Mr. Riotte to Mr.
Seward.
No. 138.]
Legation of the U S. of America, Costa Rica,
San José,
December 10, 1865.
Sir: By my despatch No. 92, of January 13th,
1864, I had the honor of reporting to you a nuisance complained of by
this government, namely, that young men from this republic go to the
United States, remain there for a short time, obtain, by means of hard
swearing and an inexcusable levity on the part of the courts, letters of
naturalization, upon which they return for good to their native country,
or leave the United States for other parts, and all this for the sole
purpose of making this citizenship a bar against the enforcement of
whatever obligation by their native or any other government. You were
good enough to express in your despatch of February 10th, 1864, No. 73,
your approval of the views then ventured by me. Since that time I have
ascertained that six individuals from here claim to have become American
citizens in this way: respectively to have made their declaration of
intention and purpose living here until the three years have expired,
when they intend to return to the United States and claim letters of
naturalization. One of those men, a Venezuelean by birth, but from most
ultra-secessionist German parents, left New York two years ago, after
obtaining letters of naturalization within some weeks of his arrival
there, for Hamburg, Germany, where he is now claiming American
citizenship, as I am informed.
I need but little to add to the five enclosures, from which you will be
able to survey the whole case as now presented, and I beg you to make
allowance for the copiousness of my answer to Messrs. Quezada. I
considered it necessary, inasmuch as I know that quite a number of
persons—some say about one hundred—were waiting for my decision, in
order to adopt, if it proved favorable to Messrs. Quezada’s claim, the
course followed by them.
My doubt as to the legality of the naturalization papers laid before me
arises from the non-compliance with the requirements of the act of
Congress of May 24th, 1828, (United States Statutes, 1824–1835, page
310,) though I am not quite sure whether this law was meant to apply to
all naturalizations, or only to those of a certain class. Kent (vol. 2,
page 28) thinks it universally applicable, and I know that many courts
in the United States in issuing naturalization papers are acting upon
the same opinion. Concerning the remedies against this glaring evil, I
took at the time the liberty of suggesting some, but further
consideration has taught me that their adoption alone would not stop it
entirely. I think it bad that clerks of courts, too, are authorized to
grant such papers, and that it is not made the exclusive duty and
privilege of courts in open session, which would certainly prevent a
good deal of false swearing. But the main difficulty is, that in our
large cities two witnesses can be got at any moment—and very cheap—to
swear to anything; that the persons hunting up such witnesses have as a
matter of course, made up their minds beforehand to commit perjury; that
there is no officer bound to look after the interest of the United
States in such cases, and that the judges or clerks, instead of
requiring two good, substantial witnesses, (they ought to know them
personally,) seem to be satisfied with almost any class of
witnesses.
[Page 431]
Let me also suggest that the enforcing of the income tax on American
citizens living abroad would materially contribute towards cooling the
great fervor of foreigners for becoming United States citizens in the
manner and for the purposes above stated.
In conclusion I have to say that when, during the second interview with
Messrs. Quezada, I put to them some questions with a view to clearing up
some points, they refused replying to them, saying that they were so
advised; and that their appeal was delivered to me so late, (as I think
purposely,) that I could not notice any of their statements in this
despatch.
I have the honor, sir, to be, most respectfully, your obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
No. 1.
[Translation.]
San José, Costa
Rica,
November 27, 1865.
Señor: The undersigned, North American
citizens, having to reside for sometime in this country, beg you to
certify to the authenticity of our naturalization papers, which we
enclose, and to grant us your protection as such.
With every consideration,
G. FRANCISCO QUEZADA.
G. JUAN QUEZADA.
Hon. Señor Don Carlos N. Riotte,
&c., &c., &c.
No. 2.
[Translation.]
Mr. Volio to Mr. Riotte.
Palacio Nacional,
San José,
November 28, 1865.
The supreme executive power, determined upon the fulfilment of the
law of December ‘2, 1850, which I enclose in a printed copy, for the
organization of the armed force necessary for the defence of the
republic and for the conservation of order in the interior, has
resolved upon appointing the officers wanting, selecting for that
purpose young men able to perform that chargé according to the
law.
Among those appointed are Messrs. Francisco and Juan Quezada, who
decline to accept the charge on the ground that they are citizens of
the United States, as they say, by virtue of naturalization papers
which they assert to have deposited in the legation, at your honor’s
charge.
It is notorious that the said young men never had an intention to
settle (radicarse, to take root) in the United States; that they
owned no property in that republic, and that, on the contrary, it is
here that they lived, and yet live, settled, where they have their
plantations and all their business; from which clearly follows that
those young men, by coveting American citizenship, had only in view
to elude the duties imposed by the constitution and laws of their
country without foregoing the advantages they might offer them.
Although the government cannot, even for a moment, admit that a Costa
Rican naturalized in a foreign country continues that character
after having returned to the country with the implicit intention to
live in it, still, desirous of giving a new evidence of its sympathy
with that of the United States, it has determined to take no further
steps on the excuse of Messrs. Quezada before knowing the opinion of
their representative, notwithstanding that, in the conversations
which I had the honor of holding with you, I was always gratified to
hear you express yourself in the most just and patriotic sense on
the established principles of nationality and the formalities to be
observed to maintain them.
Under these circumstances does the government hope from your kindness
that you will be pleased to communicate to it, in the sincerest
manner, all that you deem advisable on the subject.
I avail myself of this opportunity, &c., &c.
[Page 432]
No. 3.
Mr. Riotte to Messrs. Francisco and G. Juan
Quezada.
Legation of the United States,
Costa Rica,
San José,
November 28, 1865.
Gentlemen: In your application to me of
yesterday, wherewith were enclosed two documents purporting to be
your naturalization papers as citizens of the United States, issued
by the court of common pleas of the county and city of New York, on
June 3, 1862, you request me,
1. “To certify to the authenticity of your (our) naturalization
papers.”
2. And to extend to you as American citizens my official
protection.
In your conversation with me you have stated that the object of your
application was to be protected by your asserted quality as American
citizens against the recent demand upon you by the authorities of
this republic to serve in the militia of the country.
I will assume that you are the identical persons to whom those
documents were issued, though there is a discrepancy between your
respective names as stated in them and as signed in your
application; inasmuch, however, as it does not properly come under
my jurisdiction to certify to the signature and official quality of
either ministerial or judicial officers in the United States, as
neither the person signing those documents, nor his signature, nor
the seal affixed thereto are known to me, as in this country those
documents, if of any use, solely can be used before the
representatives of the United States, neither of whom would be bound
by the certificate of the other; and ultimately, as I have doubts on
the genuineness of these documents, since they do not strictly agree
with the forms prescribed by law, I must decline to comply with your
first request.
As to the second, I will say that those documents appear to be issued
by a competent court, certifying that each of you has taken the oath
prescribed by the naturalization laws of the United States, and that
such a certificate raises, according to decisions of the Supreme
Court of the United States, the presumption that the court was
satisfied as to your moral character, and your attachment to the
principles of the Constitution of the United States, so that at that
time your oath did confer upon you the privileges of United States
citizens.
But now look at your course subsequent to that 3d of June, 1862, when
you became American citizens, after a residence in the United
States, as you, Mr. Francisco Quezada, told me yourself, of but
something like four years. Did you, gentlemen, in any manner evince
an intention or desire of continued residence within the United
States; of entering there into any kind of a lasting occupation or
business; of assimilating with the people and becoming one of them;
of making there your home, and of contributing with your mind or
means to the welfare and prosperity of your adopted country? I
suppose I do not need to remind you that the moment of your adoption
fell into that epoch, when, during all the four years of devastating
war, the cause of the Union looked most despondent. Did you, or
either of you, enter the army along with hundreds of thousands of
native and adopted citizens to defend the integrity of that very
country, whose citizenship to secure you had been so anxious, that
you could not even wait for the lapse of the legal probation term of
five years ? Did you in any other way contribute towards sustaining
our assailed country in her struggle for life ? You have not even
pretended having done so. Hither you returned, if not immediately
upon, at all events, soon enough after the 3d of June, 1862, to
avoid being drafted, to the house and business of your family; you
went on raising and selling coffee under absolutely the same
condition as you had been in the habit of doing before leaving for
the United States. All your relations, political, municipal, social,
and domestic, were the same as before that event. On not a single
occasion since your return did you, or either of you, to my
knowledge, claim or pretend to be American citizens, although the
unfortunate condition of our country furnished ample opportunity,
and her calls upon all her sons, both native-born and adopted, were
loud and pressing. Ever since your return have you been in the quiet
enjoyment of the protection and rights of the laws of your native
country, as citizens of which you were regarded by the authorities,
as well as by your fellow-citizens, except, perhaps, a few knowing
ones. In fact, you kept your pretended quality of American citizens
a strict secret; for what reasons and with what purpose I don’t need
to explain.
From all these facts, I cannot resist the conclusion that in removing
from the United States it was your intention to make your permanent
settlement in Costa Rica for an indefinite time, and that thus by
your own acts you have made yourself again citizens of this
republic. You cannot deny that your domicile was in Costa Rica prior
to your leaving for the United States. To lose that you must have
left this country with the intention of abandoning your old, and of
acquiring a new domicile in the United States. You have presented no
proof of either. And again you cannot gainsay that for about three
years your domicile is again in Costa Rica, and as, according to the
laws of nations, the national character depends upon the domicile,
you will retain that character as long as you retain the
domicile.
But even assuming, for argument sake, that you were still citizens of
the United States, there is another consideration which is not to be
lost sight of, in deciding upon your second request. A law of Costa
Rica (of December 2, 1850) imposes upon every citizen the obligation
to serve in the army. You had not complied with that duty previous
to your adoption
[Page 433]
as
American citizens, and it is the enforcement of that very duty which
has brought out your claim to the United States citizenship. Now, I
know well that the claim of an adopted citizen’s native country to
the fulfilment of his military duty towards that country and the
extent of that claim was, and is at this moment, a mooted question
between the government of the United States and several European
monarchies. Until that question is decided, however, I can scarcely
fail if I adopt the view of one of our greatest statesmen, when he
answered an adopted citizen in a case perfectly the same as yours:
“But having returned to the country of your birth, your native
domicile and national character revert, and you are bound to obey
the laws exactly as if you had never emigrated,” especially in a
case like yours, and, as I am informed, of several other Costa
Ricans, when, by abusing the liberality of our laws to immigrants
from all parts of the globe, and by practicing criminal deception
upon the courts of our country, one becomes an American citizen for
the sole purpose of ridding oneself both of all obligations towards
the United States by leaving them as soon as letters of
naturalization are procured, and of those to the country of one’s
birth by these very papers thus surreptitiously obtained. For all
these reasons, I must likewise decline to extend to you the
protection of the American flag in this case.
I hereby return to you the document you left with me, and it only
remains for me to tell you that, inasmuch as you have expressed an
intention of appealing from my decision, if unfavorable to your
pretensions, to that of the government of the United States, upon my
intervention the government of this republic has agreed to waive the
enforcement of your military duty pending the negotiations on the
question, and that I herewith offer to forward your appeal along
with my despatches to the Department of State of the United States,
if you will deliver it to me in time for the next steamer, (10th of
next month.)
I am, gentlemen, &c., &c., &c.,
Messrs. G. Francisco and G. Juan Quezada.
No. 4.
Mr. Riotte to Mr. Volio.
Legation of the United States of
America, Costa Rica,
San José,
November 30, 1865.
I had the honor of receiving your esteemed despatch of 28th instant,
relative to the claim set up by Francisco and Juan Quezeda of this
city to the United States citizenship, informing me that your
government, in deference to that of the United States, would abstain
from enforcing upon said gentlemen the performance of their military
duty, and requesting me to communicate to you as much as I thought
proper of my opinion on the question raised by said gentlemen.
Allow me first to state the principal facts as they appear in the
case. Messrs. Quezada are Costa Ricans by birth; their mother,
brother, and sister live here, with whom together they always formed
one household and managed several coffee haciendas. Some years ago
they went to the United. States, acquired, during a transitory
sojourn there, naturalization papers as citizens of the United
States upon a fraudulent proof on the length of their residence in
those States, returned soon after to this country, their home, and
to the house and business of their family, and are in this condition
living here for about three years.
Though I have, on the strength of Mr. Francisco Quezada’s own
admission and of what is notorious in this city, not the shadow of a
doubt that those letters of naturalization have been surreptitiously
obtained by false swearing, yet I have no authority, according to
several decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, to deny
their recognition, inasmuch as such letters are declared to be,
“like other judgments, complete evidence of their own validity.”
But I could not discover in this case, on the part of those two
gentlemen, the least indication of an animus
manendi in the United States, and I considered myself, on
the contrary, justified in assuming that, according to reasonable
rules of interpretation and general principles of evidence, it was
indubitable that by their own acts their native domicile and
national character had reverted to them upon taking up their
residence, which, from concurrent circumstances, has all presumption
of being a permanent one again in this country. I was thus compelled
to refuse to extend to the young men the protection of the American
flag, who will, however, as I was by them informed, appeal from
this, my decision, to that of the government of the United
States.
Praying you to accept my thanks for the consideration shown by your
government to mine in postponing any ulterior steps until the
opinion of my government on the question can be known, I beg to add
the assurance that, much as both the people and the government of
the United States desire immigration of honest and substantial
people from all nations, they detest and brand with their sincere
contempt the unfair and criminal practices by which unscrupulous
foreigners endeavor to establish for themselves a spurious
citizenship, and so form
[Page 434]
a
kind of floating population, ever bent upon entangling the United
States into difficulties with foreign nations for their selfish and
unpatriotic aims, yet never willing to submit to the burdens and to
perform the duties of a true son of their adopted country.
I have the honor, sir, &c.
No. 5.
[Untitled]
United States of America,
State of New York and County of New York:
Be it remembered that on the third day of June, in the year of our
Lord 1862, Francisco Quezada appeared in the court of common pleas
for the city and county of New York, the said court being a court of
record, having common law jurisdiction and a clerk and seal, and
applied to the said court to be admitted to become a citizen of the
United States of America pursuant to the directions of act of
Congress of the United States of America entitled “An act to
establish a uniform rule of naturalization and to repeal the acts
heretofore passed on that subject,” passed April 14, 1802, and the
act entitled “An act for the regulation of seamen on board the
public and private vessels of the United States,” passed March 3,
1813, and the “act relative to evidence in cases of naturalization,”
passed March 22, 1816, and the act entitled “An act in further
addition to an act to establish a uniform rule of naturalization and
to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that subject,” passed May
26, 1824, and an act entitled “An act to amend the acts concerning
naturalization,” passed May 24, 1828, and an act to amend the act
entitled “An act for the regulation of seamen on board the public
and private vessels of the United States,” passed June 26, 1848, and
“An act to secure the rights of citizenship to the children of
citizens of the United States born out of the limits thereof,”
passed February 10, 1854–‘5; and the said applicant having thereupon
produced to the court such evidence, made such declaration and
renunciation, and taken such oaths as are by said acts required,
thereupon it was ordered by the said court that the said applicant
be admitted, and he was accordingly admitted to be a citizen of the
United States of America.
In testimony whereof, the seal of the
said court is hereto affixed this 3d
day of June, 1862, and the 86th year of the independence of
the United States.
By the court:
[seal.] NATHANIEL JARVIS, Clerk.
