Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1900-04-12
MRS. STANTON ON DIVORCE LAWS

| W. ~ *hAllIL lIii INCN4'"' u!SStS0N0
frankly and even spicily the agitation
| for an entire revision of the laws regu-
lating divorce She points out that
while the state proposes a committee
of learned judges and the church
ANOTHER committee Of ngui5hed
bishops to frame a national law, there
Is no suggestion that women he repre-
scented on the commission, although
their interest is surely as great as
that of men Mrs. Stanton is convinced
that the tendency Of judges and bsh-
ops, who are proverbially conserva-
tive, would be to make the laws in
the free states more restrictive than
they are now, and thus render it more
difficult for wives to escape from I'M
happy marriages" rhe states which
have liberal divorce laws, she says, are
to women what Canada was TO the
slaves before emancipation.
The demand for an amendment to
the United States constitution that
shall make the laws of marriage and
divorce the same in all the states en-
anates in Mrs. Stanton's opinion, from
those who consider the present divorce
laws are too liberal. We may infer
says, that the proposed national law
is to place the whole question on the
Earrowest basis, rendering null and
void the laws that have been passed in
q broader spirit. AS we are sill in the
experimental stage on this question, It
is Mrs Stanton's conviction that we
are not qualified to make law that
would work satisfactorily over 80 vast
an area as our boundaries now en-
brace. There is no evidence" she as
seIts, lin what has been published of
late on this question by statesmen,
ecclesiasts, lawyers and judges that
any of them have thought sufficiently
on the subject to prepare well-di-
gested code, or comprehensive
amendment to the national constitu-
ton. Some view marriage as 4 civil
contract, though not governed by the
! laws of other contracts; some view it
as religious ordinance; some think
! 1t a relation to be regulated by the
state, others by the church, aud still
others think it should be wholly left
to the individual With this diver
sence of opinion among our leading
minds it is quite evident that we are
not prepared for a national law"
Mrs. Stanton is surprised that wo-
men manifest so little interest in the
pending proposition, especially as it
is not to their interest to have an
amendment to the constitution estab-
fishing a uniform law" In making
any contract, she declares the parties
are supposed to have an equal knowl-
edge of the situation and an equal
voice in the agreement "Chis" she
maintains has never been the case
with the contract of marriage. Women
are, and always have been, totally ig-
norant Of the provisions of the canon
and ciFil laws which men have made
and administered, and then, to impress
woman religious nature with the
sacreiness of this one-sided contract
they claim that all of these hetero-
seneous relations called marriage are
made by God. appealing to that
passage of Scripture, What God hath
joined together let no man put
asunder.
The mere reading of the marriage
service Mrs. Stanton insists, does not
signify that God hath Joined the couple
together Only those marriages that are
harmonious, where the parties are
IN the highest sense made by God
But what shall we say" she asks, "ot
that large class OF men and women who
marry for wealth, position, mere SEN
sual qualification, without any real at
traction or religious sense Of loyalty
toward one another? You might as
well talk of the same code of regula-
tons 20" honest, law-abiding citizens
and for criminals III our state prisons
as for these two classes. rhe former
are law to themselves. and need no
| iron chains to hold them together The
other class having no respect for law,
will defy all constitutional provisions"
Mrs Stanton's conclusion is that the
pretensons Of the church and the
Bible" should be eliminated from the
question The Scriptures, she says
s2nction divorce and polysamy and
are full of contradictions. while the
canon Jaw has been pliable in the
hands Of eeclesiastics, enforced or set
aside at the behests Of kings and
mobiles The discussion. in hey opinion,
should be confined wholly to the civil
law. and divorce be regarded A. purely
a state question