20
less upon the world, and a multitude of unoffending children bastardized. Nor are the fanatical men and silly women, who generate the force which manifests itself through such statutes and such decisions, content with what they have obtained; and Congress is flooded with petitions praying for such further legislation and more extreme measures, as that the representatives of the great national sin and last relic of barbarism shall have no resting place but in houses of correction, and thus the plague spot be removed from the land. This consequence was before the court when it rendered its decision. The court could not otherwise than have been aware of the legal effects of the decree it pronounced. For all the untold and indescribable misery that has resulted and that may result from past and future legislation upon the subject, it is responsible, Placed where it is, to interpose a firm and inflexible impediment to tides of popular passion and floods of sectarian and sentimental fanaticism, it has given way at the very time and the very spot when and where it should have been most steadfast and resolute; and has, thereby, not only missed a supreme opportunity, but has placed upon record an enduring testimonial of its inadequacy to the obligations of the trust it holds and the seat it occupies.
In one sense, at least, the marriage bond includes a sacred obligation. It is an alliance, the status quo ante of which cannot be restored by its annulment. This may be of little moment to the male, but it is of incalculable importance to the female party. She is made homeless. She is an outcast in the eye of the law which has made her a criminal; and in the estimate of society, is depreciated. If there can be a duty resting upon a court of justice more sacred than another, it is the duty to interpose and guard the helpless against the machinations of the malignant.
It may be said that courts, in laying down the law, are not bound to consider the consequences of their decisions. This may, in a sense, be true; but it is true also that courts, in determining how justice should be administered, will, if they do their duty, consider the consequences of a decision one way or another, as a means of finding out what is just. It is proof of the wrongfulness of a judgment when its effect is to inflict a great and manifold general injury. The fact that a rule works oppression is proof that it is wrong; proof that on element has been omitted from the analysis, by which the result is depraved. The court
