No. 398.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. McLane.
Department
of State,
Washington, July 16,
1888.
No. 358.]
Sir: With reference to my instruction to you, No.
343, of the 13th ultimo, relative to the regulations governing the issuance
of passports, I inclose herewith for your information a copy of a letter to
this Department from Mr. Louis P. Twyeffort concerning the alleged action of
your legation in refusing to renew his passport (issued in May, 1879), on
account of his inability to produce the required proof of his
naturalization; also a copy of the Department’s reply to Mr. Twyeffort’s
communication.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 358]
Mr. Twyeffort to
Mr. Bayard.
Sir: I have just been refused a renewal of
passport No. 12333, issued to me May 8, 1879. Mr. McLane informs me he
can not issue a new passport to a naturalized citizen unless he has in
his possession the original naturalization papers. It seems to me that
my old passport is as much prima facie evidence that I am a citizen of
the United States ‘as my original naturalization papers would be, and I
consider it a hardship that I am refused a new one. I wish to go to
Nürnberg, Bavaria, and shall be obliged to make a detour via Cologne to
get there, because our minister to France refuses to accept what I
consider very good proof that I am a citizen of the United States and
entitled to the protection of its flag. I earned my citizenship through
three years or more of fighting the rebellion and consider myself just
as good a citizen as if I had been born in the United States. I write
this because I suppose our minister is acting under instructions of the
Department, and attention being called to what I think is wrong, you
may, after investigation, change your instructions to our ministers
abroad.
For identification I refer you to the Congressman of my district, Hon. S.
V. White.
Respectfully,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 358.]
Mr. Adee to Mr.
Twyeffort.
Department of State,
Washington, July 13,
1888.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 28th ultimo, in which you complain of the refusal of the
United States legation at Paris to renew your passport from this
Department, No. 12333, dated May 8, 1879, because of your failure to
produce a certificate of naturalization to prove your title to a
passport as an American citizen.
In reply, I have to inform you that by a regulation of this Department in
force for many years passports are good only for two years, on or before
the expiration of which period they are required to be renewed. This
regulation has the double effect of enabling the Government to keep
trace of those claiming its protection abroad and of requiring from them
a small contribution to the expenses of the Government whose protection
they enjoy.
It is for these reasons and because of the regulation fixing two years as
the period of vitality of a passport that diplomatic officers have
contemporaneously been forbidden to accept a passport more than two
years old as sufficient evidence of citizenship to warrant the issuance
of a new passport. This rule applies to native and
[Page 551]
naturalized citizens of the United States
impartially, and where a citizen of the United States presents himself
to a legation for the renewal of a passport more than two years old he
is required, whether a native or naturalized citizen, to present the
same sort of evidence of citizenship as that upon which his passport was
originally obtained.
I am, etc.,
Alvey A. Adee,
Second Assistant
Secretary.
