Department of State,
Washington, August 18,
1882.
No. 445.]
I will thank you to inquire carefully and fully into the matter, with a
view to taking such action in relation to the case as the facts may war
want.
[Inclosure in No. 445.]
Mr. Mullan to
Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Washington, D. C., August 15, 1882.
Sir: I have the honor very respectfully to
invite your special and immediate attention to the telegraphic
intelligence from London of yesterday by which the public
[Page 290]
are informed of the second
arrest in Ireland of Mr. Henry George, a distinguished citizen of
the United States, and for many years past a resident of the city of
San Francisco, and State of California.
Mr. George is my personal friend, whom I have known favorably and
intimately for many years. He is a journalist and author of very
high order; a gentleman of rare intellectual acquirements, and of
irreproachable private character; a native-born citizen of the
United States; and his second arrest in Ireland is a matter which,
in my judgment, should be promptly and fully inquired into by the
proper authorities of the United States.
Congress being not now in session, and its members constituting the
California delegation having repaired to their homes, leaves the
case of Mr. George without remedy through his immediate
representatives in Congress; and for this reason, among others, I
therefore, as his personal friend (a native-born citizen of the
United States, and resident of California, temporarily sojourning in
Washington City), do request, that you may be pleased to immediately
instruct the United States minister, resident in London, to
officially and promptly and fully inquire into all the circumstances
and causes of these two arrests of Mr. Henry George in Ireland; the
character and nature of the charges preferred against him, if any;
and promptly and fully to report to your Department in regard
thereto.
This constant re-occurrence of the arrest, without adequate cause, of
peaceable and law-abiding citizens of the United States while
traveling through the isles over which the flag of England floats,
is a matter of grave public concern, and one which demands the first
attention of the proper authorities of the United States; and the
friends of Mr. George confidently believe, if his arrest and
confinment in an English prison have taken place, in these cases,
either without sufficient or just authority of law, or without good
causes first clearly established, that the United States will not
permit so gross a wrong upon American citizens abroad to pass either
unnoticed or undredressed.
I am, &c.,
JOHN MULLAN,
Of
California.
