Page 88 - The Circle of Life

this often to my American Patriot and in my other books that I have yet to read

more honourable accounts of warfare and men in my life. I am serious when I
say this and keep in mind I am not an American with patriotic notions on Union
Generals. Moreover my American Patriot is a Southern Lady by birth.

* Yeah, but she has no strange accent either which is great for I fail to

understand the Southern accent completely much to her delight and their
unprejudiced disgust. Well, mine reminds them of Germans (true, sort of,

Afrikaans English accents is rather guttural) which I am not sure is always meant
in a nice way.

I read many hundreds of military history books in my life and never did I find

that much honour as in those Civil War Generals. They were young men too in
case your history teacher failed to inform you. Generals Sherman and Grant

were in their early forties when they became famous. Generals Schofield,
(Stonewall) Jackson and JEB Stuart in their thirties which makes their actions so

much more remarkable in my view! They deserved our respect for they were
men amongst men and we can learn a lot from the past. I often say I would

rather be a history professor than a legal one (not that I claim to be either). Law
is boring as a subject for sane people as you know.

From the old case law it is obvious that this rule, non-existent as it was then and
now, caused many men to beat their wives and end up in court futilely pleading

the rule of thumb as an excuse (legal defense). Way back in 1641 the

Massachusetts Bay colonists stated "Every married woman shall be free from
bodily correction or stripes by her husband, unless it be in his own defense from
her assault.” Fair enough I am sure you will agree. Man has the right to self-

defence. This does not mean that an unmarried woman who is not a slave may

be beaten now for the obvious reason that if she is not married the man cannot
be her husband with marital rights based on a non-existent legal myth.

The same is true in North Carolina (1874) where the Judges said "We assume
that the old doctrine that a husband had the right to whip his wife, provided that

he used a switch no larger than his thumb, is not the law in North Carolina."

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