No. 259.
Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Fish.
American
Legation,
Berlin,
March 23, 1874. (Received April 11.)
No. 577.]
Sir: In reply to your instruction No. 650, received
on the 8th of March, I have the honor to state that I at once addressed a
note of inquiry
[Page 442]
to the acting
minister of foreign affairs of Würtemberg as to the truth of the statement
that a criminal named Rohrer had been offered a pardon upon condition of
emigration to America.
I send you to-day a translation of the reply of the acting minister, Count
von Uxkull, which seems to convey an explicit denial not only as to the case
reported, but in general as to any practice of granting such pardons in
Würtemberg.
I shall therefore, unless otherwise instructed, not pursue the matter
further.
I remain, &c.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Mr. Von Uxkull to
Mr. Bancroft.
Royal
Würtemberg Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Stuttgart, March 17, 1874.
His excellency the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, Mr.
Bancroft, has been pleased, in his esteemed note of the 9th of this
month, to express to the undersigned the wish to receive more exact
information respecting a statement contained in the Ulmer Schnellpost,
that a criminal by the name of Rohrer, condemned for triple murder, had
received a pardon upon condition of emigration to America.
The undersigned has not failed to request of the royal ministry of
justice information on the subject, and has the honor, as the result of
his inquiry, to communicate to his excellency that neither to a criminal
by the name of Rohrer, nor to any other criminal condemned for murder,
has a pardon under condition of emigration to America been either
offered or granted; and, moreover, that pardons on this condition are
not granted.
The undersigned has the honor respectfully to add that possibly the
statement in question may have confounded the case of Johannes Roser, of
Laupheim, condemned to imprisonment for eighteen years, to whom, after
serving out the half of this term, in consideration of his exemplary
conduct in the prison, and upon occasion of the birthday of His Majesty,
the remainder of his sentence was by royal decree of the 4th of this
month remitted upon condition of permanent absence
from the German Empire.
The undersigned takes with pleasure this occasion to renew the assurance
of his most distinguished consideration.
For the minister of foreign affairs.
The Counselor of State,
VON
UXKULL.
