I guess if the state, fed included neither punish nor reward marriage, then there would be nothing to recognize.
If the military wanted to set different standards, via the UCMJ, I supposed it could.
BTW. I found this on answerbag.
The first marriage license was issued in Shawnee, Kansas to John D. Skidmore and Arabella Z. Rice. Their marriage was performed on February 24, 1856 and the first marriage license was recorded on April 18, 1856.
I would guess census data would show marriages before this without benefit of state license.
Lots going on in Kansas at that point in time. 2 years after being opened to settlement with pro and anti slavery forces battling for control.
That is impossible and why we had federal law as early as 1780 in that regard. Besides, there is much besides punishment and reward in government being forced to recognize marriage, and that recognition goes back thousands of years.
As far as licenses, they have been issued in America since the 1600s, from genealogy magazine "However, the customary “banns” (public announcements made in church), used in the old country to notify family, friends, and neighbors of an impending marriage, were unsuited to the widely dispersed settlements in the colonies. Some historians claim that marriage licenses, issued by county clerks, developed to replace the banns. By the late-17th-century, the use of license spread northward to the Middle Colonies."
DESCRIPTION: Chapter 12, Laws of 1777: An ACT concerning marriages
CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1777
NOTES: Set forth table of Degree of Kindred and Affinity within which marriage not allowed. Marriage allowed only by religious official. Marriage allowed only after license from county court or publication of banns. Provision against marriage outside of Maryland continued. Every Church had to be registered in county court or not esteemed for publication of banns. Marriage without parental consent forbidden for males under 21 and females under 16 and not before married. Form of license set forth. Quakers allowed to marry according to their own practice.
SOURCE: Archives of Maryland Online
REPOSITORY: Maryland State Archives
Passed in 1790--BE it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That so much of the act of assembly, entitled, An act concerning marriages, as prohibits and declared void marriages between persons related within the following degrees of affinity, to wit: A man with his wife's sister, or brother's wife; a woman with her husband's brother, or sister's husband; shall be and the same is hereby repealed and made void; and all marriages heretofore made and celebrated by and between persons related within the degrees of affinity before mentioned, are hereby confirmed and made valid in law, to every intent and purpose, from the time of the celebration of such marriage respectively; and all penalties, forfeitures and consequences, which may have been incurred under the said recited act, by any marriage within the degrees of affinity aforesaid, are hereby released and discharged, and the parties for ever acquitted of the same; and no penalties shall hereafter be incurred under the said act in consequence of any marriage within the degrees of affinity herein before mentioned, but every such marriage shall be good, sufficient and valid, in law, any thing in the said recited act to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.