The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-11
Leads all North News and Circulation

no stretch of legal construction can the
transfer of this policy, the endorsement o1
check or bond (often in blank and
therefore with no grantee), or the gift
or sale of any personal property, be term
ed 'conyeyances.' 1t was expressly held
in Kelly vs. Fleming, 113. n. c., 1873, that
the word conveyance did not embrace d
sale or any other disposition of personal
property which was not required to be by
deed.
There should be no difficulty as to the
rights of married women if we would fol-
low the plain letter of the constitutional
provision without reference to the bar
barous doctrine of the subsection of Wo-
men whose survival in the common law
the will of the men of this more enlight-
ened age abolished by this section of the
Constitution. 1t is not by virtue of, but
contrary to- this recognition in the or
ganic law of the equality of women be-
fore the law, that our statute law, till the
last session of the General Assembly
still classed married women in two sec
tions of The Code with idiots, lunatics
infants and convicts,' and still attempts
to hamper their freedom of contracting
(though the sole restriction by the Con-
stitution is limited to conveyances), and
that our decisions still make the husband
absolute owner of all the wife's earnings,
even though made by her needle.
'"The Common Law contained many no
bic principles which will live for all
time but from the time and nature of it's
origin it had the alloy of much that was
base and barbarous. In the evolution of
the. race and in the advance of civiliza-
tion, most of the alloy has disappeared.
One of the last SurvivalS was the essen
TALLY barbarian doctrine that woman,
upon marriage. became the chattel of her
husband, for it was by virtue thereof that
he acquired (besides the right to chastise
her at will, which the courts have abro-
gated, her property and her earnings.
This the Constitution of 1868, in accord
ance with enlightened progress every
where else, swept away. 1t made her the
equal of her single sister, with as full
rights over her property in every way,
save as to the husbands veto upon her
'conveyances' To extend that to veto
upon her gifts, sales or other disposition
of property, not required to be made and
in fact not made by any conveyance.
dicial repeal of the constitutional provi
sion.
prior to 1868, when by a marriage con-
tract wife retained her separate estate,
no assent of the husband, written or oral,
was required for the disposition of her
personally. The constitutional provision
was not intended to put her in worse
situation. 1t extends her ownership to
all property both real and personal, but
the veto given to the husband does not.
1t extends only to conyeyances and there
fore has no application to any disposi-
ton of personally unless a conveyance
of it is necessary. 1t is a novelty in
Jurisprudence if an oral disposition OF 1t
by endorsement or assignment OF a
check, note or other paper, is convey
ance' especially in view of the context
and evident purpose of the clause OF the
Constitution guaranteeing, not restricting,
property rights of married women"