No. 707.
Mr. Blaine
to Mr. Cramer.
Washington, December 3, 1881.
Sir: I desire to invite your prompt and earnest attention to the case of one Carl Benjamin Dunkel, who has recently landed in New York from the steamship St. Germain, which vessel sailed from Havre on the 12th ultimo. Dunkel, it appears, is a native of the commune Bottmingen, in Basel Land, Switzerland, and was sent to the United States by the local authorities of that commune, with the approval of the superior authorities of the canton of Basel Land, and at the public expense of the commune. It appears from his record furnished to the Department by Mr. Mason, consul at Basel, the result of a very careful investigation made by that gentleman, that Dunkel is a notorious and incorrigible criminal, and that, although he is now only twenty-two years old, he has served fifteen terms of imprisonment in his native country for various crimes and offenses against the laws; theft and vagrancy being those with which he has been most commonly charged. It appears that in April of the present year Dunkel was sentenced to the penitentiary at Basel for the term of six months for larceny, and this sentence was supplemented with a judgment that upon the expiration of these six months in the penitentiary he was to be sent to the town of his residence, Liesthal, there to serve one year additional in the workhouse as a vagrant. When the six months had expired, however (29th of October, 1881), the council of his commune (Bottmingen), on the advice of the chief of police at Liesthal, determined to rid the commune of his care by sending him to the United States at the public expense; and this scheme was carried out through the instrumentality of one Baumgartner, an emigrant agent at Basel.
This, although the most flagrant case that has come under the notice of the Department, is not, as you are aware, the only one of the kind. This government has had frequent occasion to complain to that of Switzerland in regard to similar instances of the abuse of the hospitality of the United States. The practice is in direct contravention of a law of the United States (see act of March 3, 1875, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 18, page 477; or Richardson’s supplement to the Revised Statutes, page 181). I inclose a printed copy of the act referred to.
It is also understood by this government that deportation of criminals and paupers to the United States by the cantonal and communal authorities of Switzerland, is in contravention of an express law of that republic. But in defiance of these laws of both nations, and in disregard of the principles of international law and the friendly comity that has always existed between the United States and Switzerland, the [Page 1173] practice is continued by these local authorities; and the evil has grown to such proportions that the President has deemed it necessary to notice the subject in his forthcoming annual message to Congress.
While, under the Constitution and the laws, this country is open to the honest and industrious immigrant, it has no room outside of its prisons or alms-houses for depraved and incorrigible criminals or hopelessly dependent paupers, who may have become a pest or a burden, or both, to their own country; and the sending of such persons to our shores by the public authorities of Switzerland, either local or supreme, cannot be looked upon by this government otherwise than as a violation of our national hospitality and a disregard of the spirit of comity and good neighborhood, which it is so desirable to foster and cherish between two nations bound so closely by the ties of long and unbroken friendship and kindred institutions as are the United States and the Swiss Republic.
You will take an early occasion to bring the case of Dunkel to the attention of the Swiss Government, and in doing so you will express the earnest desire felt by the President, that such measures may be adopted by that government as will put an end to the practice which has become so constant a source of complaint. Mr. Mason will put you in possession of the proofs in regard to Dunkel’s criminal record, and apprise you of the details of the case. In the meantime steps have been taken here looking to the return of Dunkel to his native country.
I am, &c.,