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Communications: Adultery Legalized: For The Signal Of Libert...

Communications: Adultery Legalized: For The Signal Of Libert... image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
May
Year
1843
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Mr. Editor: - Your cemment on the act of the last Legisslature of Michigan, legalizing Adultery &c, has disgubted the Editor of the Argus beyond measure; and, in his last paper he ven'ures, the first of the avowed ailvocates, oí universal liceitiousness, to ju.nify the dear party legislation, which hos abolished all punishmcnt for this most btrocious of all crimes. He thinks because the Savior refused to become the executioner of a repenting woman, our legislatme merit the approbation of an insulted community for screening the other party, who is the real offender, from deserved punishment also. And he is preparing a terrible battery to blow you high for presuming to doubt it. Take care, my dear sir, or you wil be anoihilatecl,and ihe Signal "top" for want of an editor.lint what ia there ín your etnctures, tha dipgusts the Argus eyed Editor so much?- - ís it the shame his party has brought upon the liituunojmit of líic oiticcno of Micliijjatj? - If so he has reason to blush, and much more 1 if he means to advocate the measure. Ah, this is the rub? He is ashamed of the act; and if it had been passed by any ether political party, would have cried aloud and spared . not. But bis position makes it his duty to the p.irty, to which he looks for paironag-e, to advocate every measure of the dear party, no matter how enorinoiisly wicked it may be. We aro credibly informed that a member, who lives about six miles sonth from your ol ficp, boasts of having voted for the repeal; and gives as a reason that he has jnst discov?red that punishment does not deter evil doers froni violnting the laws; nnd this seems to be the only eu'pposition upon which the repeal admits of justification. Now if this be a fact, why imprison a mnn in our -jail for neglecting to do military di;ty? Why not repeal the whole code of penal laws' Why commence with thut part of it, which vvasintendedtoprotect nll that can make life desirable, viz. a g.od name - an unspotted reputation? Have our lrgislature lost all power of distinguishing virtue from vice? Or are they totally indifferent to the sufTerings of innocenceand purity? Where is the ! tuous faiher, the chaste mother, who would not rather, yea a thousnnd limes rather follow their lovely danghter to the silenl tomb, than to see her seduccd from virtus path, by a villain, the blackest - most despicable of all crimináis' Isa borse of more valué than the onblemished reputation of a beloved wife, or a lovely and confiding young lady, who, under the promise of being made happy, submits to the friend who wnntonly destroys her fair fame, thatfthe thief ehonld be sent to the 1 penitentiary, but the hrartlesp, eoulless libertine permitted to go at large, and perhaps to the legislative ha!l, destroying all that is fnir ond good, within his reach? O shame, where is thv blush"!What can have bren the motive of this repeal? IJas nny perron soffered the penalty ofthelavv innocently? No, tliis is nol pretended. The fnct ie, we loo often elect lawmakers who have no mural character themeelvee, nnd no feeüng for siiflcring humanity - men, who are governerf exclusively by their own pecuniary interest and licentious propensities, nnd are consequently incapable of placing a proper estímate upon virtue and purity of character. The Argus atfempts to throw dust h the cyes of its readers by asserting that no Jnw exisfsin England, or the Stater, to punish fornication, leaving them to infor, from his sweeping assertions, that this is also the ense with regard to adultery. Will herisk his reputation by asseriinnr thftt the latter is nota criminai ofTence, and punished as such by the laws of nearly, if not quite, all civilized Í tions? Uut why should the one be punished 'any more than the olher? Ttiey are both i tructive of happinese, end the object of huuian ■ laws ought lo be the protection of its subjects from injury, for thU is plainly the object of the Divine law upon which the civil is expr o sly founded. Party governs all things - the public press becomes a pando i to infamy- an instrument of vice,spreading ruin, degradation and misery around, over our beloved land, far and wide, in hopes of Becuring a paltry patronage ftom the party whose rneasures t advocates. And thus, instead of what it ought to be, a source of iiseful knowledge, iinproving the minds and moráis of mankind, it is too often prostituted to the vilest of purposes. Instead of seminal mg the principies of liberty justice and equality, it makes men slaves to party, minions of some designing leader, religious or political. Or else it furnishes food only for a diseased imagination in the shape of love sick storiesand high wrought fictions. And what will be the consequcnces f a continuance of such a course of conduct? - Let revolutionary France, and ihe fate of all the ancient república, answer. When virtue and truth are disregarded by the great mass of the peoplr, when every one tries to ex;ilt himself by pulling down his neighbor, it is high time for al!, wlu have the welfare of their country at heart, to arise from their dormant elote of politica] death, and shake off the incubus that crushes tbcm to the dust.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News