Office of the Historian

No. 134.
Mr. Kasson to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
Berlin, October 27, 1884. (Received November 11.)
No. 53.]

Sir: Referring to your instruction No. 278 and to my No. 41, I beg herewith to inclose to you a copy of my note to the foreign office requesting its mediation to convey the thanks of my Government to the authorities for their action against the recruiting going on in Bavaria of Mormon polygamists for transport to the United States.

As any action of expulsion of Americans claiming converts in the name of religion passes over dangerous roads, I beg your attention to the grounds upon which I placed your approval of the proceedings in Bavaria.

I have, &c.,

JOHN A. KASSON.
[Page 206]
[Inclosure in No. 53.—Translation.]

Mr. Kasson to Count Hatzfeldt.

Legation of the united states,
Berlin, October 24, 1884.

The undersigned, envoy, &c., has been advised, through the American consuls at Munich and Nuremberg, of certain proceedings taken by the royal police boards of those cities, and the chief magistrate of the latter city and by the royal Bavarian government of Mittelfranken and the royal Bavarian state ministry of the interior for church and school affairs for putting an end to the efforts made by certain Mormon missionaries, called Hafen, Jennings, Smoot, and Lyman, to persuade men and women in that province to emigrate to the region of Utah, in order to join there the so-called Church of the Latter-Day Saints. The doctrine of polygamy there inculcated and practiced is in direct violation of the laws of the United States, and that unlawful system is recruited chiefly by inducing foreigners to join them in their criminal habits.

In view of this fact the undersigned is instructed to request the mediation of his excellency Count Hatzfeldt, imperial secretary, &c., to convey the thanks of the Government at Washington to the authorities named for their efforts to stop this unlawful and injurious recruiting for purposes which violate alike the usages of Christian civilization and the provisions of American law.

The undersigned assures, &c.,

JOHN A. KASSON.