to recognize the wife as an independent, rational
being, while they confer upon the husband an
injurious and unnatural suiHM'iority, investing
liiin with legal powers which no honorable man
would exercise, and which no man should
possess. We protest especially against tlie
laws which give the husband: —
"1. The custody of the wife's person.
"2. The exclusive control and guardianship of their children.
"3. The sole ownership of her personal and use of her real estate, unless previously settled upon her or placed in the hand of trustees, as in the case of minors, idiots, and lunatics.
"4. The absolute right to the product of her industry.
"5. Also against laws which give to the widower so much larger and more permanent an interest in the property of his deceased wife than they give to the widow in that of her deceased husband.
"6. Finally, against the whole system by which 'the legal existence of the wife is suspended during marriage,' so that, in most States, she neither has a legal part in the choice of her residence, nor can she make a will, nor sue or be sued in her own name, nor inhei'it property.
"We believe that personal independence and equal human rights can never be forfeited, except for crime; that marriage shoukl lie an ecpial and permanent partnership, and so recognized by law; that, until it is .so recognized, married partners should provide against the radical injustice of present laws by every means in their power.
"We believe that, where domestic difficulties arise, no aj^peal should be matle to legal tribunals under existing laws, but that all difficulties should be sulimitted to the equitable adjustment of arbitrators nmtually chosen.
"Thus, reverencing law, we enter oui protest against rules and customs which are unworthy of the name, .since they violate justice, the essence of law."
(Signed) Henry B. Bl.ckwell.
bucY Stone.
Wkst Rrookfield, M.^ss., May 1, IS55.
Lucy regarded the loss of a wife's name at marriage as a symbol of the lo.ss of her individuality. Eminent lawyers, including Ellis Gray Loring and Samuel E. Sewall, told her there was no law requiring a wife to take her husband's name, that it was only a custom and not obligatory; und the Chief Justice of the United States (Salmon P. Cha.se) gave her his unofficial opinion to the same effect. Accordingly, with her husband's full approval, .she kept her own name, and continued to be called by it during thirty-six years of faithful and affectionate married life.
The account of her later years must be con- densed into a few lines. She and her husband lectureil together in many States, took part in most of the campaigns when suffrage amend- ments were submitted to popular vote, addressed legislatures, published articles, held meet- ings far and wide, were instrumental in .se- curing many improvements in the laws of many States, and togetfier did an unrecorded and in- calculable amount of work in behalf of equal rights. A few years after her marriage, while they were living in Orange, N.J., Mrs. Stone let her goods be seized and sold for taxes. Among the things seized was the baby's cradle; and she wrote a j)rotest against taxation with- out representation, with her baby on her knee. In 1806 she helped to organize the American Equal Rights A.ssociation, which was formed to work for both negroes and women, and she was chairman of its executive committee. In 1869, with William Llojxl Garrison, George William Curtis, Colonel Higgin.son, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, .Mrs. .Mary A. I^ivermore, and others, she organized the American Woman Suffrage Association, and was chairman of its executive committee for nearly twenty years. She always cravetl, not the post of prominence, but the post of work. Most of the money with which the Woman' b -Journal was started in Boston, in 1870, was raised by her efforts. When Mrs. Livermore, who.se time was uiuler increasing demand in the lecture field, resigned the etlitorship in 1872, Mrs. Stone and her husband took cliarge of the paper, and ediletl it from that time forth. Since her deatli it has been edited by her husband and daughter. In her latter years she was nmch continetl at home by rheumatism, but worked for suffrage at her
