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To: muawiyah

Looks like you exaggerate a little. I think a half dozen wives would be unusual.

George Washington had only one wife, though no children. Martha had 4 children by her first husband. She outlived both her husbands. Thomas Jefferson only had one wife, though he may have had other relationships. John and Abigail Adams had 6 born children (a seventh was stillborn). John didn’t remarry, though Abigail died first; looks like he was about 53 when she died.

The Lincolns had four children. Ulysses S. Grant had four children. His wife outlived him. When Andrew Jackson’s wife died, he did not remarry. They had no natural children.

But. the issue is not how many spouses someone has, but the tendency to dump a spouse and find a new one through boredom, or another reason besides death.

If someone assaults his/her spouse, or is unfaithful, that should be grounds for divorce. But now we have “no fault divorce” and “irreconciable differences.”

If Republicans want to restore morality, there should be less divorce among their members and no adultery or homosexual acts.


52 posted on 05/17/2008 8:55:12 PM PDT by FFranco
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To: FFranco
Half a dozen wives was not at all unusual ~ particularly in rural areas where death in childbirth was exceedingly common.

Urban populations had other problems ~ there, traditionally, adults could survive well but the children would die. It was common for wealthy urbanites to send their children to the country to grow up.

Industrialization, water purification systems, and modern medicine helped reverse the situation. Today the rural poor die while the cities are far healthier for everyone.

The error in your response to my post is that you selected mostly urban, or substantially urban residents. For their periods of time they were not typical of the bulk of the population that lived in a rural environment and suffered rural illnesses.

67 posted on 05/18/2008 2:38:48 PM PDT by muawiyah
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