Me. Justice Gkaw,
after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.
The first section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States is as follows: “Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress ináy, by. general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.” This section was intended to give the same conclusive effect to the judgments of all the States, so as to promote certainty and uniformity in tho rule among them. And Congress, in the exercise of the powe • so conferred, besides prescribing, the manner in which the r • lords and judicial proceedings of any State may be authenticated, has defined the effect thereof, by enacting that “ the said records and judicial proceedings, so authenticated, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State from which they are taken.” Itev. Stat." § 905, reenacting act of May 26, 1790, c. 11,1 Stat. 122; Huntington v. Attrill, (1892) 146 U. S. 657, 684.
By the General Statutes of Kentucky of 1873, c. 52, art. 3, courts of equity may grant a divorce for abandonment by one party of the other for one year; petitions for divorce must be brought in the county where the wife' usually resides if she has an actual residence in the State; if not, then in the county of the husband’s residence; and shall not bé taken for confessed, [161] or be sustained by confessions of the defendant alone, but must be supported by other proofs.
By the Civil Code of Practice of Kentucky of 1876, tit. 4, c. 2, art. 2, if a defendant has been absent from the State four months, and the plaintiff files an affidavit stating in what country the defendant resides or may be found and the name of the place wherein a post-office is kept nearest to the place where the defendant resides or may be found, the clerk may make an order warning the defendant to defend the action within sixty days; and shall at the same time appoint, as attorney for the defendant, a regular practising attorney of the court, whose duty it shall be to make diligent efforts to inform the defendant by mail concerning the pendency and nature of the action against him, and to report to the court the result of his efforts; and a defendant against whom a warning order is made, and for whom an attorney is appointed, is deemed to have been constructively summoned on the thirtieth day thereafter, and the action may proceed accordingly.
In accordance with these statutes, on December 28,1892, the husband filed in a proper court of Kentucky a petition, under oath, for a divorce from the bond of matrimony, alleging his wife’s abandonment of him ever since October, 1891, and that she had been absent from the State for more than four months,- and might be found at Clinton in the State of New York, and that in Clinton was kept the post-office nearest the place where she might be found; and the clerk entered a warning order, and appointed an attorney at law for the defendant. On January 5, 1893, that attorney wrote to the wife at Clinton, fully advisihg her of the object of the petition for divorce, and enclosing a copy thereof, in a letter addressed to her by mail at that place, and having printed on the envelope a direction to return it to him, if not delivered within ten days. On February 6, 1893, the attorney, not having received that letter again, or any answer from the defendant, or in her behalf, made his report to the court. And on March 14, 1893, the court, after taking evidence, including an agreement made by the parties in Kentucky, October 10,1891, as to the domicil, custody and support [162] of their child, granted to the husband an absolute divorcé for his wife’s abandonment of him. ■
There can be no doubt that this decree was by law and usage entitled to full faith and credit as an absolute decree of divorce in the State of Kentucky. The Court of Appeals of that State has held that, under its statutes, a wife residing in the State- was entitled to obtain a decree of divorce against a husband who' had left the State, or who had never been within it; and Chief Justice Robertson said-: “ It would be a reproach to our legislation if a faithless husband in Kentucky could, by. leaving "the State, deprive his abandoned wife of a power of obtaining a divorce at home.” Rhyms v. Rhyms, (1870) 7 Bush, 316; Perzel v. Perzel, (1891) 91 Kentucky, 634. That court has recognized that the regulation of divorce belongs to the legislature of the-domicil-of the parties. Maguire v. Maguire, (1838) 7 Dana, 181, 185-187. And the same court, where husband and wife had lived together in Kentucky, and she abandoned him, and he became a lona 'fide citizen of Indiana, held that a divorce from the- bonds of matrimony, obtained by him against the wife in that State, by proceedings on constructive service, and according to the laws of that State,' determined the status of thé parties in Kentucky. Hawkins v. Ragsdale, (1882) 80 Kentucky, 353.
There is a weight of authority in accord with the views .maintained by the Court of Appeals of .Kentucky, although there are some decisions of learned courts to the contrary.
The purpose and effect of a decree of divorce from the bond of matrimony, by a court of competent jurisdiction, are to change the existing status or domestic relation of husband and wife, and to free them both from the bond. The marriage tie, when .thus severed as to. one party, ceases to bind either. A husband without a wife, or a wife without a husband, is unknown to the law. When the law. provides, in the nature of a penalty, that the guilty party shall not marry again, that party, .as well as the other, is still absolutely freed from the bond of the former marriage.
The rule as to the notice necessary to give full effect to a [163] decree of divorce is different from that which'is required in suits in personam.
In Pennoyer v. Neff, (1877) 95 U. S. 714, 734, this court, speaking by Mr. Justice Field, while deciding that a. judgment of a state court on a debt could not be supported without personal service on the defendant within the State or his appearance in the cause, took occasion to say: “ To prevent any misapplication of the views expressed in this opinion, it is proper to observe that we do not mean to assert, by anything wé havó said, that a State may not authorize proceedings to determine the status of one of its citizens towards a non-resident, which would be binding within the State, though made without service of process or personal notice to the non-resident. The jurisdiction which every State possesses to determine the civil status and capacities of all its inhabitants involves authority to prescribe the conditions on which the proceedings affecting.them may be commenced and carried on within its territory. The State, for example, has absolute right to prescribe the conditions upon which the marriage relation between its own citizens shall be created, and the causes for which it may be dissolved. One of the parties, guilty of acts for which, by the law of the State, a dissolution may be granted, may have removed to a State where no dissolution is permitted. The complaining party would therefore fail if a divorce were sought in the State of the defendant; and if application could not be made to' the tribunals of the complainant’s domicil in'such case, and proceedings be there instituted without personal service of process or personal notice to the offending party, the injured citizen would be without redress. 2 Bishop on Marriage and Divorce, § 156.”
In Cheeley v. Clayton, (1884) 110 U. S. 701, which involved the validity of a decree of divorce, obtained in Colorado by a husband domiciled there, against his wife for unjustifiably refusing to live with him, this court said: “ The courts of the State of the domicil of the parties doubtless have jurisdiction to decree a divorce in. accordance with its laws, for any cause allowed by those laws, without regard»to the place of the marriage, or to that of the commission of the offence for which the divorce is granted; and a divorce so obtained is valid everywhere. [164] Story, Conflict of Laws, § 230a; Cheever v. Wilson, 9 Wall. 108; Harvey v. Farnie, 8 App. Cas. 43. If aovife is. living apart from her husband' without sufficient cause, his domicil is in law her domicil; and in the absence of any proof of fraud or misconduct on his part, a divorce obtained by him in the State of his domicil, after reasonable notice to her, either by personal service or by publication in accordance with its laws, is valid, although she never .in fact resided in that State. Burlen v. Shannon, 115 Mass. 438; Hunt v. Hunt, 12 N. Y. 218. But in order to make the divorce valid, either in the State in which it is granted or in another State, there must, unless the defendant appeared in the suit, have been such notice to her as the law of the first State requires.” 110 U. S. 705. In that case the decree of divorce was held void, because the notice .required by the laws of the State had not been given; and the finding of the court below that the wife, at the time of the proceedings for divorce, was a citizen and resident of' the State of Illinois, was given no weight, because,' as this court said, it was hard to see how, if she unjustifiably refused to live with her husband in Colorado, she could lawfully acquire in his lifetime a separate domicil in another State; or how, if the Colorado court had jurisdiction to render the decree of divorce, and did render it upon the ground of her unlawful absence from him, the finding of the court below could consist with the fact so adjudged in the decree of divorce. 110 U. S. 709.
In Harding v. Alden, (1832) 9 Greenl. 140, the husband and wife lived together in Maine. He deserted her, and took up a residence in North Carolina, and there married and lived with another woman. The first wife then moved to and resided in Providence, Rhode Island, and there filed a libel in the Supreme Judicial Court for an absolute divorce against him for his desertion and adultery; and the court, after service of a citation on him, and two continuances of the cause, decreed a divorce as prayed for. The husband was never an inhabitant of Rhode Island. The wife afterwards married another man. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, in an opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Weston, held that the divorce in Rhode Island dissolved the bond of marriage between the parties; and said: [165] “ If we refuse to give full faith and credit to the decree of the ■ Supreme Judicial Court of Rhode Island, because the party libelled had his domicil in another State, and was not within their jurisdiction, we refuse to accord to the decrees of that court the efficacy we claim for our own, when liable to the sai - . objection. In the case before us, it is agreed that the party injured was at the time an inhabitant of Rhode Island, residing in Providence, and this fact is recited in the decree. It appears that by order of the court a citation was served upon the defendant in person ; and that a continuance was twice granted, to give him an opportunity to appear in defence. This shows a due regard to that principle of justice, which gives to the party accused the right to be heard. The decree was rendered by the highest judicial tribunal in that State. As it belongs to that tribunal to declare, authoritatively and definitively, what the law of the State is, we are bound to infer that by that law the bonds of matrimony, previously existing between the libel-lant and her former husband, were thereby dissolved; and that such is the effect of the decree within the State of Rhode Island.” 9 G-reenl. 148. “ There would be great inconvenience in holding that a divorce decreed in the State where the injured party resided might not be held valid through the Union, where the right of citizenship is common, where the party accused had established his domicil in another State, and there committed adultery. And this is the only objection to the efficacy of the decree in question; it being insisted that the court had no jurisdiction over the absent party. As has been before intimated, it would apply with equal force to many divorces decreed in this State. It would require that the wife, abandoned and dishonored, should seek the new dom-icil- of the guilty husband, animo manendi, before she could claim the benefit of the law to be relieved from his control. In giving effect here to the divorce decreed in Rhode. Island, we would wish to be understood, that the ground upon which we place our decision is limited to-.the dissolution of the mar-, riage. In the libel, alimony was prayed for; and certain personal property, then in the possession of the wife, was .decreed to her. Had the court awarded her a gross sum, or a weekly [166] or an annual allowance, to be paid by tbe husband, and the courts of this or any other State had been resorted to to enforce it, a different question would be presented.” 9 Greenl. 151.
Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries, says of that case that it was there held “ that a decree of divorce did not fall within the rule that a judgment rendered against one not within the State, nor bound by its laws, nor amendable to its jurisdiction, was n'ot entitled to credit against the defendant in another State ; and that divorces pronounced according to the law of one jurisdiction, and the new relations thereupon formed, ought to be recognized, in the absence of all fraud, as operative and binding everywhere, so far as related to the. dissolution of the marriage, though not as to other parts of the decree, such ás an order for the payment of money by the husband.” ’ And the Chancellor adds, “ This is an important and valuable decision.” 2 Kent Com. 110, note.
In Ditson v. Ditson, (1856) 4 Rhode Island, 87, (of which Judge Cooley, in his Treatise on Constitutional Limitations, 403, note, says there is no case in the books more full- and satisfactory upon the whole subject of jurisdiction in divorce suits,) the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, in an elaborate opinion by Chief Justice Ames, affirmed its jurisdiction, upon constructive notice by publication, to grant a divorce to a wife domiciled in • Rhode Island against a. husband who had never been in Rhode Island, and whose place of residence was unknown; and said : ■“ It is obvious that marriage, as a domestic relation, emerged from the contract which created it, is known and recognized as such throughout the civilized world; that it gives rights and imposes duties and restrictions upon the.parties to it, affecting' their social and moral condition, of the measure of which every civilized State, and certainly every State of this Union, is the sole judge so far as its own citizens or subjects are concerned, and should be so deemed by other civilized, and especially sister States; that a State cannot be deprived, directly or indi-l’ectly, of its sovereign power to regulate the status of its own domiciled subjects and citizens, by the fact that the subjects and citizens of other States, as related to them, are interested -in that status; and in such a matter has a right, under the general law, [167] judicially to deal with and modify or dissolve this relation, binding both parties to it by the decree, by virtue of its.inherent power over its own citizens and subjects, and to enable it to answer tbeir obligatory demands for justice; and finally, that in the exercise of this judicial powerj and in order to the validity of a decree of divorce, whether a mensa et thoro or a vinculo matrimonii, the general law does not deprive a State of its proper jurisdiction over the condition of its own citizens, because non-residents, foreigners or domiciled inhabitants of other States have not or will not become, and cannot be made to become,-person ally subject to the jurisdiction of its courts; but upon the most familiar principles, and as illustrated by the most familiar analogies of general law, its courts may and can act conclusively in such a matter-upon, the rights and interests of such persons, giving to them such notice, actual or constructive, as the nature of the case admits of, and the practice of courts in similar cases sanctions.” 4 Rhode Island, 105, 106. ■
The statutes of Massachusetts provided as follows: • “ When an inhabitant of this State goes into another State or country to obtain a divorce for any cause occurring here, and whilst the parties resided here, or for any cause which would not authorize a divorce by the laws of this State, a divorce so obtained shall be of no force or effect in this State. In all other cases, a divorce decreed in any other State or country according to the laws thereof, by a court having jurisdiction of the cause and both the parties, shall be valid and effectual in this State.” That provision made no change in the law, but, in the words of the Commissioners upon whose advice it was first enacted, “ is founded on the rule established by the comity of all civilized nations; and is proposed merely that no doubt should arise on a question so interesting and important as this may sometimes be.” Gen. Stat. of 1860, c. 107, §§ 54, 55; Rev. Stat. of 1836, c. 76, §§ 39, 40, and note of Commissioners; Ross v. Ross, 129 Mass. 243, 248.
In Hood v. Hood, (1865) 11 Allen, 196, the husband and wife, after living together in Massachusetts, removed to Illinois, and there lived together; the wife, “ under circumstances as to which there was no evidence,” and afterwards the husband, [168] came back to Massachusetts, aud, while they- were living there in his brother-in-law’s house for a few weeks, he signed an agreement, reciting that they had separated, and promising to pay her a certain weekly sum so long as she should remain single. She continued to reside in Massachusetts ; and he obtained in Illinois a decree of divorce from her for her desertion, upon such notice as the laws of Illinois authorized in the Gase of an absent defendant. It was held by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in an opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Hoar, that both parties had their domicil in Illinois, and were subject to the jurisdiction of its courts; and that the fact of desertion by the’ wife was conclusively settled between the parties by the decree in Illinois, and it was not competent for the wife to contradict it on a libel afterwards filed by her in Massachusetts; and her libel was dismissed. And in Hood v. Hood, (1872) 110 Mass. 463, it appearing that such dismissal was upon the ground of the validity of the previous decree of divorce in Illinois, it was adjudged that' that decree could not be impeached by the wife in a writ of dower by her against third persons, the court saying: “ The decree in favor of her. husband, dismissing her libel, was then forever conclusive against her, as between themselves. It severed the relation between them; or rather es-topped her from averring anything to the contrary of the decree in Illinois which purported to sever that relation. The general rule, however, in regard to estoppels of record, is that they are good only between the parties of record and their privies. They cannot be set up in collateral proceedings between one of those parties and third persons. But the effect of the judgment in this case was to determine the status of the demandant. So far as it did that, it is a judgment that is operative and conclusive as to all the world.”
The like view has been affirmed by courts of other States. Thompson v. State, (1856) 28 Alabama, 13; Leith v. Leith, (1859) 39 N. H. 20, 39-43; Shafer v. Bushnell, (1869) 24 Wisconsin, 372; Gould v. Crow, (1874) 57 Missouri, 200; Van Orsdal v. Van Orsdal, (1885) 67 Iowa, 35; Smith v. Smith, (1891) 43 La. Ann. 1140; In re James, (1893) 99 California, 374; Dunham v. Dunham, (1896) 162 Illinois, 589, 607-610.
[169] In Shaw v. Shaw, (1867) 98 Mass. 158, the husband and wife, domiciled in Massachusetts, left the State to take up their residence in Colorado. In Pennsylvania, on the journey, he treated her with extreme cruelty, and she left him and returned to Massachusetts, and continued to reside there. It was held that while they were in Pennsylvania the domicil of both parties remained in Massachusetts, and that the wife might maintain a libel in Massachusetts for the cause occurring in Pennsylvania, although the husband before it occurred had left Massachusetts with the intention of never returning, and never did in fact return, and therefore no notice was or could be served upon him in Massachusetts.
In a very recent case, the Court of Errors of New Jersey-maintained the validity of a divorce obtained in the State of Utah by a husband, having his bona fide domicil there, against a wife whose domicil was in New Jersey, after publication of the process and complaint in accordance with the statutes of Utah, and personal service upon the wife in New Jersey in time to enable her to make defence, if she wished to do so. Mr. Justice Gummere, speaking for the Court of Errors, said that, at least, “ interstate comity requires that a decree of divorce, pronounced by a court of the State in which the complainant is domiciled, and which has jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the suit, shall, in the absence of fraud, be given full force and effect within the jurisdiction of a sister State, notwithstanding that the defendant does not reside within the jurisdiction of the court which pronounced the decree, and has not been served with process therein; provided that a substituted service has been made in accordance with thejprovisions of the statute of that State, and that actual notice of the pendency of the suit has been given to the defendant, and a reasonable opportunity afforded to put in a defence thereto; and provided, further, that the'ground upon which the decree rests is one which the public policy of the State in which it is sought to be enforced recognizes as a sufficient cause for divorce.” Felt v. Felt, (1899) 14 Dickinson (59 N. J. Eq.).
In New York, North Carolina and South Carolina, the opposite view has prevailed, either upon the ground, that the rule [170] as. to notice is the same in suits for divorce as in ordinary suits in personam, or upon the ground that, in the absence of actual notice or appearance, the decree, while it may release the libel-lant, cannot release the libellee, from the bond of matrimony. People v. Baker, (1879) 76 N. Y. 78; O'Dea v. O'Dea, (1885) 101 N. Y. 23; In re Kimball, (1898) 155 N. Y. 62; Irby v. Wilson, (1837) 1 Dev. & Bat. Eq. 568; McCreery v. Davis, (1894) 44 So. Car. 195.
In People v. Baker, 76 N. Y. 78, upon which the subsequent decisions in New York are based, the defendant was married to a woman in the State of Ohio; they afterwards lived together in the State of New York; the wife, upon notice by publication, and without personal appearance of the husband, he being in New York, obtained a decree of divorce against him in Ohio; and he afterwards married another woman in New York, and was convicted of bigamy there. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, without a suggestion that the first wife was not domiciled in Ohio at the time of the divorce, but stating the'question in the case to be: “Can a court, in another State, adjudge to be dissolved and at an end the matrimonial relation of a citizen of this State, domiciled and actually abiding here throughout the pendency of the judicial proceedings there, without a voluntary appearance by him therein, and with no actual notice to' him thereof, and without personal service of process on him in that State?” The court admitted that “ if one party to a proceeding is domiciled in a State, the status of that party, as affected by the matrimonial relation, may be adjudged upon and confirmed or changed, in accordance with the laws of that State; ” but held that, without personal appearance or actual notice, the decree could not affect the, matrimonial relation of the defendant in another State. The court recognized that the law was settled otherwise in some States, and said: “ It remains for the Supreme Court of the United States, as the final arbiter, to determine how far a judgment rendered in such a case, upon such substituted service of process, shall be operative without the territorial jurisdiction of the tribunal giving it.”
The authorities above cited show the wide diversity of opin[171] ion existing upon this important subject, and admonish us to confine our decision to the exact case before us. .
This case does not involve the validity of a divorce. granted, on constructive service, by.the court,of a State-in which only one of the parties ever had a domicil; nor the question to what extent the good faith of the domicil may be afterwards .inquired into. , In this case, the divorce in. Kentucky was by the court of the State which had always been the undoubted.- domicil of thé husband, and which was the only matrimonial domicil of the husband and wife. The single.question to be decided is the validity of that divorce, granted after such notice had 'been given as was required by the statutes of Kentucky.
The husband always had his domicil in Kentucky,^and the matrimonial domicil of the parties was in Kentucky.; On December 28,1892, the husband filed his petition for a divorce in the court of appropriate jurisdiction in Kentucky, alleging an abandonment of him by the wife in Kentucky, and a continuance of that abandonment for a year, which was a cause of divorce. by the laws of Kentucky.» His petition truly stated, upon oath, as required by the-statutes of Kentucky, that the wife might be found at Clinton in the State of New York, and that at Clinton was the post-office nearest the place where she might be found. As required by the statutes of Kentucky, the clerk thereupon entered a warning order to the -wife to appear in sixty days, and appointed an attorney at law to represent her. The attorney, on January 5, 1893, wrote to the wife at Clinton, fully advising her of the object of the petition for divorce, and enclosing a copy thereof, in a letter addressed to her by mail at Clinton, and having printed on the envelope a direction to return it to him, if not delivered in ten days. There is a presumption of fact, though not of law, that a letter, put into the post-office, and properly addressed, is received by the person to whom,it is'addressed. Rosenthal v. Walker, (1884) 111 U. S. 185. On February 6, 1893, the attorney, having received no answer, made bis report to the court. And on March 14,1893, the court, aftér taking evidence, granted the husband an abso-solute decree of divorce for his wife’s abandonment of him.
The court of New York has-indeed found that the wife. “ was [172] not. personally served with process within the • State of Kentucky, or at all.”' It may be doubted whether this negatives her having received, or had knowledge of, the letter sent to her by the attorney in Kentucky, January 5, 1893, six days before she began her suit in New York. But assuming that it does, the question in this cáse is not whether she had actual notice of the proceedings for divorce, but whether such reasonable steps had been taken to give her notice, as to bind her by the decree .in the State of the domicil.'
The court in New York found that the wife left the husband and went to Clinton with the purpose and intention of not re•turning to the State of Kentucky, but of permanently residing in the State of New York; and that this purpose and intention ' were understood by the husband at the time, and were contem-. -plated and evidenced by the agreement executed by the parties 'in Kentucky, October 10,1891. But that agreement was among the proofs submitted to the court in Kentucky, and may well have been considered by that court, as the preamble to the agreement states, as simply intended to provide for the interest 'of their child, recognizing that the parties had ceased to live ' .together as husband and wife, but “ without in any way ac-' knowledging upon whom is the fault, or condoning the conduct of the one or the other which has led to the existing state of affairs, or preventing any consequence which may follow,N or right-Which may arise to either party if such status shall continue.” The agreement contains no mention of the domicil of' either husband or wife, but declares that the domicil of the child is to be the State of' Kentucky, and is taken up with providing that its custody shall be half of each year with the mother, and the other half with the paternal grandmother, and with providing for the support and custody of the child, in'various future contingencies, including the divorce and-second marriage of the husband ór of, the wife. ■
."We are of opinion that the undisputed facts show that-such efforts were required by the statutes' of Kentucky,. • and were actually made, to give the wife actual notice of the suit in Kentucky, as to make the decree of the . court there, granting a di- - vorce upon the ground that she had abandoned her husband, [173] as binding on her as if she had been served with notice in Kentucky, or had voluntarily appeared in the suit. Binding her to that full extent, it established, beyond contradiction, that she had abandoned her husband,.and precludes her from asserting that she left him on account of his cruel treatment.
To hold otherwise would make it difficult, if not' impossible, for the husband tó obtain a divorce for the cause alleged, if it actually existed. The wife not being within the State of Kentucky, if constructive notice, with all the precautions prescribed by the statutes of that State, were insufficient to bind her by a decree dissolving t?*e bond' of matrimony, the husband could only get a divorce by suing in the State in which she was found; and by the very fact of suing her there he-would admit that she had acquired á separate domicil, (which he denied,) and would disprove his own ground of action that.she had abandoned him in Kentucky.
The result is that the courts of New York have not given to ■ the Kentucky decree of divorce the faith and. crédit which it had by law in Kentucky, and that therefore their
Judgments must be reversed, cmd the ease remanded to the Supreme Court of New . Yorh for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.