Note 697 — Chapter XVIII · PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY
Reading edition
In Tennessee the offense against a girl below twelve years of age is punishable, as in case of rape, by death or, if the jury please, by imprisonment for life or not less than ten years; from twelve to sixteen, it is a felony, with three to ten years in prison, if the child be of previous chaste character, and if she can bring witnesses to support her statements. The one day was added by way of a joke! See the interesting account of the passage of the act by Dromgoole, in Arena, XI, 209-12; and for the act consult Laws (1893), c. 129, § 1, 273, 274; Code (1896), 1593, 1594.