her it
from the books, is a disgrace to any civilized nation. The theory
of the law degrades the wife almost to the level of slaves. When
a woman marries, we call her condition coverture, and speak of
her as a _femme covert_. The old writers call the husband baron,
and sometimes in plain English, lord.... The merging of her name
in that of her husband is emblematic of the fate of all her legal
rights. The torch of Hymen serves but to light the pile on which
these rights are offered up. The legal theory is, that marriage
makes the husband and wife one person, and that person is the
husband. On this subject, reform is loudly called for. There is
no foundation in reason or expediency for the absolute and
slavish subjection of the wife to the husband, which forms the
foundation of the present legal relations. Were woman, in point
of fact, the abject thing which the law in theory considers her
to be when married, she would not be worthy the companionship of
man."

I would ask if such a code of laws does not require change? If
such a condition of the wife in society does not claim redress?
On no good ground can reform be delayed. Blackstone says: "The
very being and legal existence of woman is suspended during
marriage; incorporated or consolidated into that of her husband
under whose protection and cover she performs everything."
Hurlbut, in his Essay upon Human Rights, says: "The laws touching
the rights of women are at variance with the laws of the Creator.
Rights are human rights, and pertain to human beings without
distinction of sex. Laws should not be made for man or for
woman, but for mankind. Man was not born to command, nor woman to
obey.... The law of France, Spain, and Holland, and one of our
own States, Louisiana, recognizes the wife's right to property,
more than the common law of England.... The laws depriving woman
of the right of property are handed down to us from dark and
feudal times, and are not consistent with the wiser, better,
purer spirit of the age. The wife is a mere pensioner on the
bounty of her husband. Her lost rights are appropriated to
himself. But justice and benevolence are abroad in our land
awakening the spirit of inquiry and innovation; and the Gothic
fabric of the British law will fall before it, save whe