No. 561.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Foster.
Washington, June 28, 1880.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Hoffman’s No. 205 and 208, in relation to the expulsion of foreign Jews from certain large [Page 876] towns and cities of Russia, and the expulsion of Mr. Henry Pinkos, a Jew and an American citizen from St. Petersburg in particular. It appears from the latter dispatch that Pinkos has been allowed tore-main three months. Mr. Hoffman does not specifically state that Mr. Pinkos, or the other Jews referred to, have been ordered to leave Russia, as well as St. Petersburg, but that is the implication of the dispatches.
In reply I have to observe that in the presence of this fact, that an American citizen has been ordered to leave Russia on no other ground than that he is the professor of a particular creed, or the holder of certain religious views, it becomes the duty of the Government of the United States, which impartially seeks to protect all its citizens of whatever origin or faith, solemnly, but with all respect to the Government of His Majesty, to protest. As this order of expulsion applies to all foreign Jews, in certain towns or localities, at least, of Russia, it is of course apparent that the same is not directed especially against the government of which Mr. Pinkos is a citizen, and, indeed, the longstanding amity which has united the interests of Russia with those of this government would of itself forbid a remote supposition that such might be the case. Notwithstanding this aspect of the matter, the United States could not fail to look upon the expulsion of one of its citizens from Russia, on the simple ground of his religious ideas or convictions, except as a grievance, akin to that which Russia would doubtless find in the expulsion of one of her own citizens from the United States on the ground of his attachment to the faith of his fathers.
It is intimated in Mr. Hoffman’s No. 205 that the reason of this order may be found in the supposed implication of Jews in the plots formed against the life of the Emperor, and in so far as this may be true the Government of Russia has the entire sympathy of the Government of the United States in all just preventive efforts; and if there exists good evidence that Mr. Pinkos has been connected with any of these attempts the Government of the United States cannot object to his expulsion on that ground. But such a charge does not appear to have been brought against Mr. Pinkos; and it is confidently submitted to His Majesty’s Government whether in the event Mr. Pinkos should finally be expelled from Russia, or be otherwise interrupted in his peaceful occupations, on the sole ground that his religious views are of one kind rather than another, he would not be justly entitled to make reclamation for the damage and loss to which he might thereby be subjected.
You will present these views at the foreign office in the courteous spirit in which they are made.
I am, sir, &c.,