Charles Weniger to Fred’k T. Frelinghuysen, July 30, 1884

Mr. Weniger to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Your Honor: Hereby I submit to your kind consideration and interference a moral injustice done to me by the German Government.

According to my affidavit, which I inclose, I was born in the year 1861, in the city of Königsee, Duchy of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Germany.

My father, Ferdinand Weniger, came to the United States in the year 1871, and my mother, Sophie Weniger, followed him, with me, in the following year, when I was only twelve years of age. My mother having died in the city of New York in the year 1877, my father returned to Germany in the same year, leaving me in this country, when I was sixteen years old. As my father neither would nor could take me with him back to Germany, I was thrown on my own resources and was obliged to make my own living as well as I could.

Now, when I have succeeded to make an honorable living, and at the same time have become a citizen of this country before the court of common pleas in the city of New York, the Government of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt claims me for military duty, and threatens me with confiscating a little inheritance which my mother left me in Rudolstadt, which, together with my savings, would serve me to establish my own business in this country.

This seems to me a manifest injustice, as I did not come to this country on my own free will, being too young at that time to do so, and as I was abandoned here as a minor to the protection of this country.

It is true that my father never became a citizen of the United States, and that my mother, ignorant of the German laws, neglected to have my name erased from the military register of Rudolstadt, so that I am not protected by the Bancroft treaty; but it is nevertheless a moral injustice to me, which I am sure your honor can right if you will kindly submit my case to the German Government in Berlin.

Yours, truly,

City of New York, County of New York, ss:

I, Charles Weniger, of the city of New York, State of New York, do swear that I was born on the 21st of April in the year 1861, in Königsee, of the Duchy of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Germany; that my father, Ferdinand Weniger, of said city, came to this country in the year 1871; that my mother, Sophie Weniger, followed him, with me, in the year 1872, when I was a little over eleven years of age; that my mother died in the city of New York, State of New York, on the 12th of April in the year 1877, and that my father returned to Germany in the. same year, leaving me behind in the city of New York, when I was a little over sixteen years old; that I was thrown by this event on my own resources, and that I have become a citizen of this country before the court of common pleas of New York, State of New York.

State of New York, City and County of New York, ss:

I, Patrick Keenan, clerk of the city and county of New York, and also clerk of the supreme court for the said city and county, the same being a court of record, do hereby certify that P. V. Stocky, before whom the annexed deposition was taken, was, at the time of taking the same, a notary public of New York, dwelling in said city and county, duly appointed and sworn and authorized to administer oaths to be used in any court in said State, and for general purposes, and that his signature thereto is genuine, as I verily believe. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said court and county the 29th day of July, 1884.