aracter; to assert herself, earnestly and firmly, as the
equal of man, who is only her peer. This is her first right, her
first duty; and if she lives in a country where the law supposes
that she is to be subjected to her husband, and she consents to
this subjection, I do insist that she consents to degradation;
that this is sin, and it is impossible to make it other than sin.
True, in this State, and in nearly all the States, the idea of
marriage is that of subjection, in all respects, of the wife to
the husband--personal subjection, subjection in the rights over
their children and over their property; but this is a false
relation. Marriage is a union of equals--equal interests being
involved, equal duties at stake; and if any woman has been
married to a man who chooses to take advantage of the laws as
they now stand, who chooses to subject her, ignobly, to his will,
against her own, to take from her the earnings which belong to
the family, and to take from her the children which belong to the
family, I hold that that woman, if she can not, by her influence,
change this state of things, is solemnly obligated to go to some
State where she can be legally divorced; and then she would be as
solemnly bound to return again, and, standing for herself and her
children, regard herself, in the sight of God, as being bound
still to the father of those children, to work for his best
interests, while she still maintains her own sovereignty. Of
course, she must be governed by the circumstances of the case.
She may be obliged, for the protection of the family, to live on
one continent while her husband is on the other: but she is never
to forget that in the sight of God and her own soul, she is his
wife, and that she owes to him the wife's loyalty; that to work
for his redemption is her highest social obligation, and that to
teach her children to do the same is her first motherly duty.
Legal divorce may be necessary for personal and family
protection; if so, let every woman obtain it. This, God helping
me, is what I would certainly do, for under no circumstances will
I ever give my consent to be subjected to the will of another, in
any relation, for God has bidden me not to do it. But the idea of
most women is, that they must be timid, weak, helpless, and full