The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-23

made in marrying, and there is no
reason why the Christian church, which
sanctifies marriage and renders it
legal, should not recognize and seek to
rectify the errors that are consum-
mated by it's own ministers.
The fundamental difficulty associated
with this important subject of marriage
and divorce has it's existence in the ease
With which marriages can be consum-
mated through the fundamentally of
ecclesiastical functionaries. A large
percentage of the marriages performed
are by clergymen, of comparative
strangers, who present themselves with
a license, perhaps, where licenses are
required without any inquiry on the
part Of the clergyman as to the desir-
ability or the propriety Of the union,
which, through the sanction of the
church, the minister or priest is per-
n1itted to effect.
Under the operation of our state laws
divorce is as easily accomplished almost
as the marriage ceremony. Thought
full and moral men and women must
blush at the existence of conditions,
legally sanctioned, which invite their
sons and daughters oftentimes to ire
trieVable ruin, simply because the
Christian churches open the gates wide
ly and supply the legal machinery for
effecting marriage, while the law, on
the other hand, stands with the gates
equally wide open to enable indiscreet
lovers, after their sanctified union, to
dissolve the sacred tie with perfect ease
and oftentimes upon the most intan-
gible ground.
The whole system Of both marriage
and divorce is abominable and dis
graceful to our civilization, both with
respect to its religious and legal bear
ing; and it will continue so until
federal law shall have been adopted
controlling the whole thing in a liberal
spirit. The adoption by the Episcopal
convention of the Potter resolution,
which permits marriage by the minis
ters of that church of the innocent
party in a case where the cause Of
enforcement is adultery, was a step in
a proper and we may say holy direction.
AS matters have existed heretofore, any
one identified with the Episcopal C urch
and who was so unfortunate as to
come up against an unhappy marriage,
succeeded by divorce on statutory
grounds, must needs seek the minister
of some other denomination to perform
the ceremony if a remarriage should be
entered into. The Roman Catholic
church, of course, goes farther and does
not recognize divorce at all. The theory
Of some of the doctrinaires of that faith
is to the effect that If a man or q wom-
an makes a mistake in the marriage
relation and separation results, 1t is
the duty of the individual to bear the
cross of confluence throughout his or
her lifetime The state of South Caro-
lima is the only one within the Union in
which divorce is not sanctioned, no mat
ter what the cause assigned. Experience
has demonstrated that as result Of
this extreme structure concubinage has
resulted in very striking degree.
The true policy, in dealing with this
paramount social question, demands,
first, a more strict observance Of the
processes by which marriage shall be
permitted and the contract rendered
valid. In the second place, there should
be a federal law defining the causes
upon which action for divorce may be
based. In the third place, there should,
in some way, be provided means which
shall secure defense and avoid the de-
testable practice now INDUCED in by so
many courts of permitting cases to go
by default. In the fourth place there
might be, with perfect. propriety,
provision compelling the pri-
vacy Of all divorce proceedings in
their judicial determination, thus avoid
ing the exploitation in the daily news
papers Of nauseating and abhorrent de-
tails of domestic infelicity.