is known
but in and through the husband. She is nameless, purseless,
childless--though a woman, an heiress, and a mother.

Blackstone says: "The husband and wife are one, and that one is
the husband." Kent says: "The legal effects of marriage are
generally deducible from the principle of the common law, by
which the husband and wife are regarded as one person, and her
legal existence and authority lost or suspended during the
continuance of the matrimonial union."--Vol. 2, p. 109. Kent
refers to Coke on Littleton, 112, a. 187, B. Litt. sec. 168, 291.

The wife is regarded by all legal authorities as a
"_feme-covert_," placed wholly _sub potestate viri_. Her moral
responsibility, even, is merged in the husband. The law takes it
for granted that the wife lives in fear of her husband; that his
command is her highest law: hence a wife is not punishable for
theft committed in presence of her husband.--Kent, vol. 2, p.
127. An unmarried woman can make contracts, sue and be sued,
enjoy the rights of property, to her inheritance--to her
wages--to her person--to her children; but, in marriage, she is
robbed by law of all and every natural and civil right. "The
disability of the wife to contract, so as to bind herself, arises
not from want of discretion, but because she has entered into an
indissoluble connection, by which she is placed under the power
and protection of her husband."--Kent, vol. 2, p. 127. She is
possessed of certain rights until she is married; then all are
suspended, to revive again the moment the breath goes out of the
husband's body.--See "Cowen's Treatise," vol. 2, p. 709.

If the contract be equal, whence come the terms "marital
power"--"marital rights"--"obedience and restraint"--"dominion
and control"--"power and protection," etc., etc.? Many cases are
stated, showing the exercise of a most questionable power over
the wife, sustained by the courts.--See Bishop on Divorce, p.
489.

The laws on Divorce are quite as unequal as those on Marriage;
yes, far more so. The advantages seem to be all on one side, and
the penalties on the other. In case of divorce, if the husband be
the guilty party, he still retains the greater part of the
property. If the wife be the guilty party, she goes out of the
partnership penniless.