No. 523.
Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Madrid, February 2, 1875.
(Received February 26.)
No. 245.]
Sir: Among the extreme measures of the
revolutionary period which followed the dethronement of Queen Isabel, were
several which seem to be inspired by mere hatred of religion rather than any
intelligent idea of sound public policy.
One of these measures was the prohibition of canonical marriages, or at least
the deprivation of all such marriages of any effect on the civil status; in
other words, bastardizing of the issue of any such marriage.
This law was utterly repugnant to the conscientious convictions of a great
majority of Spaniards.
We can imagine its influence in this respect in supposing an attempt by law
in the United States thus to exclude marriages from the scope of religious
sanction. Such an attempt, it is true, was made in one of the American
colonies at an early period in our history, but soon yielded place to more
tolerant and elevated sentiments of public policy.
The revolutionary law in question was not only repulsive to the public
conscience, but was the source of constant embarrassment in all questions of
civil status and descent, and in many questions of administration, such as
pensions, and more especially in enlistments or conscriptions for military
service.
The law has been amended by recent decree since the accession of Don Alfonso,
copy and translation of which are annexed.
I have, &c.,
[Page 1099]
[Inclosure in No.
245—Translation.]
Decree of January 22, 1875, providing for the inscription of the offspring of canonical
marriage in the civil registry.
[From the “Gaceta de Madrid” January
23, 1875.]
Ministry of Grace and
Justice.
Decree.
The royal order, of February 11, 1872, which directed the inscription in
the civil registry, as natural children, of all those born in canonical
wedlock, although in apparent conformity with the spirit of modern laws,
has deeply wounded the dignity of the Catholic marriage institution,
causing continual perturbations in the family and in society.
The government cannot remain indifferent to these, and although it
occupies itself preferently in the reform of the law of civil marriage
which is shortly to be made public, yet, giving heed to the incessant
clamor of public opinion, which grows more emphatic day by day, it can
do no less than anticipate a resolution which may harmonize the legal
status of the children born in Christian
wedlock with that which public conscience indisputably recognizes as
theirs.
If, in order to respond to the necessities of the reparatory policy
initiated by the government, the rights of the church are to be
reconciled with those of the state, it is indispensable to recognize in
the Catholic marriage-rite all the effects which were attributed thereto
by our national laws, our immemorial customs, and the never-abandoned
religious faith of Spaniards.
With this object, and to repair in an equitable manner the offensive
condition which the existing law to-day imputes to children born of such
marriages when their parents do not comply with the recent formalities
of the civil registry, it is indispensable to establish simple, short,
and expeditious steps whereby these children may regain a legitimacy
which is to-day denied to them by the law, although Spanish society has
never ceased to recognize it.
Founded, therefore, on these considerations, the King, and in his name the regency-ministry, has accorded the
following:
- Article 1. Children born of
exclusively canonical marriage, whose inscription in the civil
registry may be competently solicited, shall be inscribed as
legitimate children, provided that the marriage of their parents
be legally shown.
- Art. 2. In order to effect the
inscription to which the preceding article refers, the
declaration will, however, suffice of any one of the persons
mentioned in the fortyseventh article of the law of civil
registry; but said inscription shall have a provisional
character until the interested parties present the
marriage-certificate of the parents. This document shall be
noted and recorded in the manner which may be determined by the
regulations.
- Art. 3. The children of exclusively
canonical marriage inscribed until now as natural children,
shall be inscribed forthwith at the instance of the parties as
legitimate, rectifying for this purpose the entries thereof
which may have been recorded.
- This rectification may be solicited within the term of one
year, by the parents and other persons specified in the
forty-seventh article of the law above mentioned, by means of
the baptismal certificate of the child registered as
natural.
- A special instruction will determine the form in which this
document shall be noted and recorded, and in which the
inscriptions in question shall be rectified whenever the
interested parties shall have allowed to pass the time fixed for
so doing.
- Art. 4. Children born of canonical
marriages subsequent to the date on which the existing law took
effect, who shall not have been inscribed in the registry, shall
be inscribed as legitimate in the form prescribed by the
foregoing articles, their parents or guardians, who shall apply
for their inscription within the term fixed in the preceding
article, remaining free from all pecuniary
responsibility.
- Art. 5. The children to whom the
preceding articles refer do not need to be presented for
registry when the person designated by the law to make such
presentation shall exhibit the corresponding certificate of
baptism.
- Art. 6. Shall be considered for all
civil effects as legitimate children from the day of their
birth, those born of exclusively canonical marriage, who, in
virtue of the provisions of this decree, shall obtain their
inscription in the civil register as being legitimated.
- Art. 7. All enactments contrary to
the provisions of this decree are here repealed.
Madrid, January 22,
1875.
The president of the regency-ministry,
ANTONIO CÁNOYAS
DEL CASTILLO.
The minister of grace and justice,
