I have the honor, in pursuance of our understanding, to transmit
respectfully to your excellency the inclosed project for a
treaty.
I beg you to consider this project as a suggestion merely, not
binding, as I have not yet submitted it to Count Bismarck, and have
received as yet no instructions respecting it.
[Translation.]
[Untitled]
1. Members of the North German Union who acquire the right of
citizenship in the United States of America shall, in their
relation to the North German Union, and citzens of the United
States of America who acquire membership in the territory of the
North German Union shall, in their relation to the United States
of America, enjoy the full operation of their naturalization
only after an uninterrupted residence of five years in the
country in which they are naturalized; so that a German
naturalized in America, who, before completion of his five
years’ residence there, returns to the territory of the North
German Union, can be required to discharge all the public duties
which the laws of the same impose upon him, without any
objection thereto being made by the government of the United
States; while in like manner an American naturalized within the
territory of the North German Union, who, before completion of
his five years’ residence there, returns to the United States,
can be required to discharge all the public duties which the
laws of the same impose upon him, without objection thereto
being made by the said Union.
[Page 46]
The mere declaration of the citizens and members of the one
country, of a wish to become respectively citizens or members of
the other, has not the effect of naturalization.
2. Naturalization in the territory of one of the contracting
parties does not prevent the person naturalized from being, upon
his return to the territory of the other, subject to trial and
punishment on account of any punishable acts committed before
emigration.
3. The terms of the present treaty do not affect the agreements
in Article 3 of the convention of June 16, 1852, between Prussia
and other states of the German Union on the one side, and the
United States of America on the other, concerning the delivery
up in certain cases of criminals fugitive from justice. The said
treaty will hereafter be applicable to all States of the North
German Union.
4. If a German, naturalized in America returns to the territory
of the North German Union and settles there permanently, he
shall have no claim upon the protection of the government of the
United States. In like manner an American, naturalized in the
territory of the North German Union, who returns to the United
States and permanently settles there, shall have no claim upon
the protection of the North German Union.
The intention to take up a permanent residence shall [soil] be
regarded as existing when the person naturalized resides for
more than two years within the territory of the other party.
5. The present treaty goes into effect——, and continues in force
till———. If neither party gives notice to the other six months
before of its intent to terminate the same, it shall continue in
force until twelve months after one of the contracting parties
shall give notice to the other of such intention.
6. The present treaty shall be ratified by the King of Prussia in
the name of the North German Union, with the consent of the
council of the Union and the approval of the imperial Diet, and
by the President of the United States, by and with the consent
of the Senate; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at
Berlin within—— months of the present date.
