No. 669.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Winchester.
Washington, May 7, 1887.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 116, of the 21st ultimo, reporting your course in refusing to grant a passport to Mr. Moritz Philipp Emdeu, who was naturalized in this country in 1854, has resided abroad for many years, and who now gives an indefinite and ambiguous answer to the question as to his intention to resume his residence in this country, has been received.
Your course in regard to this case is approved. The Department expects that its agents abroad, to whose discretion the issuance of passports is confided, will exact unequivocal declaration of a positive intent to return to the United States, there to continue the domicile contemplated by the statute and regulations. Business visits to the United States are not evidence of domiciliary intent any more than business trips of American citizens to foreign countries evince an intent to reside there.
I am, etc.,