Alexander S. Asboth to M. E. Hollister, February 1, 1867

Mr. Asboth to Mr. Hollister

Sir: On my receiving, on the 29th ultimo, complaints from Mr. Albee and Mr. Gondon, registered in your office as United States citizens, that you refused to give them respectively their proper protection papers, on the ground that all United States citizens in a foreign country lose, as such, their claim to the protection of the United States government, I deemed it proper to refer you to the act of Congress approved February 10, 1855, chap. 71, of the laws of the United States, by which even the sons of United States citizens born abroad are declared citizens of the United States, the wording of the law being as follows :

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Americain Congress assembled, That persons heretofore born, or hereafter to be born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States whose fathers were or shall be, at the time of their birth, citizens of the United States, shall be deemed and considered, and are hereby declared to be, citizens of the United States.”

At the same time I expressed a hope that you would consider both the complaining gentlemen as United States citizens, and give them the protection to which they are entitled from the agents of the United States government all over the world. In your answer, dated 30th ultimo, which I only received yesterday, you admit the correctness of the statements made by the two gentlemen above mentioned as to the conversation that took place between you and them, but attributing their application for “protection papers” to a desire to escape military service here, you take the trouble to refer me at length to a series of problematical and general theories, in direct opposition not only to the de facto laws of the United States, but also to the existing treaties in force between the United States and the Argentine Confederation.

Without entering to discuss the merits of your authorities, I beg to give you as a supplement to my note of the 29th ultimo, article of the treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between the United States and the Argentine Confederation, (July 27, 1853,) which reads as follows :

“The citizens of the United States residing in the Argentine Confederation, and the citizens of the Argentine Confederation residing in the United States, shall be exempted from all compulsory military service whatever, whether by sea or by land, and from all forced loans, requisitions, or military exactions.”

Volume 10 of the United States Statutes at Large, containing the act of Congress above alluded to, kindly lent by you at my own request, is herewith returned with thanks, and I also send, for the use of your office, a copy of the collections of treaties of the Argentine Confederation with foreign nations, among which you will find in full, at page 286, the treaty between the United States and the Argentine Confederation, just quoted.

You conclude your above mentioned note by the statement that you are unable to find either in the Statutes of the United States or in the consular instructions any authority conferred upon consuls to issue what are called “protection papers,” and I have therefore to refer you to the United States Consuls’ Manual, page 255, chap. 30, on the “Duties of consuls general and consuls in relation to the granting of passports and certificates,” more particularly to section 628 and section 630. It is true that, according to section 625, ibid.,in any country where there is a diplomatic representative, no consul is authorized, without special permission, to issue passports, except in the absence of such representative from the place of his legation; but as the duty of issuing such passports and certificates was transferred by my predecessors here to the consulate of this city, I see no cause for disturbing at present an arrangement which concentrates in one office the collection and accounting of fees.

I have entered thus fully into a reply to your note because the subject is one of such paramount importance that I have deemed it my duty to make you cognizant of the grounds of my decided opinion ;but I would avail myself of this opportunity to suggest that, whenever you should feel a doubt upon any matter connected with the discharge of your duties, you might in future be pleased to confer personally with me—certain that you will ever find in me a frank and sincere desire to assist you in upholding the dignity of our government and securing the interests of our fellow-citizens.

Sincerely your obedient servant,