No. 144.
Mr. Seward
to Mr. Everett.
Washington, April 30, 1878.
Sir: A complaint has recently been submitted to this Department on behalf of Mr. Julius Baumer, a citizen of the United States, who has been put to many considerable inconveniences, and incurred also some pecuniary losses, in consequence of certain arbitrary proceedings instituted against him by the local authorities of the province of Westphalia.
The circumstances of the case as represented to the Department are these:
Mr. Baumer, who was a native subject of the King of Prussia, and a resident of Münster, in the province of Westphalia, in February, 1868, he being then twenty years old, obtained from the superior authorities [Page 211] of that province a formal permission in writing, and duly authenticated, to emigrate from his native country. The document in question (a copy of which, as it has been furnished the Department, I herewith inclose), in addition to the permission to emigrate, formally absolves him from his native allegiance, and declares him to be no longer a Prussian subject.
Immediately thereafter Mr. Baumer came to the United States, and took up his permanent residence at Chicago, in the State of Illinois.
After undergoing the ordinary probation, and in all other respects complying with the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization, he was, on the 6th of November, 1876, duly admitted to citizenship by the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois, and from that time has been, and still remains, a citizen of this republic.
In September of last year (1877), Mr. Baumer, desiring to visit his parents, returned to Westphalia, intending to remain some six months. Upon his arrival in Münster, his native town, he was summoned before the police magistrate, subjected to an examination in regard to his business at Chicago, who carried it on during his absence, what he had done since his arrival in Münster, and what he intended to do. Notwithstanding his answers to all these and other questions, which were entirely frank, and showing clearly as they did the purpose of his visit to Münster, and his intention early to return to his home in the United States, it was announced to him by the magistrate that he must either report himself to the proper authorities for the performance of military duty or submit to banishment from the province, which would certainly be visited on him in the event of his failure to so report.
From this order of the police magistrate Baumer sought relief by applying to the superior authorities of the provincial government; but these authorities, on the 12th of October, 1877, issued an order placing him under the alternative of reporting for military duty or leaving the German Empire in eight days.
He then applied to the ministry of the interior, but the minister also approved the order; extending the time he might remain in Münster, however, to February, 1878.
He was informed of this decision by the inspector of police, and was, at the same time, given to understand by that functionary that if he remained one day over his time, he would be escorted under guard across the frontier, and if he returned would be imprisoned. Baumer was thus obliged to leave the country as the only escape from imprisonment or military service. At his own request he was furnished with a written document dated January 22, 1878, to the effect that he was by order of the royal government banished from the country.
Assuming the facts to be correctly stated, the Department has reached the conclusion that the proceedings thus directed against Baumer were unwarranted and illegal, and clearly in contravention of the stipulations of the first article of the treaty of May, 1868, between the United States and the North German Union, and were, moreover, in want of harmony with those principles of comity which have always been extended by the United States and Germany to citizens of either country temporarily residing in the other.
Mr. Baumer’s case is exceptional in this regard, that before leaving his native country he was formally released from his allegiance to Prussia, and declared to be no longer its subject; he thenceforward owed to that government none of the duties arising from citizenship, and he was at the time of these occurrences a citizen of the United States, and as such entitled to claim the protection of this government.
[Page 212]You will take a proper occasion to bring the subject to the attention of the imperial minister for foreign affairs and request that proper inquiry may be instituted, and if the facts be found to be as represented, that measures may be taken to prevent a recurrence of like annoyances to citizens of the United States similarly situated, and you will add that it is expected that Mr. Baumer will be reimbursed for any expenses he may have been subjected to in consequence of these arbitrary proceedings of the Westphalian authorities.
I am, &c.,
Acting Secretary.