Note 505 — Chapter XVII · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF DIVORCE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 (continued 3)

Since 1861 these marriages have thus been void without judicial proceedings; while those below the age of consent, or when there was want of understanding, or when obtained by fraud with no subsequent voluntary cohabitation, are void from the time a decree of nullity is pronounced. But a marriage shall in no case be adjudged a nullity, on the ground of being under age of consent, if the parties cohabited freely after reaching that age; nor the marriage of an insane person, if there be similar cohabitation after restoration to reason: act of March 28: Laws (1861), 96, 97; same in Comp. Laws (1900), 115.