No. 471.
Mr. Coleman to Mr. Bayard.
Berlin, July 23, 1888. (Received August 4.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt to day of your instruction No. 333 of the 7th instant, inclosing a correspondence between the Hon. J. H. Ketcham, of the House of Representatives, and yourself, relative to the validity attaching under certain specified conditions to marriages of American citizens in foreign countries.
Your succinctly stated views as communicated in your reply to Mr. Ketcham will constitute a valuable addition to the archives of this legation, [Page 650] and enable it to answer with greater precision and better authority than heretofore the numerous inquiries addressed to it on this subject.
In your reply you state:
So far, however, as concerns foreign countries, e. g., Belgium or Germany, the question of the validity of the solemnization would depend upon their own law, and that law is understood to incorporate the general principle above stated, that a solemnization of marriage to be valid must be in conformity with the law of the place of celebration.
The principle stated in the above passage is in entire conformity, as far as this country is concerned, with statutory provisions, the law declaring that a marriage within the German Empire can only be validly concluded before the designated civil official, the “Standesbeamter,” and imposing a penalty upon any clergyman or other minister of religion who solemnizes a marriage before it has been proven to him that the marriage has been concluded before the civil official.
In order to supply to the Department, in a form convenient for reference, the pertinent provisions of German law, I transmit herewith the copies and carefully prepared translations of the statutory declarations above referred to.
I have, etc.,