Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
My Lord: I have considered with care your lordship’s note of the 9th instant, in which you inform me that it has been represented to you that at New Orleans, employment on certain public works was at one time confined to persons taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, with the result that a considerable number of British subjects took that oath in order to obtain the means of supporting themselves. Upon this state of facts you intimate a desire that it shall be declared definitively by the government that the oath taken in these cases shall not be so interpreted as to affect the civil or political status of those by whom it was sworn.
It is certain that the assumption of the obligation contained in that oath can neither dissolve the allegiance of the persons concerned to their natural sovereign, nor secure for them the full benefits of citizenship in the United States. Neither of those effects could be produced in any other way than by an undergoing of the process of naturalization prescribed by the laws of Congress.
As your lordship must have perceived, there is no difficulty in replying to your suggestion, if its purpose is confined to the points I have noticed. If, however, its meaning goes further, and seeks for a determination of this government in advance as to the operation of the oath upon special claims which those who have taken it may have for exemption, as neutral aliens, from the effect of military orders which may be made by the authorities at New Orleans, I can only say that it is impossible now to anticipate such orders, and resolve in advance the questions which may arise upon them in view of the oath to which you have referred.
To guard against misapprehension it is proper to say, that in the views I have now submitted to you I have assumed that the oath referred to has been in all cases taken voluntarily, without duress or compulsion. If taken under duress or compulsion, it would be held simply void and of no effect. Candor obliges me to add, that those who have thus voluntarily taken it, after having before [Page 596] declared on oath their intention to become citizens of the United States in the manner prescribed by the laws of Congress, would properly be deemed to have thereby waived any claim of exemption from the obligations imposed by the recent act of Congress for the enrolment of the national forces.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, your lordship’s obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons, &c., &c., &c.