The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-12
NO CHILD SHOULD CARRY A CROSS.

NO CHILD SHOULD CARRY A CROSS.
In New Orleans the attorney general
recently brought suit on behalf Of the
state, which claims to be heir at law to an
estate of 100000, to the exclusion of the
present holders, on the ground that their
title dated back to sister who, az an lille
climate child, could not inherit her hus-
bands estate. Probably this law is
peculiar to Louisiana, but it seems an
outrage on moral equity that a
woman who suffered enough for no fault
of her own in carrying the cross of her
parents shame, should be unable to legally
inherit property and dispose of it. A lawful
wife ought not, because of illegitimate
birth, to be treated as incapable of legally
enjoying her dead husbands property.
The theory of the law ought not to be to
punish the innocent child for life because
of the sin of its parents, for which she was
not morally responsible, but is made the
legal victim.
The manifest thing in Robert Ray Hamil-
tons well-known case was the fact that be
was sensitive to the fate of what he be-
lieved to be his illegitimate child. He fell
in love with q low, vulgar woman, and be-
came her complete dupe and fool, but
there was one manly trait in him
that is not seldom absent in men
who have never become as deeply
infatuated with a worthless woman
and as indelibly disgraced as Hamilton.
The woman only succeeded in making
Hamilton forget her wretched past by
making him believe that he was the father
of her child, and appealing to him not to
recognition at his hands. Then, and then
only, Hamilton yielded, and married the
woman to legitimize the innocent child Of
which he believed he was the father.
That he was sincere in his action
is shown by the fact that he willed his
property to this child, and his intimate
friends all testify that his invariable an
swer to their remonstrances against his
disreputable marriage was, "Notwith-
standing this woman's past life. 1 am bound
in honor and humanity, for the sake of
her child, of which / am the father, to
marry her." To whatever weakness
he had yielded to, to whatever
wrong he had committed, he could not
bear to add the additional sin of refusing
to marry the mother of his child, as he
believed her to be. He hoped by this ac-
ton to win the woman into life of decency
and virtue, and had it really been her child
by Hamilton it is not impossible he might
have succeeded, for every man knows
of cases where such chivalric, generous
conduct as that of Hamilton, in refusing
to abandon the mother of his child, has
lifted fallen woman to higher level and
nobler life
Hamilton failed because the woman was
absolutely bad; the child was a bogus
baby palmed off upon him as his own in
order to precipitate marriage with very
rich man, and all the opportunities for
robbery which such marriage implied.
Nevertheless, believing as he did that the
child was his, HamiIton's resolve to re-
pair the wrong to the child at any social or
political sacrifice, stamps him as a man
who, with all his moral weakness, had a
noble and humane side to his nature.
backed by good deal of moral courape
Tor 1t takes moral courage to confess wrong
and sacrifice brilliant social and political
career in order TO, as far as may be. right
that wrong to the innocent sufferers.
man must have much tenderness and re-
tinement mixed with his sexual weakness
who insisted on marrying the disreputable
mother in order to recognize his child and
shield it as far as possible from suffering
because OF his sin. az will carry my cross
before will let my innocent child carry IL
hereafter" was manly impulse on the
part of Hamilton. He was dupe, but he
was not bastard before the world.
The moral contradictions in Hamilton's
nature were startling, and yet were they
more remarkable than those of his illus.
trious great-grandfather, who was a wom-
ans dupe, and was blackmailed by her
alleged husband, and yet bravely confessed
and faced his shame when charged with be-
traying his financial trust as secretary of
the treasury. The sexual infrmitv and
courage of Alexander Hamilton were both
present in his erring great-grandson. who
displayed more true courage and con.
science in determining to marry a woman
whom he believed to be the mother of his
child than his great-grandfather did in
facing the pistol of Aaron Burr.