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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

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Page 133:

2857  

No -- nothing but a life-long entombment can satisfy the selfhood of my only legal protector!

2858  

Brothers, should the credulous public suffer me thus to die a martyr for woman's cause, don't let this precious cause be entombed with me. Oh! leave not this dear cause to the fickle decision of public sentiment, if you can afford me no other protection.

2859  

Public sentiment! What protection does that ensure to me?

2860  

Do you not see in our very midst, how very unstable is the verdict it renders me? Does it not one day cry, Hosannah! and the next, Crucify!

2861  

Oh! I do want laws to defend me; and as an American citizen, I not only ask, but I demand as my right, that my personal liberty shall depend upon the decision of a jury -- not upon the verdict of public sentiment, or forged certificates either.

2862  

And here, I beg leave to enter my most solemn protest against the injustice of that legislation which suspends the personal liberty of any American citizen upon the certificate of any person, class, or oligarchy.

2863  

Again I say, my gallant brothers, he true to my cause, if false to me. Be true to woman! defend her, as your weak confiding sister, and heaven shall reward you.

2864  

This untimely bursting in upon our almost triumphant cause, of the spirit of this cruel conspiracy is designed by the woman-hating spirit which prompted it, to defeat the first progressive step of this new rallying army, in defense of woman's emancipation.

2865  

But, my brothers -- my dauntless brothers! be not afraid of this wicked host which is encamped against us. Be valiant for woman! God is on her side, and "he always wins who sides with God."

2866  

Gentlemen of Connecticut Legislature, go forward! Emancipate woman! and put to flight this wicked host who have encamped against us. Fear not! Fear nothing so much as the sin of simply not doing your duty. Maintain your death grapple in defense of the heaven-born principles of liberty and justice to all human kind -- especially to woman.

2867  

For above this cross hangs suspended a crown, of which, even our martyred Lincoln's crown of negro emancipation is but a mere type and shadow, in brilliancy. And God grant! that this immortal crown of unfading honor may be the rightful heritage, the well earned reward, of Connecticut's manly sons, as embodied in their Legislature of 1866, by the passage of the following bill, viz.:

2868  

"Any woman entering the marriage relation, shall retain the same legal existence which she possessed before marriage, and shall receive the same legal protection of her rights as a woman, which her husband does as a man. Should the husband's power over the wife become an oppressive power, by any unjust usurpation of her natural rights, she shall have the same right to appeal to the Government for redress and protection that the husband has."

2869  

End of Vol. II.

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