Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/113

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move into Delaware as if they had been married in Delaware. Mississippi, also, punishes parties attempting to evade its laws by marrying out of the State and returning to Mississippi, to the same extent as if they had attempted to intermarry in Mississippi. The Georgia statute, which is typical, is as follows: "All marriages solemnized in another State by parties intending at the time to reside in this State shall have the same legal consequences and effect as if solemnized in this State. Parties residing in this State cannot evade any of the provisions of its laws as to marriage by going into another State for the solemnization of the ceremony." Statutes to the same effect are in force in Arizona, Virginia, West Virginia, and possibly other States. In the absence of statute, the point is covered with the same result by judicial decision. In the Tennessee case, to which reference has already been made, the court said: "Each State is sovereign, a government within, of, and for itself, with the inherent and reserved right to declare and maintain its own political economy for the good of its citizens, and cannot be subjected to the recognition of a fact or act contravening its public policy and against good morals, as lawful, because it was made or existed in a State having no prohibition against it or even promoting it."

In 1878, a Negro man and a white woman went over from Virginia[56] into the District of Columbia, were married, and returned to Virginia, where they were prosecuted. The Virginia court held that, although the forms and ceremonies of marriage are governed by the laws of the place where marriage is celebrated, the essentials of the contract depend upon and are governed by the laws of the