Kasson to Mr. Reichard, November 14, 1884

Mr. Kasson to Mr. Reichard.

Sir: Your letter of the 10th instant is received. With it you inclose a communication addressed to the German ministry for foreign affairs, and request that the same he transmitted to its destination by this legation, in order, as you state, that it may receive more attentive consideration. In the communication to this legation, as well as in that to the German ministry, you present facts relating to your compliance before emigration with the obligation of military service in your native country, your acquisition of citizenship in the United States, and your places of residence since, and conclude by soliciting both from this legation and the German ministry expressions of their views upon your case.

The essential facts stated appear to be the following: You were born in Germany in 1820; emigrated in 1844, at the age of twenty-four years, to the United States, where you were naturalized January 21, 1850, as shown by a certificate of naturalization now in your possession; that in the summer of 1881 you returned to Germany in pursuit of health, and settled at Dresden; that, after a residence in Germany of more than two years, you returned last winter for business and other purposes to the United States, where you spent six months; that, finding the American climate still injurious to your health, and being advised by your physicians to absent yourself for several years more, you returned to Germany, after obtaining a new passport from the Department of State, and after making yourself acquainted with the details of the Bancroft treaty, with the special view of guarding yourself against the stipulation of Article IV of said treaty. You also state that you addressed a communication to the honorable Secretary of State on the subject of your case, and received, under date of March 19, 1884, a reply thereto which left your position still clouded with doubt.

You quote the three questions submitted in your communication to the Department of State, and request this legation to answer them, substantially repeating the same inquiries in your inclosure addressed to the German Government.

Briefly stated, you wish to know (1) whether, in view of the state of your health, you may again stay in Germany for more than two years without forfeiting for yourself or children, now all minors and born in the United States, the rights of American citizenship; (2) whether a possible forcible alteration of your citizenship would bring about a change in the citizenship of your minor children and your native American wife; (3) would your return to the United States every two years for a limited period remove all doubts and difficulties?

Replying to your first inquiry, you are informed that Atrticle IV of the treaty referred to leaves it optional with the German authorities to hold that the renunciation of American citizenship exists, as to these authorities, after your residence in Germany shall have been prolonged beyond the period of two years. This legation cannot anticipate the action thereon of the German Government. But if they should so hold, that would not make you a German subject without voluntary proceedings taken by yourself therefor. As we read the German naturalization law, after being once a citizen of another country you can again become a German subject only by applying for naturalization under their forms of law. They might expel you from Germany, but cannot make you a subject against your will.

In reply to your second inquiry, your children were all born in America—we so understand it—after you became a citizen. They are, therefore, native-born American citizens, and can become liable as German subjects in only one of two ways—(a) by their father becoming a German subject during their minority and while they remain under paternal control, or (b) by they themselves voluntarily becoming naturalized under German laws. We know of no case of an American-born citizen being put into the army as a German subject, without the father’s consent, either by naturalization or expressly. Your own naturalization as a German subject would abandon for your wife and for your minor children, at least till they attain their majority, their rights as American citizens, as their condition always follows yours.

In reply to your third inquiry, the legation is of opinion that recurring visits to Germany, not prolonged beyond two years, are permissible under the treaty, if preceded by bona fide resumptions of residence in the United States, and that the residence of six months which preceded your recent return to Germany should be regarded as such a residence.

In the opinion of this legation, the German Government reserved the right in question in order to act or decline to act upon each case as it should be presented at the time for action, without interference by the United States. We do not, therefore, believe that you would now obtain from them a satisfactory reply, and do not think it advisable to transmit your application to them, thus calling special attention to your case and that of your children. The only effect, in our view of the case, of your overstaying two years would, be to give the German authorities the right to say (without our interference) that you or your children, or both, must become naturalized or leave the country. As long as you hold to the bona fide intention to return to the United States to reside there as a citizen, we hold you and your minor children to be still American citizens.

Your inclosures are herewith returned.

I am, &c.,