Henry Billings Brown

“ It is difficult to see any facts upon which to found our jurisdiction of the case. No Federal question appears in the pleadings or in the testimony, a transcript of which is contained in the record. The first glimmer of one appears in the motion for a new trial in the circuit court, in which it is charged that the judgment deprived the defendant of his property without due process of law, and also denied him the equal protection of the laws, contrary to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. ”

“ In the assignment of errors filed in this court the only error charged is that, although the court below found there was no common-law marriage between Eli Keen and Phoebe, yet, in its special findings, it found all the facts required to establish such common-law marriage between them, and that from the facts so found the law presumed a null and void marriage between said Eli Keen and Phoebe Keen, the issue of which was capable of inheriting, under the statutes of Missouri. ”