THE DIVORCE LAW.
Mr. Steele, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, returned. Mr. Orr's bill [S. 117] regulating the granting of divorces, with a recommendation that it be indefinitely postponed.
Mr. Orr explained that the bill requires a three years' residence before a divorce shall be granted, and not then even except for causes named in God's Word. He desired to wipe out the reproach now resting upon, the State because of our loose divorce laws, and moved to amend the report by requiring that the bill shall lay on the table for the present.
Mr. Daggy, being liberal in his views on the question of divorce, favored the general clause in the present law, which leaves much to the discretion of the court. A man and woman when tied together, not as man and wife, but as two distinct persons in constant conflict, all moral and social good requires that they should be separated, and forever, he opposed the motion to lay this bill on the table, and argued in favor of its indefinite postponement. Before he had concluded -
Mr. Gregg called up the special order for this hour, being his bill [S. 4] for the assessment and collection of taxes for municipal purposes, on shares of banks or banking associations in this State - an exact copy of the bill [H. R. 6] of the Forty-seventh General Assembly which passed the House at that session - the question being on the minority report from the Committee on Banks and Banking, in opposition to the majority report, which recommends a substitute taxing the shares where the owner resides and not where the bank is located.
Mr. Gregg argued in favor of the passage of his bill, which he regarded as correct in theory and perfect in all its provisions.
Mr. Brown was not very much in favor of the provisions embodied in the bill recommended by the minority of the Committee on Banks, neither did he believe the right to tax the stocks of national banks for city purposes was clear. And he was not in favor of the idea of taxing men who live out in the country and own a few shares of bank stock for the purpose of helping to keep up a city government, and for this reason he preferred to support the substitute bill the majority of the committee had proposed, if he supports any. In conclusion he moved that this bill be referred to the Judiciary Committee, with instructions to inquire whether any further legislation on this subject is required.
Mr. Dwiggins favored the substitute bill because the law of last session provides that bank stock shall be taxed for municipal purposes at the place where the bank is located; while he insisted the tax should be levied and paid where the stockholder resides, and that there is no rule of right that would tax it in any other way.
Mr. Winterbotham believing the bill to be in clear violation of the law of Congress on the subject, should vote for the motion to refer to the Committee on the Judiciary. Recess.
