All which is good and commendable, now existing, would continue to exist if all marriage laws were repealed to-morrow... I have an inalienable, constitutional, and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please...
A Speech on the Great Social Problem of Labor & Capital Delivered at Cooper Institute, New York City... May 8, 1871, Before the Labor Reform League (1872 edition)