Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 37:

758  

Now, I claim that the Marriage Union, as our laws now stand, rests on just this principle. The woman has no alternative of resort from any kind of abuse from her partner, but divorce or secession from the Marriage Union.

759  

Now the weak States have rights as well as the strong ones, and it is the rights of the weak which the Government are especially bound to respect and defend, to prevent usurpation and its legitimate issue -- secession from the Union.

760  

What we want of our Government is to prevent this usurpation, by protecting us equally with our partners, so that a divorce need not become a necessity.

761  

By equality of rights, I do not mean that woman's rights and man's rights are one and the same. By no means; we do not want the man's rights, but simply our own, natural, womanly rights. There are man's rights and woman's rights. Both different, yet both equally inalienable. There must be a head in every firm; and the head in the Marriage Firm or Union is the man, as the Bible and nature both plainly teach.

762  

We maintain that the senior partner, the man, has rights of the greatest importance, as regards the interests of the marriage firm, which should not only be respected and protected by our Government, but also enforced upon them as an obligation, if the senior is not self-moved to use his rights practically -- and one of these his rights, is a right to protect his own wife and children.

763  

The junior partner also has rights of equal moment to the interests of the firm, and one of these is her right to be protected by her senior partner. Not protected in a prison, but in her own home, as mistress of her own house, and as a God appointed guardian of her infant children. The Government would then be protecting the Marriage Union, while it now practically ignores it.

764  

To make this matter still plainer, suppose this government was under the control of the female instead of the male influence, and suppose our female government should enact laws which required the men when they entered the Marriage Union to alienate their right to hold their own property -- their right to hold their future earnings -- their right to their own homes -- their right to their own offspring, if they have any -- their right to their personal liberty -- and all these rights be passed over into the hands of their wives for safe keeping, and so long as they chose to be married men, all their claims on our womanly government for protection should be abrogated entirely by this marriage contract. Now, I ask, how many men would venture to get married under these laws? Would they not be tempted to ignore the marriage laws of our Woman Government altogether?

765  

Now, gentlemen, we are sorry to own it, this is the very condition in which your Man Government places us. We, women, looking from this very stand-point of sad experience, are tempted to exclaim:

766  

"Where is the manliness of our Man Government! "

767  

Divorce, I say, then, is in itself an evil -- and is only employed as an evil to avoid a greater one, in many instances. Therefore, instead of being forced to choose the least of two evils, I would rather reject both evils, and choose a good thing -- that of being protected in my own dear home from unmerited, unreasonable abuse -- a restitution of my rights, instead of a continuance of this robbery, sanctioned by a divorce.

768  

In short, we desire to live under such laws as will oblige our husbands to treat us with decent respect, so long as our good conduct merits it, and then will they be made to feel a decent regard for us as their companions and partners, whom the laws protect from their abuse.

769  

CHAPTER XIII.
The Opinions which Caused this Family Rupture.

770  

The question is often asked, "what are your religious opinions, Mrs. Packard, which have caused all this rupture in your once happy family?"

771  

My first impulse prompts me to answer, pertly, it is no one's business what I think but my own, since it is to God alone I am accountable for my thoughts.

772  

"Whether my thoughts are right or wrong, true or false, is no one's business but my own. It is my own God given right to superintend my own thoughts, and this right I shall never delegate to any other human being -- for God himself has authorized me to "judge ye not of your own selves what is right?"

773  

Yes, I do, and shall judge for myself what is right for me to think, what is right for me to speak, and what is right for me to do -- and if I do wrong, I stand amenable to the laws of society and my country; for to human tribunals I submit all my actions, as just and proper matter for criticism and control.

774  

But my thoughts, I shall never yield to any human tribunal or oligarchy, as a just and proper matter for arbitration or discipline. It is my opinion that the time has gone by for thoughts to be chained to any creeds or oligarchies; but on the contrary, these chains and restraints which have so long bound the human reason to human dictation, must be broken, for the reign of individual, spiritual freedom is about dawning upon our progressive world.

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62  63  64  65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  78  79  80  81  82  83  84  85  86  87  88  89  90  91  92  93  94  95  96  97  98  99  100  101  102  103  104  105  106  107  108  109  110  111  112  113  114  115  116  117  118  119  120  121  122  123  124  125  126  127  128  129  130  131  132  133    All Pages