ependence, by act of legislature. No absolute
divorce could be granted for any cause arising after the marriage, but a
separation might be decreed in case of adultery by either party.

[Sidenote: Subjection of married women.]

By the rules of the common law, the person and property of women were
under the absolute control of their husbands. The maxim, _Uxor non est
juris, sed sub potestate viri_, "a wife is not her own mistress, but is
under the power of her husband," is but an expression of the actual
legal status of a woman from the instant she entered the matrimonial
state, until released therefrom by death or divorce.

[Sidenote: Legally dead.]

Marriage was the act by which she ceased to have a legal existence, by
which, we are told, her very being became incorporated or consolidated
into that of her husband. From the time her identity became thus merged,
she was presumed by the law to be under the protection and influence of
her husband, to be so absolutely and entirely one person with him, that
she had henceforth no life in law apart from his.

[Sidenote: Unity of person.]

The legal fiction of the unity of the persons of husband and wife dates
back to feudal times, and may, perhaps, have been a necessity of the age
and of the peculiar social and political systems of that period. Like
many another law having its inception in a sincere desire to secure the
greatest good to the greatest number, and apparently necessary for that
purpose at the period of social development which gave it birth, it
existed for centuries after it had ceased to result in any benefit or
afford any protection, and after the reason for its being had passed
away and been forgotten.

[Sidenote: Power of husband.]

We are told that at marriage the husband "adopted his wife and her
circumstances together." He might exercise his power over her person by
restraining her of her liberty in case of gross misbehavior, or by
giving her moderate chastisement in the same degree that he might
administer correction to his children. An early decision of one of our
state courts interpreted this to mean that a man might whip his wife
with a switch as large as his finger, but not larger than his thumb,
without being guilty of an assault.

[Sidenote: Disabilities.]

Husband and wife being one person could not contract nor enter into a
business partnership with each other; neither could one convey property
to the other without the intervention of a