"I. The scope of the authority which government possesses over the contract of marriage and its dissolution is the basis upon which it is argued that the domicile within one state of one party to the marriage gives to such a state jurisdiction to decree a dissolution of the marriage tie which will be obligatory in all the other states by force of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. But the deduction is destructive of the premises upon which it rests. This becomes clear when it is perceived that if one government, because of its authority over its own citizens, has the right to dissolve the marriage tie as to the citizen of another jurisdiction, it must follow that no government possesses as to its own citizens power over the marriage relation and its dissolution. For if it be that one government in virtue of its authority over marriage may dissolve the tie as to citizens of another government, other governments would have a similar power, and hence the right of every government as to its own citizens might be rendered nugatory by the exercise of the power which every other government possessed. To concretely illustrate: If the fact be that where persons are married in the state of New York either of the parties to the marriage may, in violation of the marital obligations, desert the other and go into the state of Connecticut, there acquiring a domicile, and procure a dissolution of the marriage which would be binding in the state of New York as to the party to the marriage there domiciled, it would follow that the power of the state of New York as to the dissolution of the marriage as to its domiciled citizen would be of no practical avail. And conversely the like results would follow if the marriage had been celebrated in Connecticut and desertion had been from that state to New York, and consequently the decree of divorce had been rendered in New York. Even a superficial analysis will make this clear. Under the rule contended for it would follow that the states whose laws were the most lax as to length of residence required for domicile, as to causes for divorce, and to speed of procedure concerning divorce, would in effect dominate all the other states. In other words, any person who was married in one State and who wished to violate the marital obligations would be able, by following the lines of least resistance, to go into the State whose laws were the most lax, and there avail of them for the purpose of the severance of the marriage tie and the destruction of the rights of the other party to the marriage contract, to the overthrow of the laws and public policy of the other states. Thus the argument comes necessarily to this, that to preserve the lawful authority of all the states over marriage it is essential to decide that all the states have such authority only at the sufferance of the other states. And the considerations just stated serve to dispose of the argument that the contention relied on finds support in the ruling made in Maynard vs. Hill, referred to in the fourth proposition, which was at the outset stated. For in that case the sole question was the effect within the territory of Washington of a legislative divorce granted in the territory to a citizen thereof. The upholding of the divorce within the territory was, therefore, but a recognition of the power of the territorial government, in virtue of its authority over marriage, to deal with a person domiciled within its jurisdiction. The case, therefore, did not concern the extra-territorial efficacy of the legislative divorce. In other words, whilst the ruling recognized the ample powers which government possesses over marriage as to one within its jurisdiction, it did not purport to hold that such ample powers might be exercised and enforced by virtue of the Constitution of the United States in another jurisdiction as to citizens of other states to whom the jurisdiction of the territory did not extend.

"The anomalous result which it is therefore apparent would arise from maintaining the proposition contended for is made more manifest by considering the instrument from which such result would be produced, that is, the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. No one denies that the states, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, possessed full power over the subject of marriage and divorce. No one, moreover, can deny that, prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the extent to which the states would recognize a divorce obtained in a foreign jurisdiction depended upon their conceptions of duty and comity. Besides it must be conceded that the Constitution delegated no authority to the government of the United States on the subject of marriage and divorce. Yet, if the proposition be maintained, it would follow that the destruction of the power of the states over the dissolution of marriage, as to their own citizens, would be brought about by the operation of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. That is to say, it would come to pass that, although the Constitution of the United States does not interfere with the authority of the states over marriage, nevertheless the full faith and credit clause of that instrument destroyed the authority of the states over the marriage relation. And as the government of the United States has no delegated authority on the subject, that government would be powerless to prevent the evil thus brought about by the full faith and credit clause. Thus neither the states nor the national government would be able to exert that authority over the marriage tie possessed by every other civilized government. Yet more remarkable would be such result when it is borne in mind that, when the Constitution was adopted, nowhere, either in the mother country or on the continent of Europe, either in adjudged cases or in the treatises of authoritative writers, had the theory ever been upheld or been taught or even suggested that one government, solely because of the domicile within its borders of one of the parties to a marriage, had authority, without the actual or constructive presence of the other, to exert its authority by a dissolution of the marriage tie, which exertion of power it would be the duty of other states to respect as to those subject to their jurisdiction.