MARRIAGE We regard Marriage as an institution sacred and divine in its ends, but too often degraded by the sensuality and tyranny of man, and the dependent position of woman. We renounce the idea, hitherto asserted by Church and State, that man is born to command, and woman to obey. We hold to the absolute equality of the sexes, as to rights and duties, and condemn all laws and usages which deny this. We claim for woman the right of free speech, of suffrage, and of just compensation for labor. Especially do we claim for her the supreme control of her own person, and utterly deny the right of any husband to force upon his wife the sacred duties of maternity against her will.
(Liberator, June 17, 1859, pg 4)
