Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-06-11

it was my privilege and duty to pro-
vide to the utmost AS to what
friends enabled me to do this, that is
a matter into which the public has no
right to inquire, so long as those con-
cerned are satisfied.
Marriage System of Tyranny.
Gas a council you are acting in de-
Tense of what you believe to be the
sacredness of the family institution,
against which l am to you an offender.
Wedlock Now Is Slavery.
I'm order that your action on this
point may be complete, let me say to
you that do not believe thatthe pres
ent marriage system is sacred or good.
1t rather seems to me the destruction
of the liberty and love and truth which
make love sacred and worth while. If
love and truth are the bases of moral
ity, then a marriage system which
makes one human being the property
of another, without regard to the we'll
being of either the owned or the own
er, seems to me to be the very soul of
blasphemy and immortality. The
family founded on force is a survival
of slavery, and one of the expression
of the slave-principles on which our
whole slave civilization is built. The
ethics of the legally and ecclesiastic-
ally enforced family make it possible
for man to live life of monstrous
wrong, of CHASTITY falsehood of even
unbridled lust, and yet be highly moral
according to the standard by which we
are judged. The same standards con-
denim and disgrace the purest express
sions of comradeship, if they cross the
conventions, or forget the DEGREES of
custom. Free and truthful living is
made tragedy, to have overwhelming
and revengeful retribution added to it,
while slave-living and falsehood may
be rewarded with world blessings and
ecclesiastical canonization. | thor.
oughly believe in the vital and abiding
union of one man with one woman as
a true basis of the family life. But
we will have a few Of such unions un.
til we have a free family. Men and
women must be economically free
free from the interference of legal and
ecclesiastical force, and free to correct
their mistakes, before we can have a
family that is noble, built on unions
that are good. Lives that are essen
TALLY one, cooperate in the love and
truth that make oneness, need no law
of state or church to bind or keer
them together.
Love Marriage Alone Is Pure.
st is not the business of society tt
unite or separate men and women il
the marriage relation. Love must b.
set free and liberty be trusted if noble
and beautiful homes are to spring vi
to make the earth a garden of trutl
and gladness. In times past men have
thrown away their lives in protes
against what seemed to them tyrann,
and wrong. There is new worlt
coming whose way can be made read,
only by those who will throw ava,
their good names. and accept perhap
everlasting disgrace, as the price o
their protest. And if willingly accep
all the disgrace and retribution whicl
church and society may visit upon M
in making a protest against mar
riage system that seems to me DIES
tructive of all the true morality, ant
to the very citadel of the souls intee
rity, then my protest has earned it
right to be heard.
"If in trying to be truthful to tn
world, have lost all means of servin
it, then let it be so. The life whicl
, you condemn me for not living was
lie. Yet l fruitlessly tried to CONVEX
it into truth, in order to be moral an
self-denying according to the stanC
ards Of religion and private ownership
The life | now live is the truth, thougI
these same standards condemn me TO
living it. 1 will accept obloquy an
destruction from the world and no
) complain nor defend myself, nor as
!, to have any cup of punishment pas
from me; but will not live lie-no
to win or keep the favor of Gods 0
men. I may be mistaken, or stupid
or mad, or anything you like, but
have acted from the highest right
know and from the deepest sense G
truth and honor / have. OF the moi
strous things charged against me
this wild flood of murderous and DEF
astating gossip, and know myself t
be guiltless, my soul is white from a
of that. And, in the long run, that
enough-enough that man be col
scious of the rectitude Of his own sou
covets Miss Rand as Wife.
| Unto the public discussion of the a,
ton you are Judging has come tn
name Of another than myself-that {
Miss Rand; and suppose your judI
ment at least in the public mind, wi
be upon her as we'll as myself
there were anything l could give c
F suffer to have this not so, l would
but it is so, and l must meet it trutl
fully, with you and the world. 1t
said and assumed that the separatio
in question was obtained in order thu
marriage between Miss Rand an
! myself might be consummated. So ia
as am concerned, that is not true, fc
the causes that led to this crisis existe
i long before l knew Miss Rand. o
j the other hand, it is true that til
comfadeship between Miss Rand an
myself, entered into this crisis, an
that whenever and wherever she wi
permit me to announce her to tn
world as my wife, whether it be tt
morrow, or next week or years henc
I shall do so. For years she has live
life of selfiess devotion to all that
. good, as well as to every work and oil
legation Of life, giving everything an
asking nothing So true is this thu
on the mere economic side that il
stead Of the reputed wealth of publ
prints she would come to me practica