Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-05-06

the state of Maine can exercise no iurisdic-
ton, would cut but sorry figure should
he attempt to obey her behest. To act in
virtue of this Maine enactment would rem
der the marriage void if such thing were
possible. This is but one of the many alb
surdities incident to an attempt to bring
the laws of a state in conflict with those of
the nation. So the legislature of Massa-
ohusetts says:
Inhabitants of this state going out of
the state to marry in order to evade the
law, such marriage is void" AS well might
she say that goods purchased by citizen
of Massachusetts, beyond its borders, shall
be confscated.
1.-The law of France recognizes no marriage
except that performed before the civil authority,
and severe penalties would be incurred by any
Clergyman or other person, French or foreign,
who ventured to perform a marriage ceremony
between persons who had not been previously
married according to French law.
AS this proposition is correctly stated,
some may wish to know how or why the
state of Maine would create or main
tain burgomaster or magistrate
at the Tueileries, and clothe him
with authority to legalize marriages?
Unless the laws of France have been recent
ly changed upon this subject, and there
seems to be no prospect of such change,
no American can meet their requirements
in this behalf. The legation or consulate
being his only refuge.
"Under these circumstances it seems needless,
If not unwise, for American citizens wishing to
marry in France, and the the validity of whose
marriage at home will depend wholly upon their
observance of French legal requirements to add
to the marriage required by lava further cere-
iTT1rTn AInh has A.
United States. more satisfactory prodecure
would be for such marriages to be performed
here according to American customs by the
American consul, as is done with most other
nations, but this is forbidden by United States
statute for the reason that the United States as
nation do not possess the power of legalizing
marriage, this being among powers reserved bv
the states individually, and a consul, as an Off
Ger of the nation, cannot of course be allowed to
assume more power than the nation possesses"
The value of the above caution" and
extracts may be determined BY the perus-
al of the following:
LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.
marriages in presence of any consular
officer of the United States in q foreign
country, between persons who would be
authorized toe marry if residing in the
District of Columbia, shall be valid to all
intents and purposes, and shall have the
same effect as if solemnized within the
United States, and such consular
officers shall, in all cases, give the parties
married before them a certificate of such
marriage, and shall send another certif-
cate thereof to the department of the
state, there to be kept; such certificates
shall specify the names of the parties,
their ages, place of birth and residence"
u. s. statutes vol. II, page 10; also U. S..
Rev. stat. sec. 4082.)
The writer of these extracts was evident
iy misled by unreliable statements while
anxiously seeking the truth. After quasi
recast of his horoscope, he says;
81 am now gratifed to learn that those who
were married in the past under what may be
described as the good old rule, if not exactly as
the simple plan, beneath the stars ard stripes,
and If not on their native heath at least on their
country's carpet, are still man and wife, both
! in the eyes of the French law and of the law of
the United States.'
$50 fly the shadows and the stars
Before the rising dawn.'
THB FORM OF MARRIAGE.
mo peculiar ceremonies are requisite by
the common law to the valid celebration of
marriage. The consent of parties is all
that is required; rs the marriage
is said TO be contract jure gentium, that
consent is all that is required by natural
or public law. The Roman lawyers
strongly inculcated the doctrine, that the
very foundation and essence of the con-
tract consisted in consent, freely given, by
parties competent 20 contract. This is
the language equally of the common and
canon law, and 81 common sense. See
Kent, Grotifes and Braoton.
TIE COMMON LAW
lis the common Jurisprudence of the
United States, and was brought with them
as 1olonists from England and established
here so far as it was adapted to our ipsti-
tutions and circumstances. 1t was claimed
by the congress of the united colonies in
IVA, as a branch of those 'indubitable
rights and liberties to which the several
colonies are entitled Ii fills up every
interstice and occupies every wide space
which the statute law cannot occupy. Its
principles may be compared to the inhu-
ence of the liberal arts and sciences.
4 y X To use the words of the learned
tourist to which l have already alluded,
1--WE live in the midst of the common law,
we inhale it, at every BREATH imbibe it at
every pore; We meet with it when we wake
aud when we lay down to sleep, when we
travel and when we stay at home; and it
is interviewer with the very idiom that we
speak; and we cannot learn another sys-
TEN of laws without learning, at the same
time, another language" Kent, vol 1.
page 343.
have inserted the above short yet emil
nently wise and learned extracts from the
ablest writers known to US, upon the form
of marriage and the laws incident thereto,
together with a short yet comprehensive
declaration of the principles of the COM
mon law as applicable thereto, believing
them entitled to more careful considera-
ton than they seem thus far to have re-
ceived at the hands of our people. We
are informed that in early time there ap-
peared governor in Egypt "who knew
not Joseph"
1t is fortunate that the nation may
not be held responsible for the many vag-
aries which stand out upon the statute
books of the several states and territories,
touching the subject of marriage. The pc
culiar legal and moral stamp with which
these statutes seem impressed, remind US
of the recent radical enactments on the |
subject of temperance and prohibition |
with which sober men and good citizens |