Examining some old papers, the other day, I found an extract from an argument of the late Hon. A. D. Smith,1 a Judge of the Sup. Ct. of Wisconsin, delivered by him when practising before that Court about twenty years ago, in a case of alleged rape, followed by conception; maintaining that the fact of conception was conclusive evidence of consent on the part of the prosecutrix. This argument was syr.00002.002_large.jpg quite famous in Wisconsin at the time, and the extract may possibly interest you. Here it is:
"Conception, may it please Your Honors, is no reluctant throe of nature. Its production costs no pang, save when pleasure, from excess, is turning to pain; but it follows an embrace in which the heart, the lip, the entire humanity must participate; an embrace in which the mental, moral, & physical powers and susceptibilities are wrought to such an intensity of orgasm, mutual & reciprocal, that Nature crowns her beatitude with the production syr.00002.003_large.jpg & endowment of a new identity. And wisely has she ordained that every faculty of mind or body which might thwart or counteract her purpose, should for the moment be wrapt in a bewilderment of bliss."
This is, in its way, I think a very fine thing; and the intimate friends of the author more than suspect that he had been there and knew.
Truly Yours Matt H. Carpenter syr.00002.004_large.jpgCorrespondent:
Matthew Hale Carpenter (1824–1881), a Republican
from Wisconsin, served as a United States Senator from 1869–1875 and again
from 1879–1881. Carpenter died before he could complete his second term. Prior to
his election to the Senate, Carpenter served as a lawyer and district attorney in
numerous Wisconsin cities.