River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-06-30
MIXED MARRIAGES.
Conflict of state Laws Necessity OF
Uniformity.
New York Tribune.

1t is to be hoped that the supreme
court at Washington may 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 a
generation. Pacific coast papers
have much to say just now of
the case of a Chinaman named
Lee Chin, living in Wyoming, who
courted white woman. She was will
! ing" but the statutes of Wyoming for
bid intermarriages 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 trustful 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-
tons 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
ingly the Chinese consul at Denver has
taken up the defense of his compatriot,
| and it is even stated that the Chinese
ambassador at Washington is to adj
| dress remonstrance to the state de-
partment.
No judicial decision can. however,
settle this question justly and con-
veniently while the states persist IN
maintaining such discordant law as to
what shall be valid marriage. If the
highest judicial authority shall say that
the rule, "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 a rule or
ever lax. Wyoming can break up an
amalgamated 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 bring 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, couple re-
moving to a new state will hardly
know whether they are married or not
Thousands welded in New York, OF
wherever the common law rule that
actual consent is suffiC ent prevails
and removing to a state where tixec
ceremony is required, may find then
tie questioned; on a wedding trip t(
California, the bride may become mar
ried and unmarried half dozen times
without knowing it. If midway
course is taken, and marriages made
out of the state are pronounced valiC
if made in good faith, but void if there
was an intent to evade the law la
.. is sometimes said), then the mos
delicate and far-reaching questions o
,, social status and property rights are
made to depend upon that most un
certain and difficult of inquiries, th
question of intent; a child may at an.
time find his legitimacy disputed AM
his Inheritance forfeited, because h
; cannot gather proof of what his fathe
and mother mentally intended, year
before the child's birth, when he, pei
,, haps, travelled to the State where sh
! was living, was married to her there
, and brought her home with him to
! State not permitting just such a MARI
E age as they made.
| There is no remedy for these diff
culties, except in some amendment {
the Constitution or other far-reachin
measure which will establish reason
able uniformity among the marriag
laws of the States.