A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3Howard, George Elliott
History
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3
Howard, George Elliott
Families; Marriage -- History
By act of Congress,[253] certain general laws of Arkansas, including
those of divorce, are extended to the Indian Territory; so the
causes just enumerated are there in force.[254] Limited divorce does
not exist in Oklahoma; but in that territory the district court
may grant full dissolution of wedlock (1) when either person had
a spouse living at the time of the marriage; (2) for abandonment
during one year; (3) for adultery; (4) for impotency; (5) "when the
wife at the time of the marriage was pregnant by another than her
husband;" (6) for extreme cruelty; (7) for fraudulent contract; (8)
for habitual drunkenness; (9) for gross neglect of duty; (10) for
conviction and imprisonment in the penitentiary for a felony after
marriage.[255]
[253] Act of May 2, 1890: _U. S. Stat. at Large_, XXVI, chap.
182, p. 81.
[254] _Ann. Stat. of Ind. Ter._ (1899), 324.
[255] WILSON, _Stat. of Okla._ (1903), II, 1119.
"Arizona, from 1871-77, in addition to six ample reasons for
divorce, had an 'omnibus clause' in operation which is a marvelous
piece of legislation." "Whereas," we are told, "in the developments
of future events, cases may be presented before the courts falling
substantially within the limits of the law, as hereinbefore stated,
yet not within its terms, it is enacted, that whenever the judge
who hears a cause for divorce deems the case to be within the reason
of the law, within the general mischief the law is intended to
remedy, or within what it may be presumed would have been provided
against, by the legislature establishing the foregoing causes of
divorce had it foreseen the specific case and found language to meet
it without including cases not within the same reason, he shall
grant the divorce." Well was this called, continues Richberg, "the
'seventh wonder' of Arizona's divorce code."[256]
[256] RICHBERG, "Incongruity of the Divorce Laws in the United
States," _Publications of Mich. Pol. Sc. Association_, No. 4, p.
58.
For this act of Feb. 16, 1871, see _Comp. Laws of the Ter. of
Ariz., 1864-71_ (1871), 303, 304. The other six causes referred
to in the text are (1) impotency; (2) marriage of a female under
fourteen without parental consent and not ratified by her after
reaching that age; (3) adultery in either without collusion
or subsequent voluntary cohabiting; (4) extreme cruelty, or
habitual intemperance, wilful desertion for one year, or neglect
to provide for the wife; (5) force or fraud; (6) conviction of
either of felony after marriage. For the earlier law see the
_Howell Code_, 232 ff.; and the amendments of 1865, in _Comp.
Laws_ (1871), 297-303.
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