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herein before prescribed, or a copy thereof duly certified under the hand of the clerk and the seal of the court, shall be received in all courts and places within this District as presumptive evidence of the fact of such marriage.

SEC. 18. Any person knowingly uniting in marriage, parties within the degrees of relation herein prohibited; or any minor, without the consent of his parent or guardian, given as hereinbefore provided; or any person insane, or under the age of fourteen years, or any white person with a negro, shall be fined the sum of five hundred dollars.

SEC. 19. Any person uniting in marriage, parties who have not obtained a license from the clerk, as directed in this chapter, or a slave without the consent of his master, given as herein before provided, shall be fined the sum of one hundred dollars. The clerk shall be subject to a like fine for issuing a license contrary to the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 20. Any minister or other person solemnizing a marriage under the provisions of this chapter, who shall fail to return in proper form to the clerk, in the first week of January or July of every year, the certificates of marriage as required of him by this chapter, shall be fined the sum of two hundred dollars.

SEC. 21. Any person contracting marriage within the degrees of relation herein before prohibited, shall be fined the sum of five hundred dollars; and for contracting the same without a license first obtained from the clerk, or before a person not authorized by this chapter to solemnize a marriage, the sum of one hundred dollars.

SEC. 22. When any white person and a negro shall intermarry, each party shall suffer such punishment as is provided in Part IV of this Code.

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SECTION 1. The circuit court for this District shall have jurisdiction of all applications for divorces, to be made by petition, upon which the same proceedings shall be had as are had in other cases, except so far as is otherwise provided in this chapter.

SEC. 2. The petition for a divorce shall specify the causes therefor with certainty, and upon the same being filed, the clerk shall issue summons for the defendant to appear and answer. If it shall appear by the affidavit of a disinterested witness, that the defendant is a non-resident of this District, or has been absent therefrom for the space of six months, the circuit court after the return of one summons not found, may authorize notice of the pendency of the petition to be given by publication, in such manner as it shall direct. The cour shall proceed to hear and determine such cause whenever such sum mons shall have been served twenty days, or such publication made forty days, before the commencement of the term. No judgment for a divorce shall be rendered on default without proof; nor shall any admissions contained in the answer of the defendant be taken as proof of the facts charged as the ground of the application, but the same shall in all cases be proved by other evidence.

SEC. 3. A divorce a vinculo matrimonii-from the bond of matrimony-may be granted for any of the following causes, to wit:

First. For any cause, which, by the laws of this District, renders a marriage null and void, ab initio ; and, also, when it is voidable, as before provided, by a person marrying above the age of twelve years and under fourteen.

Secondly. The impotence of either party at the time of the marriage. Thirdly. For the adultery of either party during the marriage.

Fourthly. When either party is sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for the term of life or seven years or more, when no pardon granted to the party so sentenced shall, after a divorce for that cause, restore such party to his or her conjugal rights.

Fifthly. When the female, before marriage, has been guilty of illicit carnal intercourse with a man, the same being unknown to the husband at the time of the marriage.

Sixthly. The abandonment by the party complained against of the other party for the uninterrupted period of three years, when the court shall be satisfied that such abandonment is deliberate, final, and unattended by any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.

SEC. 4. A divorce a mensa et thoro-or from bed and board-or, in the discretion of the court, a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, may be granted for either of the following causes, to wit:

First. Cruelty of treatment.

Secondly. Reasonable apprehension of bodily harm.
Thirdly. Abandonment and desertion.

SEC. 5. No divorce shall be granted for any cause which shall have occurred out of this District, unless the party applying for the same shall have resided within the District for two years next preceding the application.

SEC. 6. When a petition asks for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, the fact that the parties have been divorced a mensa et thoro, shall not be taken to interfere with the jurisdiction of the court over the subject.

SEC. 7. Upon a petition filed asking for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, the court may decree a divorce a mensa et thoro, if the cause proved be sufficient to entitle the party to the same.

SEC. 8. When the validity of any marriage shall be denied or doubted by either party, the other may file a petition in manner aforesaid for affirming the marriage, and upon due proof of the validity thereof, the court shall have power to affirm and declare valid such marriage, and its judgment thereon shall be conclusive upon all persons concerned.

SEC. 9. Upon the dissolution by divorce of any marriage that is prohibited on account of consanguinity or affinity of the parties, or of any marriage between a white person and a negro, the issue of such marriage shall be deemed to be illegitimate.

SEC. 10. Upon the dissolution of a marriage on account of either of the parties having a former wife or husband living, if it shall appear that the second marriage was contracted in good faith by the unmarried party, and with the full belief on his or her part that the former wife or husband was dead, that fact shall be stated in the judgment or sentence of divorce, and the issue of such second marriage, born or begotten before the commencement of the suit, shall be deemed to be the legitimate issue of the parent who, at the time of marriage, was capable of contracting.

SEC. 11. Upon the dissolution of a marriage on account of the nonage, insanity, or idiocy of either party, the issue of the marriage shall be deemed to be the legitimate issue of the parent who, at the time. of the marriage, was capable of contracting.

SEC. 12. A divorce for other causes than those herein before specially provided for, shall not affect the legitimacy of the issue of the marriage; but the legitimacy of such issue, if questioned, shall be tried and determined according to the course of the common law.

SEC. 13. In all cases where a divorce is granted, the court allowing the same shall have power to award alimony to the wife, and to award to the wife such property as she had when she was married, or such part thereof as the court may deem reasonable, or the value thereof, having a regard to the circumstances of the husband at the time of the divorce. The court may also, in granting a divorce, restore to the wife her maiden or other previous name.

SEC. 14. The court shall also have power to order and direct who shall have the guardianship and custody of the children, and be charged with their maintenance.

SEC. 15. In granting a divorce for adultery, the court may restrain by its judgment the guilty party from marrying again; in which case the bond of matrimony shall be deemed not to be dissolved as to any future marriage of such party, or in any prosecution on account thereof.

SEC. 16. The circuit court may also award alimony to the wife for her sustenance during the pendency of a petition for a divorce filed for any of the causes aforesaid.

SECTION

CHAPTER 70.

GENERAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING HUSBAND AND WIFE.

1. When wife is abandoned by her husband,
circuit court may authorize her to sell
her property.

2. Also to demand her personal property.
3. She may dispose of the proceeds of such
sales and of such property, as if she
were unmarried.

4. She may be authorized to contract and
&c.

sue,

5. And to execute all necessary deeds, &c.
6. The appearance and answer of husband
in such proceedings; how obtained.
7. Such powers to continue during the ab-
sence of the husband.

8. Her contracts so made shall bind her hus-
band, and in his absence she may be
sued thereon.

9. Her general liability to be sued. 10. Suit not to abate on husband's return. 11. If husband does not become a party, judgment may be enforced against him. 12. Wife of a party sentenced to penitentiary, may be authorized to sell, &c. &c.

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SECTION 1. When any husband shall absent himself from the District, abandoning his wife and not making sufficient provision for her maintenance, if the wife is of the age of twenty-one years the circuit court may, on petition filed, and proceedings being had to establish such facts, authorize her to sell and convey her real estate, or any part thereof, and also any personal estate which shall at any time have come to the husband by reason of the marriage, and which may remain within the District undisposed of by him.

SEC. 2. The court may also, under like circumstances, authorize any person holding money or other personal estate to which the husband is entitled in her right, to pay and deliver the same to the wife, and may authorize her to give a discharge for the same, which discharge shall be as valid as if given by the husband.

SEC. 3. All the proceeds of such sales, and all other personal estate, which shall come to the hands of the wife by force of this chapter,

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