you will see that the bill never went to a
committee of the whole in that body, but was sent directly to a
select committee to report complete. It was the power of the
Speaker that in this summary manner overrode the usual
legislative forms. The only reason Mr. Hadley gave me for his
zeal in this matter, was that it was a good bill and ought to
pass.

I believe this law originated with Judge Fine, without any
outside prompting. On the third day of the session he gave notice
of his intention to introduce it, and only one petition was
presented in favor of the bill, and that came from Syracuse, and
was due to the action of my personal friends--I presented it
nearly two months after the bill had been introduced to the
Senate.

The reception of the bill by the Senate showed unlooked-for
support as well as opposition. The measure was so radical, so
extreme, that even its friends had doubts; but the moment any
important amendment was offered, up rose the whole question of
woman's proper place in society, in the family, and everywhere.
We all felt that the laws regulating married women's, as well as
married men's rights, demanded careful revision and adaptation to
our times and to our civilization. But no such revision could be
perfected then, nor has it been since. We meant to strike a hard
blow, and if possible shake the old system of laws to their
foundations, and leave it to other times and wiser councils to
perfect a new system.

We had in the Senate a man of matured years, who had never had a
wife. He was a lawyer well-read in the old books, and versed in
the adjudications which had determined that husband and wife were
but one person, and the husband that person; and he expressed
great fears in regard to meddling with this well-settled
condition of domestic happiness. This champion of the past made
long and very able arguments to show the ruin this law must work,
but he voted for the bill in the final decision.

The bill hung along in Committee of the Whole until March 21st,
when its great opponent being absent, I moved its reference to a
select Committee, with power to report it complete; that is,
matured ready for its passage. So the bill was out of the arena
of debate, and on my motion was ordered to its third reading.