William H. Seward to Reverdy Johnson, September 23, 1868

Mr. Seward to Mr. Johnson

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the 12th of September, No. 14.

The President has taken into serious consideration your suggestion that your instructions should be modified so that in a certain contingency you might be authorized to arrange the San Juan question and the Alabama claims before any adjustment of the naturalization question should have been made.

Our conclusion is, that in the event that you become convinced that an arrangement of the naturalization question which would be satisfactory to the United States, in view of your previous instructions, can be made, then and in that case you may open concurrent negotiations upon the two questions first herein named, to wit, San Juan and the claims questions; but that those two negotiations shall not be completed, or your proceedings therein be deemed obligatory, until after the naturalization question shall have been satisfactorily settled by treaty or by law of Parliament.

The reason for this decision is, that notwithstanding the President might repose implicit confidence in assurances which you may receive of an ultimate and satisfactory solution of the naturalization question, yet that this government must, nevertheless, conduct its proceedings in all negotiations with proper deference and respect to the state of opinion which prevails in the Senate, in Congress, and among the people of the United States.

Irritation and jealousy, produced by the unsatisfactory condition of the naturalization laws, were almost daily manifested in the debates, and they marked the proceedings of both houses throughout the whole of the last session of Congress. If this temper of the national mind shall continue, as it probably will, a departure now from the instructions I have heretofore given, so far as to change the order of negotiation, would excite apprehensions that our efforts for the settlement of the naturalization question would prove unavailing, and thus the existing popular anxiety would be increased to a height that might induce Congress to disapprove, and the Senate to reject, even the very arrangements which otherwise might have proved satisfactory in regard to the San Juan and claims questions.

The North German Union and several others of the continental nations have already conceded, by formal treaty, the principle of the defeasibility of allegiance by naturalization, perfected in good faith, in the United States as duly preserved.

The dilatory disposition which is manifested by the British government on this disturbing subject is contrasted in all political debates with this liberality of European continental powers, and thus tends to increase our national distrust of Great Britain. The principles to be settled are, that it is the right of every human being, who is neither convicted nor accused of crime, to renounce his home and native allegiance, and seek a new home and transfer his allegiance to any other nation that he may choose; and that having made and perfected that choice in good faith, and still adhering to it in good faith, he shall be entitled, from his new sovereign, to the same protection under the law of nations that that sovereign lawfully extends to his native subjects or citizens.

These principles Great Britain continues to deny, theoretically, while with rare exceptions her practice has conceded it for 50 years.

The alarms and misapprehensions resulting from that theoretical denial have been a chief element of popular discontent in the United States during the recent troubles in Canada and Ireland; and those alarms and misapprehensions are renewed whenever any political disturbance reveals itself in any part of the British realm, or even the British empire.

Every consideration of national right and of national dignity, every interest of civilization, and every sentiment of humanity, require the United States to insist upon and maintain, in form no less than in fact, the inviolability of the principles thus defined.

I earnestly hope not only that Warren and Costello may soon be released, as you seem authorized to expect, but that the naturalization question may be settled before the new session of Congress in December.

I think it hardly necessary to repeat the reasons I have heretofore given why it is desirable that the new administration of this government, which is to come in here on the 4th of March, and the reconstructed administration of Great Britain, which is supposed to be near at hand, shall find themselves relieved of all the international questions which, although they are not intrinsically difficult, have nevertheless so long and so painfully embarrassed both nations.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,