Executive Order 647

Under authority vested in me by law it is ordered:

1. All marriages heretofore celebrated in the Canal Zone, by a minister of any religious society or denomination authorized by the forms and usages of his society or denomination to perform marriages, or by any judicial officer of the Canal Zone, shall be valid, anything contained in the laws of the Republic of Panama heretofore extended to the Canal Zone to the contrary notwithstanding.
   
   
2. Any judicial officer of the Canal Zone or minister of any religious society or denomination in good standing shall be authorized to celebrate marriages within the Canal Zone; provided that the contracting parties shall first have procured a marriage license of the circuit clerk of the circuit in which the marriage is to be performed. But no such license shall be issued unless the clerk is satisfied from the oaths of the parties and by other available evidence that the man to be married is not less than seventeen and the woman not less than fourteen years of age, and that no legal impediment to the marriage is known to exist.
   
   
3. The judicial officer or minister performing the marriage ceremony shall certify that fact upon and return the marriage license to the circuit clerk issuing the same, for registration. The circuit clerk shall be entitled to collect a fee of two dollars, gold, for issuing and recording the return of each marriage certificate.
   
   
4. Any judicial officer or minister within the Canal Zone violating the provisions of this order shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Effective June 1, 1907.

Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House, May 31, 1907.