"Between the system of presumed paternity, which is the system of the law, and the system of maternity, bearing its proof within itself, which is the system of Nature; the latter is in conformity with incontestable truth, the former is condemned by undisputed statistics. The system of paternity is inequality of children before the mother and before the law; it is woman possessed and not possessing; ... it is no longer the legal slavery of woman, but is still conjugal servitude."—Liberty in Marriage.
"Without equality of children before the mother, equality of citizens before the law is only an imposture, for evidently and incontestably, this equality does not exist for 2,800,000 children, who, arbitrarily entitled illegitimate, are placed outside of common right in violation of natural law."—Id.
According to De Girardin, the logical consequences of the system of maternity would be:
The abolition of civil marriage;
The mother's name alone given to the child;
The inheritance placed solely in the maternal line.
"Marriage," says he, "is a purely individual act, and, as regards its celebration, a purely religious act.—
"Marriage is an act of faith, not of law: it is for faith to govern it, not for law to make rules for it.
"As soon as the law intervenes, it intervenes without right, without necessity, without utility.
"For one abuse that it pretends to avert, it gives rise to innumerable others which are worse, and from which society afterwards suffers seriously, without taking into account the cause that produced them.