18SC.1 <-)OJ [Rothrock. 



the constitution, which protected and guaranteed equal rights to 

 all men. 



On April 6th and 7th, 1855, Mr. Price spoke in the Senate on 

 the bill to restrain the sale of intoxicating liquors. It is to be 

 observed that those who had so recently upbraided him for his 

 supposed want of zeal in the temperance cause, were now 

 humbled and disheartened by their failure to induce extreme 

 legislation. Mr. Price ought to have more than redeemed him- 

 self in their eyes by his generous forgiveness of the past and by 

 his earnest efforts to ensure the passage of a bill which would be 

 constitutional and efficient. 



Aside from the great interests which he was chosen to repre- 

 sent, Mr. Price was also active in other directions in the Senate. 

 "He drafted and had passed the Act of 1855, relating to charita- 

 ble corporations" (P. L. 328); "and also the Act of April 

 27th, 1855, barring estates tail" (P. L. 368). 



His S3 r mpathies were alwaj^s in the direction of humanity. 

 No one can point to an act of his which tended to increase the 

 burden of any honest toiler. The legislative Act of May 4th, 

 1855, "relating to certain duties and rights of husband and 

 wife, and parents and children," was one which brought relief to 

 manj- an aching heart. It " enabled the wife to become afemme 

 sole trader; to own her own earnings and dispose of her property 

 while living, and when dying, without his interference; and, if 

 she died intestate, it enabled her next of kin to take it. If by 

 drunkenness, profligacy, or other cause, he shall neglect or re- 

 fuse to provide for his child or children, the mother shall have 

 all the rights of the father and perform his duties; may place 

 the children at employment and receive their earnings, or bind 

 them to apprenticeship, without the interference of such a hus- 

 band, in the same manner as the father now can do by law; but 

 if the mother also be of unsuitable character, the court is to ap- 

 point a guardian of such children with like powers. A husband 

 guilty of such conduct for a year preceding his wife's death for- 



