Note 1454 — Chapter XVI · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 (continued 2)

North Dakota shows a retrogression. By the Rev. Code (1895), 608, the ages of consent to marriage are sixteen and thirteen: the same by the act of March 20, 1890: Laws, 276; which act had been superseded by that of March 9, 1891, Laws, 228, 229, which is in turn repealed by the act of 1895. Still earlier the laws of Dakota Territory had fixed the ages at eighteen and fifteen respectively: Code of Dakota (1883), sec. 36, p. 743; at sixteen and fourteen on May 7, 1862: Gen. Laws (1862), 390; and at fourteen and thirteen in 1866: Civil Code (1865-66), 11. By this last act the marriage of a woman under fourteen might be annulled, if contracted without consent of parent or guardian, and not followed by cohabitation, nor ratified after the girl attained that age.