[XHogPilot]

I have nothing against gay people marrying. A gay man has an equal right to marry a woman as a heterosexual man. The same applies for a lesbian woman marrying a man. However, gays should not have any special rights. A gay man has no more right to marry another man than I do to polygamy.

[djf]

For the vast majority of the history of our country, the state had nothing at all to do with marriage. Marriage was a social function, and usually had religious overtones. All that was needed to be married was to post a notice in a public place, a church door, or the door at the county seat, giving notice that two people (of opposite sex) had an intention to be married at some time in the future, usually two weeks, unless anybody had any reason to object.

Marriage "licenses" did not start in common use until about 1920.

It is interesting to note that a "license" is defined in Black's and Bouviers as:
Permission to do something that would otherwise be illegal.

If you read back into the common law definitions of marriage, there were a number of things that could give evidence that a couple was married.
If she adopted his name.
If they had purchased property together.
If they had made it plain to friends and family that they were living in a commited, monogamous relationship.
If they had announced their intent to marry, and had consummated before the ceremony.

Anderson's Dictionary of law has most of these, and a few more.