Having examined your instructions, and being informed of the facts of the
case, I have felt no hesitation in communicating to Baron Jomini, the acting
minister of foreign affairs, the protest of our government against the
expulsion of American citizens from Russia for no other reason than their
adherence to the Jewish religion. It will be seen that in my note upon the
subject, of which I inclose a copy herewith, I have adopted the language of
your dispatch, and have only enlarged upon that dispatch in referring to the
experience had in the United States in admitting the Jews to the full and
unrestricted rights of citizens, which I deemed warranted by the tenor of
your dispatch No. 2, of April 14 last.
[Inclosure in No. 37.]
Mr. Foster to Baron
Jomini
Legation of the United States,
St. Petersburg, September 2–14,
1880.
Excellency: The expulsion from this city of
Henry Pinkos, a citizen of the United States, with the aggravating
circumstances attending it, having been brought to the attention of my
government, I have been instructed by the Secretary of State to make
known to your excellency the views of my government thereon, and to
protest against the treatment which said citizen has received.
Although the case has been heretofore brought to the attention of your
excellency’s department, it may be well to recall the facts attending
it. In the month of April last, before I assumed the charge of this
legation, Henry Pinkos applied to the consul-general of the United
States in this capital for relief from an order which he said he had
received from the police authorities to leave St. Petersburg, the only
reason for his expulsion, as he understood it, being that he was a Jew.
He was provided with a passport fully authenticating his American
citizenship. The consul-general, upon inquiry, was informed that he was
an industrious and quiet tradesman, and with a wife and one child had
been residing in this city for some months. In the frequent interviews
of the consul-general with the police authorities no charges or
intimations were ever made that Pinkos was other than a peaceable and
law-abiding resident.
The only relief which the consul-general and the chargé d’affaires of
this legation could obtain from the police authorities was a suspension
for a few days of the order of expulsion, until Mr. Hoffman was able to
communicate with the foreign office and obtained through Mr. de Giers
permission for Pinkos to remain for three months, to enable him to close
up his business. At the expiration of this period Pinkos, having sold
his little property at a sacrifice, proceeded to obey the order, placed
his baggage on board a vessel at Cronstadt, and when preparing to embark
with his family he was asked by the police for his passport; whereupon
he presented his American passport with which he had entered the
country, with the police indorsement upon it ordering him to leave St.
Petersburg, which he supposed was sufficient. The police informed him
that this was not sufficient, and compelled him and his family to return
to St. Petersburg. The captain of the vessel refused to refund him the
passage-money paid, and sailed without him, carrying off his luggage.
Having obtained from the authorities the permission required by the
police, finding himself penniless, he was indebted to priveate charity
for the means to leave the country, which he has done in compliance with
the original order referred to above.
While the order was in its form merely an expulsion from St. Petersbug,
Mr. Pinkos understood it to be virtually an order to leave the empire,
in view of the fact that similar measures had been taken in Moscow and
other cities, and of the announcement in the public press, that foreign
Jews were to be excluded from the country.
The Secretary of State instructs me to state to your excellency that in
the presence of the 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
[Page 882]
seeks to protect all its
citizens of whatever origin or faith, solemnly, hut with all respect to
the Government of His Imperial Majesty, to protest. As this order of
expulsion is understood to apply to all foreign Jews, in certain, cities
or localities, at least, of Russia, it is, of course, apparent that the
same is not directed specially against the government of which Mr.
Pinkos is a citizen, and, indeed, the long standing amity which has
united the interests of Russia with those of the Government of the
United States 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 subjects from the United States, on the
ground of his attachment to the faith of his fathers.
It having been intimated to the Secretary of State by this legation that
the reason of this order may be found in the supposed implication of
Jews in the plots formed against the life of His Imperial Majesty, the
Emperor, the Secretary directs me to say that 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
existed any good evidence that Mr. Pinkos has been connected with any of
these attempts, the Government of the United States could not object to
this expulsion on that ground. But neither the police authorities, in
the several communications which the members of the consulate-general
and this legation have had with them, in their efforts to obtain relief
for Mr. Pinkos, nor your excellency’s department, in the notes addressed
to this legation on the subject, have ever intimated the existence of
such a charge. Nor does the character of the citizens of the United
States of Jewish faith afford ground for the supposition that they would
be likely to engage in conspiracies or plots against the established
government of the country. From the foundation of the United States as a
nation, they have been entitled to the full and unrestricted privileges
of citizens, and have shown themselves to be peaceable and law observing
in their conduct, quiet and industrious in their habits and are esteemed
a valuable portion of the community, so that in so far as the regulation
for the expulsion of foreign Jews from Russia affects American citizens,
whatever may be the conduct of their co-religionists of this or other
countries, it is an unjust reflection upon American Jews as a class and
a discrimination which cannot be acquiesced in by my government.
As, then, it does not appear that any criminal or improper conduct has
been established against Mr. Pinkos, the Secretary confidently submits
to His Imperial Majesty’s Government, whether in view of the fact that
Mr. Pinkos has been interrupted in his peaceful occupations and expelled
from Russia on the sole ground that his religious views are of one kind
rather than another, he is not justly entitled to make reclamation for
the damage and loss to which he has been subjected.
In thus presenting, for consideration and appropriate action, the views
of my government upon this important subject, I improve, &c.,
