommending
some action by this legislature to stop this
wholesale dissolution of marriages. The
press almost universally sounds the alarm,
and has been most powerful in awakening
healthful sentiment on this subject.
Lax divorce laws in this country are an evil
of recent origin. Until Connecticut, about
generation ago, cut loose from the strict and
wholesome laws upon this subject inherited
from England and increased the causes of
divorce from two-to "any cause by which
the happiness of the petitioner is destroyed
divorce was very rare in New England.
After 80 years she repealed this law. more
than 5000 families having been destroyed.
Within the memory of gentlemen on this
floor. divorces could be had but in two cases,
and then only on application to the legis-
lature. OF necessity they were of unusual
occurrence. Then adultery was crime in
Maine as well as in the rest of New England.
Following the example of Connecticut, our
legislature gradually increased the causes
and made more easy the methods Of break
ing up families, until in 1S49 it was enacted
that Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court
might grant divorce 'when he should deem
it reasonable and proper, conducive to
domestic harmony and consistent with the
peace and morality of society" This was a
tremendous discretion, and however sound,
upright and conscientious the judge NAV be,
and however vigilant, has led to great abuses,
through inevitable impositions and mistakes.
''The exercise of this vast power and dis
creton." says Bishop in his work on Marriage
and Divorce Sin the language of Chancellor
Kent, cannot fail to be exceedingly en-
barassing and painful to the Court. 1t is an
evil which can only be counterbalanced by a
considerable weight of benefit, that persons
should be unable to know when they have
violated the law, or that the plaintiffs cannot
know when they have case until after the
result of the suit" Chancellor Kent re-
marked ten years after this discretionary
clause was enacted in Maine, at is very
questionable whe ther the facility with which
divorces can be procured in some States be
not productive of more evil than good"
I'll Kent's Com s LOG And this was before
our society had become so corrupted and
broken up at its foundations as to make