Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 8th instant, relative to the oath required of foreigners applying for passes to go beyond the military lines at Nashville, in Tennesee.
In reply, I have the honor to state that I differ with your lordship in supposing that the oath referred to, in the form required, would imply the least renunciation of the rights and duties to their own sovereign of those British subjects who might wish for passes. Those rights and duties can only be voluntarily and expressly relinquished in this country under any circumstances. The oath is merely a measure of military precaution, usual and necessary at such a juncture. It is but temporary and local, also, in its application. Any [Page 473] express reservation of the allegiance of British subjects to their natural sovereign would rather seem to me to imply a right on our part to claim that renunciation, a claim which is not advanced by this government.
I have the honor to be your very obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons, &c., &c., &c.