The uncle disapproved of the
conduct of his nephew, and failing to control it by honorable means,
resorted to the circulation of the vilest slanders against mother and
daughters. He was a man of wealth and influence. They were almost
unknown. The mother had but recently come to the village, her object
having been to secure to her daughters the educational advantages which
the academy afforded. Poverty, as well as perhaps an excusable if not
laudable pride, compelled her to live in obscurity, and consequently the
assault upon their characters fell upon her and her daughters with
crushing force. Her employment mainly ceased, her daughters were of
necessity withdrawn from school, and all were deprived of the means,
from their own exertions, of sustaining life. Had they been in fact the
harlots which the miserly scoundrel represented them to be, they would
not have been so utterly powerless to resist his assault. The mother in
her despair naturally sought legal redress. But how was it to be
obtained? By the law the wife's rights were merged in those of the
husband. She had in law no individual existence, and consequently no
action could be brought by her to redress the grievous wrong; indeed
_according to the law she had suffered no wrong_, but the husband had
suffered all, and was entitled to all the redress.
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