No. 283.
Mr. White
to Mr. Evarts.
Berlin, September 21, 1880. (Received October 9.)
Sir: At the request of Count Limburg-Stirurn, minister in charge of foreign affairs, I called at the foreign office this morning. The subject which he opened to me was the Alsace-Lorraine matter referred to in my dispatch No. 146. He said that the German Government remain fully of the opinion that the treaties of 1868 do not apply, but that the government is ready to enter into negotiations regarding an additional treaty for Alsace-Lorraine.
He also said that as the existing treaties were more to the advantage of the United States than of Germany, the government thought it proper that the proposals for negotiations be made from our side.
Without acknowledging at all that the United States was more benefited than Germany, I promised to communicate with you, and in due time inform him of the result. I then pressed upon him the matter of the naturalized Americans from Alsace-Lorraine who had fallen into difficulties there, and urged that these cases receive speedy attention, laying stress upon the fact that these men certainly were guilty of no crime, and that it is a case of very great hardship, one which our own government feels deeply. To this he replied that this is a matter which he must reserve for the present, and cited the maxim, “Ignorantia juris non excusat.” To this I replied that I could not see the application of the maxim in this case; that the construction was one which we had distinct reasons for supposing definitely settled; that certainly it was not ignorance of any law but rather a knowledge of what was taken as law by our government and acknowledged as the law by his own, which led these individuals into trouble; that it was utterly impossible for them to have acted otherwise. He replied that this was a matter which he must reserve, but intimated that there is another way out of the difficulty, by which I understood him to mean that there might be a direct interposition on their behalf from the central governmental authority.
I would, therefore, respectfully ask for instructions on the points raised in this interview.
You will observe that Prince von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst has been succeeded by Count Limburg-Stirum. Whether the former is to return to his position at Paris or to resume his duties here, is uncertain.
The name of Count von Hatzfeldt, now German ambassador at Constantinople, has been frequently mentioned in connection with the post here, but nothing seems decided. I need not say that these frequent changes add to the difficulties in the case.
I have, &c.,