Lawgiver

“ The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility. He ought to love and respect his kind, and to fear himself. It may be allowed to his temperament to catch his ultimate object with an intuitive glance ”

“ Provided that in fact the commands of the lawgiver are those beyond which the community never looks, it seems immaterial to inquire whether this lawgiver in turn takes his orders from somebody else or is habitually obedient to such orders when given. ”

“ In the world's history, lawgivers are among the greatest and most godlike characters. They are reformers of nations. They are builders of human society. They are fit companions of the master poets who fill it with their melody. ”

“ I am inclined to think that they cannot; but they exist at present, and as long as they do exist we have not only the right but it is evidently our duty that we should as lawgivers pay respect to them. ”

“ To make the improvident and negligent husband and father, as well as those who are liable for the maintenance of the dependant relatives, namely, the grandparents, parents, children, grand-children and relatives of a poor person of sufficient ability, realize the obligations that the law has cast upon them, to advise and admonish in the first instance as to their duty to their dependants, and to punish if advice be not followed, has been the rule and practice of the court. ”

“ The father is the legal guardian but if he is insane or has given cause for divorce the court may award the minor children to the mother. The judge of probate may appoint a guardian, when necessary, to have care of the persons and property of minor children, and it may be either the father or mother.
If the husband refuse to provide for his family he may be prosecuted in criminal form. If he is insane or has given cause for divorce the court may award support out of his property. ”

“ For if she know the laws and magistrate to be so unjust, as to punish a fault with death, which deserveth it not, she is not to tell such a magistrate, but to preserve her neighbours' safety by some other way of intimation.
If any one think that a wife may in no case accuse a husband, to the hazard of his life or estate, let them, 1. Remember what God obliged parents to do against the lives of incorrigible children, Deut. xxi. 2. And that the honour of God, and the lives of our neighbours, should be preferred before the life of one offender, and their estates before his estate alone. ”

“ The same thing, always the same: the stepmother is ‘wicked and greedy’; the father-in-law, ‘harsh and quarrelsome,’ sits on the sleeping-shelf above the stove, ‘just like a dog [73] on a rope’; the mother-in-law, equally wicked, sits on the stove ‘just like a bitch on a chain’; the sisters-in-law are invariably ‘young dogs and tricksters’; the brothers-in-law are ‘malicious scoffers’; the husband is ‘either a fool or a drunkard’; the ‘old father-in-law bids him beat his wife soundly, until her hide drops off to her heels’ ”

“ My dear daughter cannot be allowed to grow up in the lap of such a mother. I am sure that the lady whose husband I have the honour to be will not prefer the delights of a criminal attachment to the sweet duties of motherhood—but, if she should, I shall bring an action in due form, having an abundance of witnesses who can prove the preliminary information required by law, and I shall claim my daughter, since the law will place her in my paternal care as soon as she is three years old. ”

“ Resolved, That, whereas, under the common law, the father is regarded as the guardian, by nature, of his children, having the entire control of their persons and education, while only upon the death of the father, does the mother become the guardian by nature; and, whereas, by the revised statutes of New York, it is provided, that where an estate in lands shall become vested in an infant, the guardianship of such infant, with the rights, powers, and duties of a guardian in soccage, shall belong to the father, and only in case of the father's death, to the mother ”

“ The agent might, if he was disposed to be obligin’, transfer your father’s claim to you, Jessie, if you could swear that you are the head of a family, and that’s what you can’t do—not as the law requires it, you can’t. The law don’t recognize any one as the head of a family until of legal age. Even if you were of legal age, the agent might refuse, if he saw fit. ”

“ The law trusts that the father will perform his natural duties, and does not, and, indeed, cannot, inquire how they have been performed.... I am not prepared to say whether when the child is a ward of Court, and the conduct of the father is such as to exhaust all patience—such, for instance, as cruelty, or 63pitiless spitefulness carried to a great extent—the Court might not interfere. ”

“ If, however, through any accident their hands or backs should come into contact, the father-in-law is extremely horrified, and a dog must be at once killed, which he gives to his son-in-law for the purpose of wiping out the stain on his honour. If the two should ever fall out about anything, the son-in-law will leave the village and his wife, and will stay away in some other place till his father-in-law, for his daughter’s sake, calls him back. ”

“ At common law the husband was liable in an action at law at the suit of any person furnishing to the wife necessaries suitable to her condition in life, if the wife was residing apart from him because of his wilful and improper treatment of her, or by his consent. ”

“ HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings and separate estate, subject to husband's right to curtesy. Curtesy and dower both prevail. Husband is legal guardian of children and must provide.
DIVORCE: Absolute or limited for marriages originally void by law, conviction for crime involving loss of civil status, when either party may be presumed to be naturally dead from absence, etc., impotence, adultery, desertion for any time at discretion of court, continued drunkenness, neglect to provide, any gross misbehaviour.
LABOUR LAWS: No child under 13 may be employed except during vacation. ”

“ I am of opinion that no such right or power exists in law. I am 145of opinion that no such right ever did exist in our law. Whatever authorities may be quoted for any such proposition, it has always been subject to this condition: that where she has a complaint of, or is apprehensive of, ill-usage, the Court will never interfere to compel her to return to her husband’s custody. ”

“ On the other hand, the alienation of land by deed of husband and wife, with her separate examination and acknowledgment, is, in form as well as in fact, a conveyance by the parties, and therefore does not, even if the acknowledgment is certified by a magistrate in the form prescribed by statute, and recorded, bind a wife who, by reason of infancy or insanity, is incapable of conveying. ”

“ Some officials and law makers seem not to know that a convict may have a family, yet there is always this heart-saddened, home-broken circle of gloom, the mothers, wives and children of convicts, about every penal institution. ”

“ Where custody or the ability to reproduce a condition of custody is coupled with the mental element of intention to hold for one's own purposes, the legal order confers on one who so holds a capacity protected and maintained by law so to hold, and a claim to have the thing restored to his immediate physical control should he be deprived of it. ”

“ If any husband or father neglect to maintain his wife or children, it is lawful for any alderman, justice of the peace or magistrate, upon information made before him, under oath or affirmation, by the wife or children, or by any other person, to issue his warrant for the arrest of the man, and bind him over with one sufficient surety to appear at the next Court of Quarter Sessions, there to answer the said charge. ”

“ However bitter it may he to me, I must decline seeing my children in the manner proposed. I say nothing of the harshness, the inhumanity of telling me I must either see them at the chambers of his solicitor, or not at all; but I say it is not decent that the father of those children should force me, their mother, out of the very tenderness I bear them, to visit them at the chambers of the attorney who collected the evidence, examined the witnesses, and conducted the proceedings for the intended divorce. ”

“ HUSBAND AND WIFE: Husband controls wife's earnings, and wife can do nothing with her separate estate without his consent. Dower and curtesy prevail. Husband has right to all rents and profits of wife's estate. No law requires husband to provide. Husband is guardian of children.
DIVORCE: Absolute for impotence, bigamy, adultery, desertion for two years, conviction for felony, attempted murder, pregnancy of woman at time of marriage without knowledge of husband, habitual drunkenness. ”

“ A father's right to the custody of his own children being founded in law on the right of guardianship, this being taken away, they may of course be severed from him, and put by the authority of the court, into more orthodox hands. ”

“ That divorce may be obtained for the adultery of one of the parties, cruelty, grave abuses, condemnation to punishment affecting the liberty or person, notorious vices, incompatibility of temper, mutual consent.
That, during the suit for separation or for divorce, the guardianship of the children shall be given to the most deserving parent; and that, if both are alike unworthy, a guardian and inspecting guardian of different sexes shall be appointed. ”

“ Any representative citizen living in the community in which the fatherless family resides will accompany a family to court. He tells the judge the circumstances attending the bereavement of the family, and declares the widow is unable to support herself and children. ”

“ That the guardianship of the husband shall cease, and the married woman have an equal right of action in all legal matters, even against her husband; that she shall have the right to plead in courts of law and to carry on business independently. ”

“ Here the son is to have something, and therefore the wife of the testator was not to have all. He is to have the 'remainder;' the remainder at the decease of the wife: that would be, what she had not used or disposed of for her support, or her benefit. During her life, the wife was to have the use of the property; at her death he is to have that which might remain, after her full enjoyment of all the benefits of the bequest. ”

“ The hard-working father, husband of a drunken wife, comes 28 and tells of the hell in which he lives, and though the magistrate has no help to give, and tells him plainly that the law provides for him no remedy, and offers no hope of release, yet even he goes away strengthened in some degree to bear his heavy burden, for has he not been spoken to kindly by the magistrate? ”

“ A mother has rights of which no judicial decree can ever divest her, and one of those rights is the privilege of seeing her only child again. In this case my client has the law on her side, and she will appeal to it, too, if my demand meets with the same refusal as did her written request. ”

“ And a man may fight free of liability for homicide, if he finds another with his lawful wife, within closed doors, or under one covering, or with his lawfully born daughter, or with his lawfully born sister, or with his mother, who was given to his father as his lawful wife. If a man knows his foe is sitting at his home, he may not fight with him before he demands justice of him. ”

“ The obligation of the father where his paternity has been judicially established in his lifetime or has been acknowledged by him in writing or by the part performance of his obligations is enforceable against his estate in such an amount as the court may determine, having regard to the age of the child, the ability of the mother to support it, the amount of property left by the father, the number, age, and financial condition of the lawful issue, if any, and the rights of the widow, if any. ”

“ A widow was entitled for her life a dower of one-third of any land by her husband. 3. The husband can take possession of the wife's chattels and can alienate them during his life without her permission. He can sue for all debts due her without her permission. If he survives her, he is entitled to be administrator of her estate. She can make no will without his permission. 4. The husband can give away all his chattels, except for her necessary clothes and her jewelry and paraphernalia. 5. The husband is liable for debts incurred or wrongs committed by his wife even before their marriage. ”

“ She has to obey her father-in-law, and during the first days of her married life is not allowed to speak to her husband’s parents or any of the family who are older than herself until her father-in-law gives her permission. ”

“ When a husband or father has deserted his family, or is imprisoned, the wife or mother may prosecute or defend in his name any action which he might have prosecuted or defended, and shall have the same powers and rights therein as he might have had. ”

“ A father had a right to his child's services, and could sue a third party for abducting, enticing away, or injuring the child, just as he could for his servants. A husband was liable for the debts of his wife, even if incurred before the marriage. ”

“ The mother likewise is liable, together with the father during his lifetime, and solely after his death. The mother of illegitimate children is liable for their support. [9] In case of divorce, both parents may be required to maintain the children according to their means. [10] The obligation of support ceases if the children are able by their industry or from their own means to support themselves. [11] The duty is reciprocal. Children must maintain their parents, [12] and if they are minors or lunatic the Court may charge the cost of maintenance upon their estate. ”