Mr. Seward to Mr. Fogg.
Sir: Your despatch of July 13, No. 64, has been received, and has been considered with all the attention due to the subject of which it treats, and with that profound respect and good will which the United States habitually entertain for the republic of Switzerland.
I have no hesitation in approving and confirming all that you have written to the federal council upon the case of John Zweifel. That person emigrated to this country and became naturalized here. As a citizen of the United States he had free choice to remain here and enjoy the full benefits of his change of allegiance, or to return to Switzerland, escaping such responsibilities, and foregoing such present benefits of American citizenship as are dependent on domicile in the United States. By the constitution and laws of Switzerland and by treaty he was entitled to visit and indefinitely remain in that country. The United States by force of any law or treaty cannot impose upon him in Switzerland the performance of any of the duties of a citizen, nor even require that he shall be obliged to leave that country and return to the United States. No law of nations, no treaty, no law of the United States, nor even any municipal law of any State or city, entitles a citizen, whether native or natural zed, who voluntarily abandons this country and seeks asylum in a foreign land, to be supported there or to be recalled here to receive support or even protection from this government. No law of nations, no treaty, no law of the United States, no municipal law of any State or city makes any provision either for supporting such paupers in voluntary exile or for bringing them here as objects of public charity. No law or treaty of any kind binds the United States to Switzerland or to any other country, to relieve it from the care of the poor of whatever class, who by treaties or emigration has fallen under its care. Nor is the principle which is deduced from these premises a harsh, or ungenerous, or inhuman one. The United States receive a thousand emigrants from every European country in exchange for each individual American citizen who seeks a foreign domicile. Among such emigrants who are annually reckoned now even by hundreds of thousands many come who either flee from poverty or disease at home, or are overtaken by such affliction on their way hither and succumb to them after arriving here. All such are at once placed upon the broad foundations of our public charities, and the question is not even asked whence they came, nor even the question whether they have become naturalized, or in any way domiciled in the United States.
The United States will in good faith fulfil their treaty with Switzerland. All of their citizens who shall be sent hither by the government of that republic in conformity with the treaty will be cheerfully received at all times and under all circumstances, they, their wives and their children. But this government must decline to go further and become almoners in foreign countries, or bring back at the public expense recreant or inconstant citizens who fall into misfortune abroad.
I am sir, your obedient servant,
George G. Fogg, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Berne.