Elizabeth Cady Stanton SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Speech on the McFarland Trial Apollo Hall, May 17, 1870 .1. An abstract of the speech of Elizabeth Cady Stanton on the McFarland trial in Apollo Hall May 17th 1870 The deep interest of the entire nation in the McFarland trial, for the last month, is due not to any particular regard for the man, or abhorrence of the legal punishment for such crime, but to the fact that the trial indirectly involves the solution of the momentous questions of marriage & divorce 2 questions that underlie an whole social, religious, & political life As I have never seen the faces of either Daniel McFarland or Abby Sage Richardson I have no personal prejudices or preferences to bias my judgement in this matter. I will not admit now what I confess I did feel in earlier life, a prejudice always in favor of my own sex, for with sons and daughters alike growing up my mother's heart has taught me to balance all questions with equal reference to both sexes. [2]..3. Nevertheless I have felt during the past month, as Barton abolitionists felt when Anthony Burns the black man, the runaway slave, was condemned in their courts and marched through their streets, the said helpless victim of a false American public sentiment, who having just tasted the sweets of liberty, was remanded [3]4 by Massachusetts law to southern slavery. As I sat alone late [last] one night & read the simple truthful story of Abby Sage Richardson, the fugitive wife. I tried to weigh the mountain of sorrow that had rolled over that poor woman's soul, through there my years of hopeless agony;- [4]5 through the fiery ordeal of a public trial in our courts;- the merciless hounding of the press, the garbled testimony & unjust decisions;- [that] setting a madman free. to keep that poor broken hearted woman in fear for her life as long as he lives:- As I pondered on these things in the midnight hour and recalled the hideous insults [on] through the person of Abby. S. Richardson [5]6 on the entire womanhood of the nation I resolved that as I had devoted my life heretofore to the enfranchisement of women. My future work should be to teach [her]woman; her duties to herself in the home. In protesting against the decision in the McFarland case, do not think I wished to see that wretched man hung. I do not believe in 7. [.6.] Capital Punishment; but in [In] declaring him “not guilty” our courts virtually declare that Mrs. Richardson is & that although she has married another man whom she loves she’s still the wife of the criminal whom for years she has hated. McFarland should have been pronounced”guilty” & sent to the insane asylum, where the testimony in the courts as well as Mrs Richardson’s statement alike shows he belongs, but we have no law in this state to that end. His testimony in the court would undoubtedly have changed the opinions ..[7].8. of the jury, but as neither women or slaves can testify against their supposed masters, the effort was made to prove her divorce illegal & thus by [proving] declaring her still the wife of the defendant they excluded her evidence in the case. [“Woman’s sphere, they tell us, is home” Well in behalf of all womanhood] 9 But in the face of this decision there is sympathy enough to day with Mrs Richardson to redeem the mighty multitude of wretched wives she represents from the most degraded type of slavery the world knows, that of wife to a bloated drunkard or diseased libertine. But sympathy as a civil agent is vague & powerless until caught, & chained in logical irrefragable propositions; & coined into state law. Let us then waste no energy or time in tears over the sufferings of any one woman: .10. or in anger at the cruel injustice of the courts & the press, in this particular case, but learn what we can do to day towards an entire revision of the laws of New York [state] on marriage & divorce: -& from the pleas, testimony, verdict & decision in the late trial, see what all women need for their protection & where to strike the right blow. To begin then with the ugly present [striking] fact & go back step by step to the foundation question .11. How comes it that a man who by our courts has been declared so insane that he may commit murder without being morally responsible to the state, is let loose on society to repeat such depredations, while the helpless victim of his hate & lust still lives & is liable at any moment to be sacrificed by his hand. As this is not the first case of its kind we have had in this state, it is time for .12. the people to consider the wickedness & hypocracy of such decisions & demand a law here such as I believe Massachusetts has to day to this effect: that whenever the defense of insanity is set up, the jury should be required to say in their verdict whether they acquit the prisoner on that ground & if so then the Court should be required to enter an order on the spot sending the party to a lunatic asylum Common sense teaches us 13. That a party should not be allowed to escape conviction under this plea & then be permitted to go at large, thus repudiate the fact of insanity. Let the women of the state roll up their petitions during the summer for such a law, present them next winter with appropriate appeals before our Legislature. Such a law —— secure to 14. the wife two things: personal safety, the guardianship of her children. Although by the revised statutes of this state the mother is the equal guardian of her child to day, yet in the late trial we have the anomaly of a criminal acquitted on the ground of insanity, walking out of court with his child by his hand, its natural protector, while the mother of sound mind capable of 15 supporting it is denied the custody of its person: we have too a murderer. with the crown & sceptre of American citizenship fully restored to him, though adjudged incapable of bearing the moral responsibilities of a man. Again when a plea of insanity is set up. as in the cases of McFarland, Coles, & Sickles it should be decided not by any ordinary jury but .16. by a committee of scientific physicians properly selected: men accustomed to the study of the human organism in all its normal & diseased conditions. For the entire lack of chivalry shown in the late trial alike by the court & the press for the noble women innocently involved in the proceedin[gs] 17. we have but one remedy & that is to have Judges, Jurors Advocates reporters editors of our own sex, that by the united action of man & woman the refined sentiments & manners of polite society may be carried into the public life. But all these questions are secondary to the fundamental falsehood in which the opinions of the press, the decision of the court, the defence of the .18. prisoner & his bloody deed are based namely " the Husbands right of property in the wife" The old common law of the barbarous ages reflected in our statutes controls the public sentiment of the 19th century, though the real character & position of woman has entirely changed, from the thoughtless ignorant toy or drudge of the past, to the enlightenment dignified moral being of to day ¶ .19. These one sided degrading statutes on marriage & divorce which as this hour our sons are reading in their law schools [today] are daily educating them into low gross ideas of their mothers, sisters future wives; preparing them to contemplate with stolid indifference the tedious features of our present marriage institutions; & to call that sacred, that every pure woman feels to be unnatural & infamous. .20. Another demand that the woman of this state should make of our Legislature is an entire revision of our laws on marriage & divorce making man & woman in all respects equal partners & when by the cold, indifferent or base conduct of either party the contract is practically annulled the state should declare it so. The following bill was before our Legislature 21. in 1861 and lacked but a few votes of passing. Let the women of the state press it again at the next session [of our Legislature] [Introduced, on notice, by Mr. RAMSEY ; read twice and referred to the committee on the judiciary; reported from said committee for the consideration of the Senate and committed to the committee of the whole.] [*agahe*] AN ACT In regard to divorces dissolving the marriage contract. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. In addition to the cases in which a divorce, dissolving the marriage contract, may now be decreed by the supreme court, such a divorce may be decreed by said court in either of the following cases: 1. Where either party to the marriage shall, for the period of three years next preceding the application for such divorce, have willfully deserted the other party to the marriage and neglected to perform to such a party the duties imposed by their relation. 2. Where there is and shall have been for the period of one year next preceding the application for such divorce, continuous and repeated instances of cruel and inhuman treatment by either party, so as greatly to impair the health or endanger the life of the other party, thereby rendering it unsafe to live with the party guilty of such cruelty or inhumanity. §2 The forgoing sections shall not apply to any person who shall not have been an actual resident of the state for the period of five years next preceding such application for divorce. §3 Specifications one, two and three of original section thirty-eight, of article three, of title one, of chapter eight, of part two of the Revised Statutes, shall apply to these causes for divorce as they now apply to the cause of adultery. §4 The other provision of the Revised Statutes relating to the granting of divorces for adultery, and regulating the form and manner of proceedings and decrees, and the effects thereof, and the restrictions and defenses to the application thereof, shall be applicable to the granting of divorce for causes herein above specified, and all proceedings therefor and therein, so far and in such manner as the same may be capable of such application. §5 This act shall take effect immediately [*21 1/2 agate nont*] As the speech that I made [before our Legislature] before the Judiciary Committee, at Albany when this bill was pending, is .22. scattered through the audience [to day] I will not detain you with a rehearsal of the digest of our laws on this question & my arguments & appeals made on that occasion, hoping you will read all that for yourselves. I do not press my speech on your consideration because of any special merit in it, but hoping that the offensive laws quoted therein may rouse the apathetic to some thought & .23. action in the future & that my appeals may strengthen the bond of sisterhood between us, showing that while some have suffered, some prayed, & others talked, we have all alike been working to the same end. While the stricken heart broken woman, to day a target for the nations scorn, has through struggle, & humiliation given us a glowing but painful picture of the depths of degradation 24 a wife may be called to endure & thus touched a new chord of sympathy for the multitudes she represents, others of us not crushed or perplexed with domestic discord & tyranny, or cumbered with thoughts of our daily bread, have been solving the problems of woman's wrongs, & revising for her benefit the statute laws of many of the states. Though we are still in deep waters be not discouraged the evils we are all suffering .25. to day must needs be in this transition period of woman from slavery to freedom. Not one tear has been shed, one prayer uttered, one word spoken in vain. Even these protracted divorce trials, with all their sickening details, are giving women new courage to sunder the ties they loathe & abhor & slowly but surely educating public sentiment to [higher ideas of ] a true marriage relation. Thus far we have had the 26 main idea of marriage, now the time has come, for woman to give the world the other side of this question. When the callenders of our courts are crowded with divorces cases and such details of private lives are continually paraded before the public in all our daily Journals; when there are 1600 divorce cases in Massachusetts in one years & as many in proportion in Illinois Indiana & Connecticut, we who .27. have sons and daughters growing up to be happy or miserable in these relations have a deep interest in finding the cause of all this social confusion, & suggesting some remedy. The Ex Governor of Connecticut Mr. Jenell told me that there had been a fourth as many divorces as marriages in that state in one year, & a majority that [most] of applications were made by women. In view of this fact is it not the duty of those who believe in the family 28 as the great conservator of national virtue & strength to give to this subject a prayerful & earnest consideration. I bring you to day what I think; it is but the opinion of one woman and as Cousin the French philosopher says in every event there is bound up some truth & some error, may you have the wisdom to accept the truth I utter & throw the error like chaff to the winds. I think divorce 27. have sons & daughters growing up to be happy or miserable in there relations have a deep interest in finding the cause of all this social confusion, & suggesting some remedy. The Ex Governor of Connecticut Mt Jenell told me that there had been one fourth as many divorces as marriages in that sate in one year, & that a majority [most] of the applications were made by women. In view of this fact is it not the duty of those who believe in the family 28 as the great conservator of national virtue & strength to give to this subject a prayerful & earnest consideration. I bring you to day what I think; it is but the opinions of one woman & as Cousin the French philosopher says in every soul there is bound up some truth & some error, may you have the wisdom to accept the truth [Qutter?] & throw the error like chaff to the winds. I think divine 3 x [to both sexes] As at the will of the parties people marry, at their will the tie should be sundered. But I consider all haste in forming other ties as indelicate & indecent, as it is for widowers & widows to marry soon after the death of their partners, if atall. For the protection of society there should be some public ceremony or recognition of the fact. It might be well to have divorces published in our daily papers, like marriages & deaths. When divorce is made respectable as it should be this will undoubtedly be done [29] at the will of the parties is not only right but that it is a sin against nature, the family. the state, for a man or woman to live together in the marriage relation, in continual antagonism indifference disgust. [*x*] A physical union should in all cases be the outgrowth of a spiritual & intellectual sympathy & anything short of this is lust & not love. This too is the opinion of many fine minded able men & women — 30. Alexander Humbolt who died the other day said, "Marriage having this peculiarity that its objects are frustrated when the feelings of both parties are not in harmony with it should require nothing but the declared will of either party to dissolve it" John Milton said "Those who marry intend as little to conspire their own ruin as those who swear allegiance, & as a whole people is to an ill government 31. so is one man or woman to an ill marriage" Jeremy Bentham said "A condition requiring a continuance of marriage [of marriage] notwithstanding a change of feelings in the parties is absurd shocking & contrary to humanity" [Rich] Ritcher said "He considered marriage in which the purest love failed on either side was no better than a work of adultery" 32. Charlotte Bronte said, "When a wife's nature loathes that of [her husband] the man she is wedded to, marriage must be slavery, against slavery all right thinkers revolt, & though torture be the price of resistance, torture must be dared; though the only road to freedom be through the gates of death those gates must be passed for freedom is indispensable." John Stuart Mill says, "The subject of marriage is 33. usually discussed as if the interests of children were everything those of grown persons nothing." Charles Dickens says, "I read in the papers every session every sizes how the impossibility of ever getting unchained from one another at any price on any terms brings blood upon the land." Mrs. McFarland's married life from her own confession 34 of loathing & abhorrence, was nothing more or less than legalized prostitution as Ritcher said "no better than a work of adultery." & every pure woman must feel that when she sundered that tie she took the first step towards virtue & self-respect. As some criticism has been made on her subsequent action, though to my mind beset as she was, with poverty innumerable difficulties 35 and temptations some blunders are pardonable, yet I must say I should have liked her mode of accomplishing what she did better, had she openly demanded a divorce & obtained it in the state of New York, for when by a little delay & painstaking we can do a grand work for others as well as ourselves, the easy hasty way always prompted by selfishness may prove a grave mistake even to ourselves. As every divorce helps to educate other wives similarly .36. situated with higher ideas of purity, virtue, self-respect, the more publicity given to the success of each case the better. As the highest happiness of society & the individual always lie in the same direction, a woman with a ready pen & tongue should not fear criticism , opposition, or persecution, or accept personal freedom except through a fair debate of the higher position she intends to take, that thus she may help to mould public sentiment in .37. harmony with her opinions & ennable society to sanction her action. Another good effect of trying to take the world with us is that we shall move with greater deliberation. This is my idea of true reform, not to coquette with unjust law, thrust it one side or try to get beyond its reach, but to fight it where it is, & fight it to the death. Let the women of this state rise in mass & say they will no longer tolerate, 38 [laws] statutes that hold pure virtuous women individubly bound to gross [noious?] men, whom they loathe & abhor, & we shall soon have a complete codification of our laws. The Protestant world have never regarded marriage as an indissoluable tie therefore it is no great stretch of the civil or religions conscince of our rulers, to multiply the causes for divorce with advancing civilization Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.