John Adam Kasson to John Adam Kasson, March 8, 1881
No. 28. Mr. Kasson to Mr. Evarts.
No. 432.]
Sir: I beg to advise the Department of the circumstances attending the arrest and expulsion from Austrian territory of one Jacob Erasmus, who claimed to be an American citizen, and so applied to this legation for protection, and of my intervention therein.
This intervention was promptly made, and developed the fact that he was arrested for recruiting emigrants for the United States, to be shipped by a particular line of steamers, and for a reward to be paid by the steamship company; that the statements of his telegram to me were of questionable veracity; the official report stating his business to be quite other than the “arrangement of his affairs,” and that he himself emigrated only three years ago, in which case he could not now be an American citizen.
The official reports are of further value as indicating the laws and ordinances of this empire, applicable to efforts to induce emigration.
No further communication has been received from Erasmus. Copies of the correspondence are herewith inclosed for the full information of the Department.
I have, &c.,