Sec.4.  In some of the cases excepted in the preceding section, the second marriage is merely excusable.  Although the party to such marriage is exempt from the penalty, yet if the former wife or husband is living, though the fact is unknown, and no divorce has been duly announced, or the first marriage has not been duly annulled; the second marriage is void.  Where there is no statute regulation, the common law governs, which is, that nothing but death, or a decree of a competent court, can dissolve the marriage tie.

Sec.5.  The manner in which marriages are to be solemnized, and by whom, and the manner in which marriage licenses are to be obtained, or notices of marriage published, (which are required in some states,) are prescribed by the laws of the states in which such regulations exist.  Marriages may usually be solemnized by ministers of the gospel, judges, justices of the peace, and certain other officers.  But by the common law, a marriage is rendered valid by a simple consent of the parties declared before witnesses, or subsequently acknowledged; or such consent may be inferred from continual cohabitation and reputation as husband and wife.

Sec.6.  In law, the husband and wife are regarded as one person.  By the common law, the husband, by marriage, acquires a right to the property of the wife which she had before marriage, and which she may acquire after marriage.  To her personal property, including debts due her by bond, note, or otherwise, he has an absolute right, and may use and dispose of the same as he pleases.  Her chattels real, however, which are leases of land for years, though personal property, he can not dispose of by will; and if he makes no disposition of them during his life time, and she outlives him, she takes them in her own right.  If he survives his wife, he acquires an absolute right to them.

Sec.7.  But to the real estate of the wife, the husband does not acquire an absolute right.  He has only a right to the use, rents, and profits thereof during his life, if he shall die before his wife; and in that event she takes the estate again in her own right.  If the wife dies first, and there are no children, her heirs immediately take the estate.  If there are children living, the husband holds the estate for life, and on his death it goes to the wife or her heirs.

Sec.8.  But this rule of the common law which gives to the husband the possession and disposal of the property of the wife, has been repealed by special enactments in most of the states.  By these state laws, the real and personal property of the wife owned by her before marriage, or conveyed to her by any other person than her husband after marriage, with the rents and profits of such property, is declared to be her own, and at her disposal, and not liable for the debts of her husband, except in a few cases specified in the law of each state.  In some of these states, although the property of the wife is not liable for the husband’s debts, he has the control and management, and the rents and profits of it.