Sincere question: didn' t English common law, largely adopted into American law, recognize marriage as a natural relation, and the family as a natural society? I don't know the history here, and stand ready to be educated.
My impression is not that the Founding Fathers saw marriage as irrelevant, but that they saw it as pre-existing the State, and as foundational.
How did the Commonwealth of Virginia handle it? Or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
I do remember that in Tennessee in Andrew Jackson's time, you couldn't get a divorce without a specific act of the Tennessee Legislative Assembly. It was an issue in his personal life, and in his campaign.
Interesting question. As you know, ‘marriage’ is not mentioned in the constitution. We also know that the Fonding Fathers intentiionally steered clear of social issues.
However, you may be right that they understood marriage to be ‘foundational’. I don’t think anyone would argue against marriage being a great benefit to society as a whole, for reasons that include child custody, paternity identification, family stability, and survivor rights.
I would be interested to know what discussions took place among our Founders, but my guess is that it was a conscious decision to leave it out.
You are so very right on this one, but clearly the leftists, the libertarians, and the GOP establishment are on the other side on this one, and the public schools and the media are selling it to the upcoming generation. So real marriage loses, real family loses, and real-life kids lose big-time. Henceforth, every kid who does not have two daddies will be a ward of the state—until the country collapses, which I think will not be very long.