[209] Act of Feb. 22, 1850: COBB, _Digest_ (1851), 226; _Acts_ (1849-50), 151, 152.
[210] Except that "fraud" is added to the fourth cause.
[211] _Code of Ga._ (1896), II, 224 ff. Instead of "Levitical," "prohibited" degrees is now used.
[212] Const. of 1877, Art. VI, secs. 4, 15, 16: _N. Y. Convention Manual_, Part II, Vol. I, 427, 431. _Cf._ Const. of 1865, Art. IV, sec. 2; 1868, Art. V, secs. 2, 3: POORE, _Charters_, I, 409, 420, 422.
In case of partial divorce one jury is sufficient: Const. of 1877, Art. VI, sec. 15; and such seems to have been the earlier practice: 16 _Ga._, 81; _Code of Ga._ (1882), 394, note. A juror may be challenged for "conscientious scruples" regarding divorce: _Code_ (1882), 397. This last-named provision appears in the act of Dec. 22, 1840: COBB, _Digest_ (1851), 225, 226.
The grounds on which marriage may be annulled or dissolved were in 1803 first defined for the region of Alabama by the territorial assembly. The courts having equity jurisdiction were then authorized to grant total divorce for (1) intermarriage within the forbidden degrees; (2) natural impotency of body; (3) adultery; (4) "wilful, continued, and obstinate desertion, for the term of five years." Bigamous marriages were, of course, void from the beginning. Separation from bed and board was allowed on the sole ground of extreme cruelty in either of the parties; but in neither kind of divorce was a decree permitted where there was proof of collusion.[213] In 1820, the year after the admission of the state to the Union, the circuit courts gained jurisdiction and were given power to render decrees of total divorce, subject to legislative appeal, on the following grounds: I. In favor of the husband: when the wife (1) is "taken in adultery;" (2) has voluntarily left his bed and board for the space of two years with the intention of abandonment; (3) has deserted him and lived in adultery with another man. II. In favor of the wife: when the husband (1) has left her during the space of two years with the intention of desertion; (2) has abandoned her to live in adultery with another woman; (3) when his treatment of her is "so cruel, barbarous, and inhuman as actually to endanger her life."[214] The provisions of this act were considerably modified in 1824;[215] but in 1832 they were restored, except that the period of abandonment for either partner was then fixed at three years.[216] A new cause was sanctioned in 1843, a total divorce being then allowed for pregnancy of the wife by another man at the time of the marriage, if without the husband's knowledge or consent;[217] and habitual drunkenness on the part of either was added to the list in 1870.[218]