[743] WRIGHT, _Report_, 162-64. In the whole country, during the years 1867-86, 328,716 decrees were granted, representing probably 484,683 petitions.
[744] In forty-five counties in twelve states, for the period 1867-86, notice was served by publication in 9,944 cases; in 17,040 cases personal service was made; and in 2,681 cases no evidence on the point was obtainable: WRIGHT, _Report_, 201, 202.
[745] For a good discussion of the scope of various statutory grounds of divorce, with the defenses, as actually interpreted by the courts, see WHITNEY, _Marriage and Divorce_, 108-56; and compare BISHOP, _Mar., Div., and Sep._, I, 610 ff., II, 1 ff.; STEWART, _Law of Mar. and Div._, 203 ff.; LLOYD, _Law of Div._, 147 ff., 180 ff.; CONVERS, _Mar. and Divorce_, 180 ff.
[746] The ninety-nine illustrations of the allegations of the plaintiff presented in WRIGHT'S _Report_, 172-78, constitute very interesting reading. Some of them are quoted by BRYCE, _Studies in Hist. and Jurisp._, 835, 836. The frauds arising in the procedure are forcibly described by JUDGE JAMESON, "Divorce," _North Am. Rev._, CXXXVI, 323, 324; and the conflicts in laws by PHILLIPS, "Divorce Question," _Internat. Rev._, XI, 139-52.
The appearance of the government report in 1889 revealed for the first time something like the real facts regarding divorce in the United States. In the entire country during the period of twenty years (1867-86) covered by the report, 328,716 petitions for full or partial divorce were granted. From 9,937 decrees in 1867, the number rose to 11,586 in 1871, 14,800 in 1876, 20,762 in 1881, and to 25,535 in 1886, showing an increase in twenty years of 157 per cent., while there was a gain in population of but 60 per cent. during the same period. Comparing the last year with the first, only four states in the Union--Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont--show a decrease in the divorce rate; while, more fairly, comparing the fourth quinquennium with the first, only the three states last named show such a "decrease in their divorce movement."[747] Of the whole number of divorces during the twenty years, 112,540 were granted to the husband and 216,176 to the wife. Among the principal causes, at each stage of the wedded life, only for adultery were more decrees granted on the husband's petition than on the wife's.[748] "As regards the ratio of divorces to marriages, six states report marriages fully enough for a trustworthy comparison. Of these, Connecticut has for the entire period a divorce to 11.32 marriages and for the worst year, 1875, one to 8.81; Rhode Island gives one to 11.11 for the period and one to 9.36 in 1884, closely approaching that for the preceding years; Vermont one to 16.96 for the period and at its worst, in 1871, one to 13; Massachusetts gives one to 31.28 for the period, its worst being one to 22.54 in 1878; Ohio averages one to 20.65, with an almost unvarying progress downward to one to 15.16 in 1886;" and in the District of Columbia the rate for the period is 31.28, while at the best it is 74.65 in 1868 and at the worst 20.82 in 1877. "In some other states where marriages are less fully reported, the ratios are as follows: Illinois one to 14.76 for the period, while Cook county gives one to 13.6; Michigan one to 12.92; Minnesota one to 30.05; New Hampshire one to 9.74 (its lowest, one to 7.6 in 1880, being evidently due to very imperfect returns of marriages); New Jersey shows one to 49.39; Kansas one to 17.42; Wisconsin one to 21.07; and Delaware one to 36.99. These last, it should be noted, are some of them for shorter periods than twenty years."[749] This method of comparing the number of divorces granted with the number of marriages celebrated is not very satisfactory. "It is vicious in this, that the marriages celebrated each year cannot be compared scientifically with the divorces drawn from the whole volume of marriages celebrated in the past thirty or forty years, many of which even took place in foreign countries."[750] The commissioner has therefore adopted another method of comparison, not entirely free from error, based on the estimated number of existing married couples. From this it appears that in 1870, for the entire country, there were 664 married couples to one divorce granted, while in 1880 the number of such couples to one decree had fallen to 481.[751] Estimated another way, on the basis of the eleventh census, in 1867 there were 173 divorces to 100,000 couples and 250 in 1886.[752]