No. 8.
Washington, January 30, 1872.
[Circular No. 17.]
[Addressed to each of the diplomatic representatives of foreign countries in the United States.]
Sir: As the special tax formerly imposed upon each passport issued to citizens of the United States has been repealed by Congress, this Department, in pursuance of law, has so modified its regulations that, hereafter, any passport issued to a citizen of the United States from this Department will be considered valid for one year from its date, though the same may have been used on a former absence of the holder from the United States. I would therefore thank, you to inform the consuls serving your government in this country of this modification of a former regulation of this Department, to the end that they may continue to abstain from attaching their visé to passports issued by this. Department which are a year or more old when presented for visé, but that they need no longer refrain from attaching the visé to passports which are less than a year old on the ground that they have been used on a former absence of the holder from the United States.
Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my distinguished consideration.