WIFE - A woman who has a husband.
A wife, as such, possesses rights and is liable to
obligations. These will be considered. 1st. She may
make contracts for the purchase of real estate for
her own benefit, unless her husband expressly dissents.
And she is entitled to a legacy directly given to
her for her separate use. In some places, by statutory
provision, she may act as a feme sole trader, and
as such acquire personal property.
2d. She may in Pennsylvania, and in most other states,
convey her interest in her own or her husband's lands
by deed acknowledged in a form prescribed by law.
3d. She is under obligation to love, honor and obey
her husband and is bound to follow him wherever he
may desire to establish himself: (it is presumed not
out of the boundaries of the United States,) unless
the husband, by acts of injustice and such as are
contrary to his marital duties, renders her life or
happiness insecure.
4th. She is not liable for any obligations she enters
into to pay money on any contract she makes, while
she lives with her husband; she is presumed in such
case to act as the agent of her husband.
5th. The incapacities of femes covert, apply to their
civil rights, and are intended for their protection
and interest. Their political rights stand upon different
grounds, they can, therefore, acquire and lose a national
char-acter. These rights stand upon the general principles
of the law of nations.
6th. A wife, like all other persons, when she acts
with freedom, may be punished for her criminal acts.
But the law presumes, when she commits in his presence
a crime, not malum in se, as murder or treason, that
she acts by the command and coercion of her husband,
and, upon this ground, she is exempted from punishment.
But this is only a presumption of law, and if it appears,
upon the evidence, that she did not in fact commit
the act under compulsion, but was herself a principal
actor and inciter in it, she may be punished.
