The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-20

the country were divorced in other states
than in which they were married. but the
ordinary migration for legitimate purposes,
which in 1870 showed that % per cent. of
the native born population of the older
states, and for 1880 y per cent. were living
in states other than the ones in which
they were born, would reduce the percent
age of persons migrating for the purpose
Of divorce TO even less point than that
stated. To the charge that through liberal
divorce laws the purity and sacredness OF
family relations are threatened. Mr..
Wright replies:
do not believe that divorce is q menace TO
the purity and the sacredness OF the family; but
do believe that it is a menace to the internal
brutality OF whatever name, and be it crude or
refined, which at times makes he'll OF the holi-
est human relations. believe that the divorce
movement finds its impetus outside OF laws,
outside of our institutions, outside of our sheo-
logy; that 1t finds its impetus in the rebellion
of the human heart against that slavery
which binds in the cruelest bonds OF
the cruless prostitution human be-
ings who have. by their FOOLS hness,
by their want of wisdom or by the intervention
of friends missed the divine purpose, as well as
the civil purpose OF marriage believe the re-
suit will Re an enhanced purity, q sublimer
sacredness, more beautiful embodiment OF
Lamartines trinity-the trinity OF the father,
the mother and the child. "The father, the
mother and the child which perpetuate their
being increasingly reproduce the trinity, which
OF itself completes and continues the race; and
If we would preserve this beautiful trinity In all
its sacredness society must take the bitter meci-
cine labelled sDivorce."
Replying to those who urge the ques-
ton of the children as strong point in
favor of restrictive divorce measures Mr..
Wright shows that in 141, $40 cases, which
constituted 43 per cent. of the whole num-
Der, the children formed no part of the
questions arising under the petitions for
divorce; and to this number must be
added those declaring that they had no
children, which was 1854 The total
number of cases, then, in which children
played no part in he'divorce proceedings.
under any cause for which divorce was
sought, was nearly 100000; or, in other
words, in over 60 per cent. of all the cases
there was q notable lack of influence of
children.
Persons who are disturbed to learn that
100 divorces were granted in Tacoma last
year will be treasured by Mr.. Wright's
views; he is not whit more radical in
his opinions than the great Puritan poet,
John Milton, who said: "Of all insult
ing mockeries of heavenly truth and holy
law, none can be greater than that phys
zeal impotency is sufficient cause for
divorce, while no amount of mental,
physical or spiritual imbecility is ever TO
be pleaded in support of such a demand"
There is no class of laws that are subject
to so much tinkering as those which seek
to enforce social morality, and none is so
difficult to make efficient by uniformity as
those on the subject of marriage and
divorce
Good men, of sense, purity, culture and
high intelligence are as far apart as the
poles on the subject of marriage and
divorce laws. Jurists as a rule do not
agree with the pulpit on the subject, but
the jurist who has for years been a lawyer
in full practice knows more about the
practical worth of the laws than does the
views than the clergy, for he reasons that
whatever tends to break up the marriage
relation and defeat its purpose, is just
and reasonable ground for its dissolution.
Hence, adultery, desertion, failure to
support, habitual drunkenness and cruel
treatment are made legal grounds for
divorce in the majority of our states. The
two purposes of the marriage relation are
as thoroughly defeated by desertion and
failure to support; by habitual drunken
ness and cruelty, as by adultery. This is
the argument for what is called free
divorce. Judge Sibley, distinguished
Methodist, in a recent address before a
conference of his church, said that he
found no exact Scriptural statement as TO
the law of divorce and he concluded that
the law "must be deduced from the right
and nature of the marriage relation" and
the reasonable implications of the Scrip
tural causes of adultery and desertion
which he finds in the words of Jesus and
st. Paul.
The lawyer. as rule, would allow d.
vorce for desertion, for chronic inebriety,
for inhuman treatment, for anything that,
persisted in, would be certain to make
home hell to good woman and a stand
ing invitation to infidelity to a weak
woman who never naturally relished wick
edness.
In another column will be found an in
teresting letter from Samuel w. Dixie, Sec
rotary of the National Divorce Reform
League.
Judging from all accounts, General D.
F. Coon, Of San Diego, must be an ass.
He has as much legal right to enlist men