No. 28.
Mr. Kasson
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Vienna, March 8, 1881.
(Received March 26.)
No. 432.]
Sir: I beg to advise the Department of the
circumstances attending the arrest and expulsion from Austrian territory of
one Jacob Erasmus,
[Page 39]
who claimed to be
an American citizen, and so applied to this legation for protection, and of
my intervention therein.
This intervention was promptly made, and developed the fact that he was
arrested for recruiting emigrants for the United States, to be shipped by a
particular line of steamers, and for a reward to be paid by the steamship
company; that the statements of his telegram to me were of questionable
veracity; the official report stating his business to be quite other than
the “arrangement of his affairs,” and that he himself emigrated only three
years ago, in which case he could not now be an American citizen.
The official reports are of further value as indicating the laws and
ordinances of this empire, applicable to efforts to induce emigration.
No further communication has been received from Erasmus. Copies of the
correspondence are herewith inclosed for the full information of the
Department.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
432.—Translation.]
Mr. Erasmus to Mr.
Kasson.
[Telegram.]
Vienna, Dorothee-gasse 11. [undated].
Jacob Erasmus, citizen of the North American States, according to
certificate taken from him, has come to his birth-place Roza, Galicia,
for the purpose of arranging his affairs. Rudolf Ciszka, district
captain in Pilzno, arrested me, caused me to be judicially examined by
the court and the papers to be transferred to the public prosecuting
office in Tarnow. Public prosecuting office has found nothing punishable
in me, District Captain Ciszka, notwithstanding, detains me under arrest
and will to-day, without any just cause expel me at the frontier. Beg
speedy assistance and answer. To-morrow all particulars in writing.
His Excellency Mr. John A. Kasson,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
of the United States of America.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
432.—Translation.]
Mr. Kasson to Mr.
Erasmus.
[Telegram.]
Jacob Erasmus, Radomysl:
Your case is before ministry for foreign affairs. Immediate action
requested in your behalf.
KASSON.
February 17,
1881.
[Inclosure 3 in No. 432.]
Mr. Kasson to Baron
Haymerle.
United
States Legation,
Vienna, February 19,
1881.
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the
United! States of America, referring to the telegram from one Jacob
Erasmus, claiming to be an American citizen, and addressed to this
legation, and which was, on the 17th instant,
[Page 40]
informally submitted, through Monsieur de Kallay,
to the ministry for foreign affairs for their examination and following
inquiry, has now the honor to request that the telegram referred to may
be returned to this legation when the same shall have been duly examined
and a copy taken if desired. He will also be glad to be informed of the
result of the inquiry into the truth of the complaint therein made that
Erasmus, as an American citizen, was illegally arrested, and without
cause deprived of the formal document attesting his nationality.
The undersigned avails himself, &c.,
His Excellency Baron Haymerle, &c., &c., &c.
[Inclosure 4 in No.
432.—Translation.]
Baron Haymerle to
Mr. Kasson.
Vienna, February 21,
1881.
In response to the esteemed note of the 19th instant the imperial and
royal ministry for foreign affairs has the honor to transmit with thanks
to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United
States of America, Mr. John A. Kasson, the accompanying telegram of
Erasmus, placed at the disposition of the said ministry, referring to
his detention at Pilzno, and to add the copy of a telegram which the
imperial and royal stattbalterei in Galicia, to whom telegraphic advice
was forthwith sent, addressed to the ministry on the 19th instant, from
which the envoy will perceive that proceedings have been instituted by
the imperial and royal authorities against Erasmus, on account, as
appears, of recruitings for America, in contravention of existing
ordinances.
The imperial and royal ministry for foreign affairs proposes, as soon as
the particulars of the case shall have been communicated to it, as
promised in the telegram, to bring them without delay to the knowledge
of the envoy.
Meanwhile the undersigned avails himself, &c.
For the minister for foreign affairs:
The Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States of America, Mr. John A. Kasson.
[Inclosure 5 in No.
432.—Translation.]
Baron Haymerle to
Mr. Kasson.
Vienna, February 27,
1881.
In pursuance of the respectful note of the 20th instant (No. 3339–7), the
imperial and royal ministry for foreign affairs now has the honor to
communicate to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States of America, Mr. Kasson, the particulars reported to
the ministry by the imperial and royal statthalterei at Lemberg,
relative to the seizure and arrest of the naturalized American citizen,
Jacob Erasmus.
At the end of last month the gendarmery post command in Zassow
ascertained that Jacob Erasmus, landlord from Roja district, Pilzno, who
three years previously emigrated to America, had returned to his native
place, and was occupied in the recruiting of his countrymen for removal
to America.
On the basis of this notification Erasmus was arrested in his own house,
which the imperial and royal gendarmery found formally besieged by
people from the whole vicinity, and was, by the imperial and royal
district captaincy in Pilzno, delivered to the imperial and royal
district court of the same place for official penal action.
The correspondence found in Erasmus’s possession exhibited evidence that
he was charged by the attorney of the North German Lloyd, Carl Behmer,
of Berlin, and by Carl Johan Klingenberg, ship agent of Bremen, to
recruit in Galicia passengers for the voyage to America, for which
service a compensation of 3 florins for each grown person and 1½ florins
for each child was promised to him.
Inasmuch as Erasmus abode in Roja but a few days previous to his arrest,
and, accordingly, by reason of the shortness of the time, could neither
accomplish his mission nor cause any damage to the recruits, therefore
the imperial and royal state prosecuting
[Page 41]
office in Tarno, to which the preliminary
examination had by the imperial and royal district court of Pilzno been
sent for the purpose of suggestion as to disposition of the case, found
no tenable point for a further penal prosecution of Erasmus, and
delivered the examination papers to the imperial and royal district
captaincy in Pilzno, in the sense of the ministerial ordinance of
September 30, 1857 (A. G. B. No. 198), for further official action in
respect to the arrested party.
Hereupon Jacob Erasmus was condemned by the imperial and royal district
captaincy in Pilzno, under sentence of the 17th instant, on account of
unauthorized recruiting for America, based on the before-mentioned
ministerial ordinance, to fourteen days’ confinement; and, since he had,
under a naturalization certificate of the American Union, given proof of
his status, it was forthwith decreed that he, as a foreigner, in the
sense of paragraph 2 of the imperial law of 27th July, 1871 (St. G. B.
No. 88), under peril of the consequences stated in paragraph 323 of the
penal law, should be expelled from all the crown lands of the Austrian
monarchy.
Erasmus has entered no appeal against this judgment, and immediately
submitted to the punishment.
The undersigned avails himself, &c.
For the ministry of foreign affairs:
The Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States of America, Mr. John A. Kasson.
