I don’t have time to look this up right now, but I was amazed to read this on an old post at Pam’s House Blend:
I posted on your blog but also wanted to tell you in a seperate email that as Governor I will veto any legislation banning gay marriage. The government does not belong in our bedroom and they do not have any power under the constitution to define marriage. Did you know that the only reason a marriage license was required in the first place was to keep inter-racial couples from marrying after slavery ended. Before that one was not required.
That’s from a letter from a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in Alabama last year. I’ve always struggled to understand what role the government has in granting licenses. We take these things for granted, but why do we have these things.
The anti-miscegenation suggestion carries some weight, but then why aren’t there states without licenses (or, I should say, are there states where marriage licenses aren’t required? I know of none).
Does anyone know the history here (or have time to look it up? 
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November 14th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
From what I understand, marriage licenses (and laws) were based on English Common law that many colonies adopted. The primary purpose was for the consolidation of assets and properties. Basically, it gave the husband (as “head of the family”) control of what the wife had and limited the rights women had afterwards. There were also laws past to prevent inter-racial marriage (in many states), but that was after most already had the English Common Laws incorporated into their systems. So it may not be out of the realm of possibility that specific license requirements came from specifically trying to prevent inter-racial marriages to match te laws passed.