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The two following are a specimen of the kind of articles to which I called the attention of the legislature through the columns of the public press.

The Rights of Children.

Every child has a right to a mother as well as a father. Neither should these rights be ignored by the laws of a Christian Government.

But as the law now is, the mother's legal right to the custody and control of the children, after "the tender age," is annihilated by the common law basis of marriage.

After "the tender age," this right of the mother is entirely subject to the will or wishes of the father. He may allow the mother the privilege of rearing her own children, or he may take from her this privilege and bestow it upon whom he pleases, regardless of her entreaties or protests to the contrary, and she is helpless in legal self-defense of this right of the child.

True, a court of chancery may award this right to the mother, if her claim to competency can be sustained; still the common law secures to the father the right to usurp this sacred right which God has given the mother to be the natural guardian of the child.

Supposing the reverse was true, and men had to be subject to such laws as these, which women had made for them.

Would they not cry out against the inhumanity of these laws of their woman government, so long as it allowed the father's right thus to be trampled into the dust by such unjust legislation?

But supposing the woman government should claim, in defense of these one-sided laws, that --

"It will not do to allow the father to have equal rights with the mother, lest our own rights be imperiled thereby.

"No, we must retain the full power to usurp the rights of the defenseless father, for there is no way under the laws of our woman government to protect the rights of the weak against the usurpations of the strong, except to grant the full power of usurpation and protection to the strong party alone!

"Yes, we will not only retain the law-making power as our own exclusive right, but we will also compel you to be subject to these laws of our one-sided legislation. This is our way of protecting the rights of men, for all our rights are forever gone just as soon as our right to usurp the rights of men is limited!"

"Oh! man's inhumanity to woman in such kind of legislation "makes countless millions mourn!"

Yes, under our man government it is the unmarried woman alone who has any legal right to rear her own offspring, while the father is required to provide for it.

Illegitimate children are allowed a legal right to a mother's training and guardianship, while the legitimate offspring of the married woman have no legal right to the care and training of their own mothers!

Now we claim that the law should protect the rights of the married woman's children to a mother's care, equally at least with those of the single woman.

But it does not do so.

Therefore this Christian government thus offers a premium on infidelity, and encourages divorce or separation, as this is now the only way a married woman can get the legal custody of her own children. Woman must either have her children in a single state, or be divorced from the marriage relation in order to be possessed of the legal right to the custody or control of her children!

We do not want that the father's right to the control and. custody of the children should be extirpated; we only want the mother's right to be established on the same basis.

The child has a right to a father, and therefore it is eminently proper that the law should establish and protect this right. And so also has the child a right to a mother, and, therefore, we claim that it is equally proper that this right also should be established and protected by law.

It is earnestly hoped that the Twenty-six General Assembly of Illinois will be magnanimous enough to boldly face these disgraceful facts, and dare to be the pioneer State in this Union in establishing and protecting the right of the children of this republic to the guardianship and training of the married mother, as well as the father, by passing the "bill for an act to equalize the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife."

In behalf of the children of Illinois,
Chicago, February 2d. 1869 A MOTHER.

The Mother's Legal Rights.

There is a bill before the Illinois Legislature calling for the legal recognition of the maternal rights of married women.

The provisions of the bill grant to the mother the same legal protection in law, which the enlightened public sentiment of the present age grants her in her social position in society.

We would most cheerfully admit that married woman's social position under the American flag is the best in the world, and if her legal position could but be made to correspond with it, ours would be the model government for woman.

By this bill the mother becomes legally a joint partner with the father, as the guardian of her children, and is equally entitled with him to the custody, control and earnings of the children, as long as they shall continue to be husband and wife. But in case of separation the children must be disposed of as the present statute law directs, in case of divorce, at the discretion of the judges before whom each party makes their claim.