[284] Act of Oct. 26, 1799: SCOTT, _Laws of Tenn._ (1821), I, 647.
[285] _Code of Tenn._ (1884), 617; SHANNON, _Code_ (1896), 1050.
[286] LITTELL, _Stat. Laws of Ky._ (1814), IV, 20. This restriction upon the defendant appears also in the act of 1812: _ibid._, IV, 407-10.
[288] Act of March 2, 1843: _Acts_ (1842-43), 29, 30.
[290] _Rev. Stat. of Ariz._ (1887), 374; _Comp. Laws of N. M._ (1897), 407 ff.; _Digest of Ark._ (1894), 680 ff.; _Ann. Stat. of Ind. Ter._ (1899), 324-27; _Laws of the Rep. of Tex._ (act of Jan. 6, 1841), V, 20; also _Rev. Civil Stat. of Tex._ (1888), I, 887; _Ann. Civil Stat._ (1897), I, 1095-1100; _Code of W. Va._ (1899), 660 ff.; also KELLY, _Rev. Stat. of W. Va._ (1878), I, 495. The five-year limit for Missouri is fixed by the act of Jan. 24, 1835: _Rev. Stat._ (1835), 226; and is retained in _Rev. Stat._ (1845), 428; and _ibid._ (1879), I, 362; but it is struck out by _Laws_ (1885), 159; and there is no restriction in _Rev. Stat._ (1899), I, 741-44. But by the act of Jan. 31, 1833, it was provided that "when one of the parties ... shall be divorced, it shall ... be lawful for the other party to marry again, after two years shall have expired."--_Laws of a Pub. and Gen. Nature_ (1842), II, 361.
[291] _Ann. Code of Miss._ (1892), 420; _Rev. Code_ (1857), 334.
[292] _Cf._ _Acts_ (1824), 61, 62; _ibid._ (1869-70), 76, 77; _ibid._ (1872-73), 122; _Code of Ala._ (1897), 492, 493.
[293] _Stat. of Okla._ (1893), 876, 877; WILSON, _Statutes_ (1903), II, 1122.
[294] _Digest of Civil Laws_ (1808), 28; _Rev. Civil Code_ (1888), 68.
[295] _Rev. Laws_ (1897), 306; _ibid._ (1870), 21; _Acts_ (1827), 132, 134; Acts (1855), 376, 377.
[296] _Rev. Stat. and Codes of Porto Rico_ (1902), 860.
In all of the southern and southwestern states, except Louisiana and, of course, South Carolina, a short term of residence is required to qualify the plaintiff to bring suit. Virginia began with a fairly cautious act in 1848. A definite term is not fixed; but a petition for divorce must be brought in the court of the county, city, or town where one of the parties lives, and when the plaintiff has left the county or other place where the married persons dwelt together, the "suit shall be instituted and heard in the court" held for that same county, if the defendant lives there still. The benefits of the act do not extend to any save _bona fide_ citizens at the time of petition; nor to any case where the parties have never lived together as citizens and as married persons in the commonwealth; nor to any cause of adultery which shall have occurred in any other state or country, unless the parties at the time of such cause or before it took place were citizens of the state and lived there together as husband and wife.[298] By the present law no suit can be sustained unless one of the persons has been domiciled in the state for at least one year before; and it must be brought either in the county or corporation where the parties last cohabited, or, at the option of the plaintiff, in that of the defendant, if still a resident of the state; otherwise in the place where the plaintiff dwells.[299]