Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1881-07-01
MIXED MARRIAGES.
Conflict of state ws--Necessity of
Uniformity.
New York Tribune.

New York Tribune.
1t is to be hoped that the supreme
court at Washington nnay soon reach
and decide the case understood to be
pending before it, involving the validi-
ty of marriage between persons who
| travel out of their state to be united.
Such marriages are recurring with in
creasing frequency; they are raising
questions of moarlity, good order,
legitimacy, inheritance. dover, and
bigamy, which cannot be stilled for
generation. Pacific coast papers
have much to say just now of
the case of Chinaman named
Lee Chm, living in Wyoming, who
courted white woman. She was fwill-
ing" but the statutes of Wyoming for
bid intefmarriages between whites and
Chinese Colorado. it seems, has no
such law. The loving couple therefore
went to Denver for the wedding cere-
mony, and then returned TO Wyoming
in rustful reliance on the maxim: A
marriage valid where made is valid
everywhere. But they have been in
dicted for miscegnation. This case will
be somewhat complicated by our rela-
tions with China; for the treaties con-
tain somewhat emphatic declarations
as to the civil rights " Of our Chinese
residents, which cannot be gainsaid by
territorial or even state laws. Accord
lngly the Chinese consul at Denver has
taken up the defense of his compatriot,
ard it is even stated that the Chinese
ambassador at Washington is to ad-
dress a remonstrance to the state de-
partnent.
Nc judicial decision can. however,
settle this question justly and con-
venintly while the states persist in
maintaining such discordant law SIS to
whatshall be valid marriage. If the
highest judicial authority shall say that
the lule, "a marriage valid where
made is valid everywhere" is absolute
and applies to all cases, no state will
have power to enforce her laws, how
ever, reasonable, against q rule or
practice established in another, how
everlax. Wyoming can break up an
amalsamated household if the mar
riage occurred in the territory, but not
one when the marriage was solemnized
in Denver, through the two families
may be living side by side under the
same circumstances. Even a Mormon
will lring his harrem to New York
IN the expectation of claiming
that his marriages were
valid where made" If the said
authority shall go to the other ex-
treme and say that every marriage
may be tested by the laws of the state
where the parties live, a couple re-
moving to a new state will hardly
know whether they are married or not.
Thousands welded in New York, or
wherever the common law rule that
actual consent is sufficient prevails.
and removing to state where fixed
ceremony is required, may find their
tie questioned; on wedding trip to
California, the bride may become mar
ried and unmarried half dozen times
without knowing it. If a midway
couse is taken, and marriages made
out Of the state are pronounced valid
if mtde in good faith, but void if there
was an intent to evade the law las
is sometimes said), then the most
delicate and far-reaching questions of
social status and property rights are
made to depend upon that most un-
certain and difficult of inquiries, the
question of intent; child may at any
time find his legitimacy disputed and
his Inheritance forfeited, because he
cannot gather proof of what his father
and mother mentally intended, years
before the childs birth, when he, per-
haps, tmveled to the State where she
was living, was married to her there,
and brought her home with him to
State MT permitting just such a marri-
age as they made.
Thele is no remedy for these diff
culties, except in some amendment Of
the Constitution or other far-reaching
measure which will establish reason
able uniformity among the marriage
laws OF the States.