The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-04-30
THE DIVORCE QUESTION.

c~ussion IN the subject of divorce, and
yet with all this discussion there have
never yet been any steps taken towards
a marked improvement of the divorce
laws. Why this is so is, perhaps, not
strange. The discussion has as a rule
been between those holding extreme
opinions and only the extreme views
have been brought out. The extreme
religious view is that the marriage tie
should be i%ndissoluble or at most it
should be annulled only on the ground
Of adultery. The other extreme is that
which would allow a divorce whenever
either party to the marriage should hap
pen to Iesire it.
1t is a little curious that none of those
who have taken part in these discussions
have seen the middle ground. Yet per
haps not so strange either. Those who
would allow the utmost freedom of di-
vorce are those whose minds are SO i'm
bued with socialistic theories that any
restraint is irksomc to them. On the
other hand those who maintain the in
d~issolubility Of the marriage tie are so
thoroughly impregnated with the &c
clcsiastical spirit of the middle ages that
they fail to perceive that the world has
advanced during the last five hundred
years. They still hold the old idea of
marriage prevalent in the dark ages.
The old idea of marriage is associated
with the intellectual and physical degra-
dation of women and the deprivation of
her natural rights. During the centur-
les when the church dominated the
civil power the wife was little bet
ter than a serf. 1t was modern
civilization, vitalized by the decline of
church influence, hat decreed the eman-
cipation of m by opening the way
for the development of her nOblest facul-
ties. The intolcrably barbarous con.
ditions that have attached to marriage
in the past only lasted because the real
brunt of it had to be borne by women
and they had no voice in making the
laws and no effective influence with
those who made them.
The point Of weakness in this old idea
that marriage is for life regardless of
consequences is the fact that no way has
yet been discovered for avoiding mis-
takes and disadvantages. All the wis
dom Of the modern world combined with
the resources Of religion have failed to
weaken the terrible truth that marriage
is a lottery. When we consider the
dreadful and ~far-reaching consequences
that often attach to such mistakes, the
unuttcrable woe to one or both of the
principals and the measureless wrong
entailed upon offspring conceived and
reared in an atmosphere of hatred and
discord, is it strange that the conscience
and mind Of this century should have
sought and applied a remedy?
Every Christian nation has decreed
that marriage is a civil contract and the
most enlightened have further decreed
that the contract may be annulled for
certain stipulated causes. In this coun-
try the views expressed by Hon. Hiram
Sibley in "A late number of the Literary
Digest are last receiving recognition.
Mr.. Sibley says:
GOD and nature have made the re-
lations OF marriage a universal right of
mature men and women. This manifest
ly includes the right Of each party in the
union to all it's essential benefits. What
these are appears in the objects Of mar
rage. Consideration of them will show
that what is covered by the divine right
to the relation is it's very substance and
life, compared with which it's naked bond
is but a shadow. Yet this cardinal truth
has so far been lost sight of, in discus
sing divorce. that good and able men
seem willing, in certain cases, to sacrifice
all that IS substantial in the objects of
the union, to continuance of its mere
form, upon the assumption that, in some
lncomprehcnsible way, morality will be
thereby promoted. ! hold that adultery.
dcscrtiOn and other acts which, like the
first, destroy the sexual purity of mar
riagc, or, like the second, operate to deny
to an innocent partne, and to society, the
substantial benefits OF, and SO, what is
essential in. the right to marriage, if it's
bond be held indisoluble,a in morals as
on sociological grounds, valid causes for
annulling it,"