Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1881
No. 316.
Mr. Lowell
to Mr. Blaine.
London, March 21, 1881. (Received April 3.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 140, of the 12th of March last, to your predecessor, I have the honor to report such proceedings as have taken place subsequent to that date in relation to the case of Michael P. Boyton.
I received on the 14th instant a letter from Mr. Barrows, the consul at Dublin, stating the result of an interview he had had with Mr. Boyton, in accordance with my request to that effect, and repeating certain statements made by the latter gentleman in relation to his citizenship.
[Page 518]He inclosed also a letter from Mr. Boyton to myself. I forward herewith copies of both these documents.
The discrepancies in Mr. Boyton’s allegations in respect to his citizenship were so evident that I thought it proper to address him directly upon the subject. I herewith inclose a copy of my letter.
I have this morning received a further communication from Mr. Barrows, containing an amended statement as to Mr. Boyton’s father’s naturalization, upon which his own claims to citizenship are founded. The exact dates, however, are not given. I herewith inclose a copy of Mr. Boy ton’s last statement. * * *
I have, &c.,
Consul Barrows to Mr. Lowell.
Dublin, March 11, 1881.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your dispatch of the 9th relating to the case of Michael P. Boyton, now in prison in this city, and who claims to be an American citizen. I proceeded this morning to Kilmainham jail, where Mr. Boyton is confined, and was permitted to visit him, although under the rules he had been allowed to see his quota of visitors for the day. In answer to my questions, Mr. Boyton stated that he was born in Rathangan, eounty Kildare, Ireland, in September, 1846; that his father, with his family of ten children, Michael being the eldest, emigrated to America in 1859, and setted in Pittsburgh; that the father took out naturalization papers in Pittsburgh in 1860; that he, Michael Boyton, entered the United States Navy in 1864, as ship’s yeoman, on board the United States steamer “Hydrangea;” that he served on said vessel for about a year, was transferred to different vessels, and was finally discharged from the sloop-of-war “St. Louis,” at Philadelphia, in May, 1865; that he left America in 1866 for England, and before leaving procured a passport at the Department of State, which is herewith transmitted; that he returned to America in 1868; that he again left America in 1874, and resided at London for five years, during which time he conducted an American agency; that he came to Ireland in 1879 for the purpose of adjusting the affairs of his aunt, his only living relative; that since that time he has resided in London and Ireland; that he is associated with the National Land League of Ireland; that the grounds for his arrest are based upon the charge of “inciting divers persons to murder divers other persons”; and that he is innocent of any such intent or thought. I inclose a letter from Mr. Boyton, addressed to yourself, and also a copy in duplicate of the warrant for his arrest. If it is desired, I can procure from the authorities a certified copy of the warrant.
Awaiting your further instructions, I have the honor to be, &c.,
United States Consul.
His Excellency the Hon. James Russell
Lowell,
United States Minister,
London.
Mr. Boyton to Consul Barrows.
Dublin, Ireland, March 11, 1881.
Sir: I am a citizen of the United States. I was arrested at Kildare on the 8th instant and brought by an armed escort to this prison. I was shown a warrant from the lord lieutenant of Ireland under which I was arrested, and which authorizes the governor of this prison to detain me for the term of eighteen months, or as long as it may please the chief secretary. This warrant charges me with no offense against the laws of Great Britain. It states that I am “reasonably suspected of inciting divers persons to murder divers other persons,” at the same time immuring me under circumstances [Page 519] that preclude all possibility of reply or defense on my part. Ostensibly I am incarcerated under an act of Parliament which suspends in this country the right of habeas corpus i. e., the liberties of the Irish subjects of Her Majesty the Queen. I am, however, an American citizen, and as such I protested at the time of my arrest. I now formally protest, and not alone against this outrage upon my liberty, over which, as one guiltless of any breach of British law, I deny the jurisdiction of the British Government, but against the attempt to destroy my reputation and cast an infamous stigma upon my whole life by the imputation of a cowardly crime, second only if not equal to the crime of murder. Confident of my entire ability to prove the positive assertion that I have broken no law of these realms, in the name of justice, I ask of you, sir, to demand from the British Government either that it try me for the crime imputed on the foul and unfounded suspicion of I know not whom, or else release me at once from what I am competently advised is an imprisonmnet contrary to international law, and a gross outrage on the person and liberty of an American citizen.
My father was naturalized a citizen of the United States twenty-one years ago, and for convincing proof of my citizenship, well earned in defending the honor and integrity of the Union, I beg to refer you to the American consulate in this city.
Respectfully claiming at your hands the lawful aid and protection to which I am entitled,
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
To his Excellency the American
Minister,
United States Legation,
London.
Mr. Lowell to Mr. Boyton.
London, March 17, 1881.
Sir: I have received your telegram of the 8th and your letter of the 11th instant, and have given to them attentive consideration.
Laying aside for the present the question whether you have or have not committed acts to justify your arrest under the coercion bill, I beg leave to point out certain discrepancies in your statements in relation to your citizenship which require explanation before I can examine the point whether I ought to intervene in your behalf.
Mr. Hay, the Assistant Secretary of State, wrote to Mr. Barrows, the consul at Dublin, on the 2d of December last, that you appear on the records of that Department to have been born in the State of New York. I take it for granted that this entry must have been made pursuant to your own statement in the application for the passport which was issued to you on the 20th of November, 1866. You are described in this passport as being at that time twenty-two years of age, which must have been so entered agreeably to your own statement.
You now state to Mr. Barrows that you were born in Rathangan, Kildare County, in Ireland, in September, 1846. It appears, therefore, that you were not born in New York hut in Ireland, and that you were not twenty-two years old at the date of your passport, but only twenty years and two months.
It follows, therefore, that in order to make out your claim to American citizenship, you must prove one of two things: 1st. That you have taken out naturalization papers yourself, which, as I understand, you do not assert; or, 2d, that your father was regularly naturalized while you were yet a minor.
You say that he took out such papers at Pittsburgh in 1860. But this is impossible, because by your own showing he did not come to America until 1859, and he must have resided there five years afterwards to entitle himself to such letters, having also given two years’ previous notice of intention to become a citizen. Letters of naturalization could not, therefore, have been legally issued to him earlier than 1864, even if he had declared his intentions immediately upon his arrival.
Such a declaration of intentions by itself would not have given him or his minor children the privileges of citizenship.
Upon receiving satisfactory evidence, therefore, that your father lawfully and regularly became a naturalized citizen of the United States while you were yet a minor, I shall take pleasure in immediately examining into the circumstances of your arrest.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
- J. R. LOWELL.
- Mr. Michael P. Boyton,
Kilmainham Jail, Dublin.
Consul Barrows to Mr. Lowell.
Dublin, March 18, 1881.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your dispatch of 14th instant.
On yesterday I again visited Mr. Boyton and took down his statement. As the burden of proof rests with Mr. Boyton, I have simply reduced his answers to a condensed statement, and allowed him to tell his own story in his own way. I shall be pleased to know whether or not this meets with your approval. Statement transmitted herewith.
Pending your decision on the question of his citizenship, I have not placed myself officially in communication with the Crown authorities, nor made any demand in Mr. Boyton’s behalf. Personally, Mr. Boyton informs me, he is treated with the utmost courtesy by the prison officials.
I have the honor to be, sir,
United States Consul.
Hon. James Russell Lowell,
United States Minister, London.
Memorandum of statement made by Mr. Boyton to Consul Barrows.
statement.
I called on Michael P. Boyton, in Kilmainham, on Thursday, 17th March, and questioned him further concerning the evidences of his citizenship. Mr. Boyton reasserts his former statement, that he was born at Rathangan, County Kildare, Ireland, 5th September, 1846; that his father emigrated to America and settled in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1859. He amends his previous statement by asserting that his father declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States at Pittsburgh in 1860, and that his final papers were taken out after the usual limitation. Michael Boyton saw his father’s naturalization papers many times when living at Pittsburgh, and his father voted many times in that city at the local elections. The father died at Newport, R. I., October 5, 1870. Mr. Boyton enlisted in the United States Navy at the Brooklyn navy-yard before he was eighteen years of age. His mother attempted to procure his discharge from the service by affidavits proving he was under age at the time of his enlistment, but did not succeed. He was twenty years of age when the passport alluded to in previous dispatches was issued to him by the State Department. He denies that he stated his age to be twenty-two years on that occasion or that he gave his place of birth as New York. He was residing in New York at the time, and was accompanied to the State Department at Washington by General Charles G. Halpine and B. F. Mullins, who vouched for him.
Mr. Boyton states further that he voted, in New York City, for Horace Greeley at the Presidential election of 1868 (sic), and that he voted frequently at local elections in Pittsburgh, and that his right to vote has never been challenged.
Mr. Boyton states further that his mother is at present living at Staten Island, New York, but he cannot say whether the evidences of his father’s citizenship still remain in her possession. If required, search will be made, as the fact of his father’s naturalization must appear of record at Pittsburgh. Mr. Boyton desires me to represent to you how difficult it will be for him to produce these papers.
Mr. Boyton states further that he bases his claim of citizenship on the fact of his father’s naturalization, he, M. P. Boyton, being at the time a minor.
He has not as yet been furnished with a copy of the charges against him; nothing more definite than that of “reasonable suspicion,” the expression which occurs in the warrant upon which he was arrested.
Mr. Boyton never applied for or took out naturalization papers, deeming himself a citizen of the United States by virtue of his father’s naturalization.
United States Consul.
Dublin, March 18, 1881.
Warrant for the arrest of Mr. Boyton.
No. 11. 44 Victoria, chapter 4.
AN ACT for the better protection of person and property in Ireland.
Copy warrant to arrest.
Whereas, by our order dated the 4th day of March, 1881, and made by and with the advice of the Privy Council in Ireland, and by virtue of the act made and passed in the 44th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, entitled “An act for the better protection of person and property in Ireland,” and of every power and authority in this behalf, we specified and declared that the hereinafter-mentioned part of Ireland (that is to say), the county of Kerry, should, from and after the fifth day of March, 1881, be and continue a prescribed district within the meaning and provision of the said act;
And whereas our said order is still in force:
Now we, the Lord Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland, by virtue of the said act and of every power and authority in this behalf, do by this our warrant declare Michael P. Boyton, of Kildare, in the county of Kildare aforesaid, to be reasonably suspected of having, since the 30th day of September, 1880, been guilty as principal of a crime punishable by law—that is to say, inciting divers persons to murder certain other persons, committed in the aforesaid prescribed district, and being the inciting to an act of violence and tending to interfere with the maintenance of law and order.
And this is to command you to whom this warrant is addressed to arrest the said Michael P. Boyton in any part of Ireland and lodge him in Her Majesty’s prison at Kilmainham, in the county of Dublin, there to be detained during the continuance of the said act, unless sooner discharged or tried by our direction.
To the subinspector of the Royal Irish constabulary at Kildare, in the county of Kildare aforesaid, and his assistants, and to Captain St. George Gray, governor of Kilmainham prison aforesaid.