I'm always amazed when the numbers speak for themselves but those who speak for the numbers are rebuked.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Marrying cousins was not uncommon in early America. Marrying cousins does not qualify as incest in the Bible, because it does not trespass on direct blood lineage. Historical law agrees.

From Black's Law Dictionary:

"The crime of sexual intercourse or cohabitation between a man and woman who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.

A person is guilty of incest, a felony of the third degree, if he [or she] knowingly marries or cohabits or has sexual intercourse with an ancestor or descendant, a brother or sister of the whole or half blood.

End of argument.