HENRY VIGNAUD, Second Secretary to Mr. G. W. Verdelet, April 13, 1880

Mr. Vignaud to Mr. G. W. Verdelet.

Sir: The minister has received your letter of the 8th instant, and charges me to reply to you.

This letter and the one of the 17th of February, which you have addressed to this legation on the same subject, establish the following facts:

Your two brothers, John Henry Verdelet and Eugene Albert Verdelet, were born in France from a father, now deceased, who was himself born in France, but who had acquired American citizenship in the United States, where he resided thirty-five years. Your two brothers are living in France, where it is likely they have always resided. Your letters do not state if they have resided in the United States, nor if it is their intention to live there in future.

The French law of December 16, 1874, considers as a French subject any individual Born in France from a foreigner who himself was born there, unless, in the year following his majority, he claims to be a foreigner, and establishes that he has maintained his original nationality, by producing an attestation, in due form, of his Government. You ask that your two brothers be furnished with such attestation, that is to say, with a certificate of American citizenship which will exempt them from military service in France.

The Government of the United States, which easily grants American citizenship to foreigners, recognizes with no less facility to Americans themselves the right of renouncing their nationality; but it does not admit that one can have at the same time two nationalities, so as to avail himself alternately of the advantages or of the honors adherent to each, without participating in the burdens and duties of either.

For this reason, and for others which you can easily imagine—the one, for instance, that it is proper to avoid as much as possible causes of conflict between friendly powers—the Government of the United States has found it advisable to prescribe to its diplomatic agents abroad to abstain themselves, when those who claim their intervention are established in a foreign country without any intention of returning to the United States, such establishment reasonably implying a renunciation of American citizenship.

In the case of your brothers, their American citizenship could not be denied to them in the United States, because it is recognized by law (Revised Statutes, section 1993), and because their residence within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States would be a satisfactory evidence that they hold to their original nationality and that they are not merely Americans by right or in theory, but also Americans in fact.

The settlement of your brothers and yourself in the country where your father was born, and where they were born themselves, being apparently definitive, the minister finds himself compelled to refuse the certificate of citizenship they apply for. If, however, they desire it, the minister will suhmit their case to the superior decision of the Secretary of State.

I have, &c.,