Note 1467 — Chapter XVI · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 (continued 2)

Sec. 11 of the Digest of the Laws of Pa. (1883) provides that "in all cases where a supposed or alleged marriage shall have been contracted which is absolutely void by reason of one of the parties thereto having a husband or wife living at the time, the court of common pleas shall have power to decree the said supposed or alleged marriage to be null and void upon the application of the innocent or injured party;" and this provision is still in force: Pepper and Lewis, Digest (1896), I, 1634. Now, as in 1785, a bigamous marriage is a ground of divorce: ibid., I, 1633. Myers, Rev. Stat. of Ill. (1895), 545, provides that "no divorce shall in any wise affect the legitimacy of children, except where the marriage shall be declared void on the ground of a prior marriage;" and Colorado has the same provision: Mills, Ann. Stat. (1891), I, 1035.