No. 436.
Mr. Pendleton to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Berlin, December 26, 1887.
(Received January 10, 1888.)
No. 555.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose for your
information copies of a correspondence relating to Mr. Manny Ehrenbacher’s
application for a passport, which recently took place between this legation
and our consul at Nuremberg.
You will perceive that I offered to issue the desired passport upon
[Page 590]
the condition that Ehrenbacher
should at once return to the United States to perform the duties of
citizenship there, and that he withdrew his application, expressing the
intention of going shortly to America and applying for a passport there.
You will observe from the inclosures that Mr. Bancroft Davis declined to
issue a passport to the father, and that the son has been ever since that
time in Germany under his control.
Hoping you will approve my course in this case,
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 555.]
Mr. Black to Mr.
Pendleton.
United
States Consulate,
Nuremberg, December 10,
1887.
Sir: Inclosed please find passport application
of Manny Ehrenbacher, together with his birth certificate and the
citizen paper of his father. You will notice that the name in the birth
certificate is spelled “Mannie,” but he spells it in the application
“Manny;” he explains that difference by saying that the former was the
way it was spelled by his family at the time of his birth, but he has
himself changed it to the present spelling. Jacob Ehrenbacher, the
father of Manny Ehrenbacher, applied through this office in March, 1875,
to the legation at Berlin, for a passport, but the then minister, the
Hon. J. C. Bancroft Davis, in a letter dated April 2, 1875, refused it
upon the grounds that Ehrenbacher had lived here since July, 1869, with
his family, and he was engaged in business, and there was no apparent
intention of his returning to the United States. The matter was then
submitted to the Department of State at Washington, and the course
pursued by the minister was sustained in a communication dated June 2,
1875, addressed to Mr. Ehrenbacher, a copy of which is on file in this
office.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 555.]
Mr. Coleman to Mr.
Black.
Legation of the United States,
Berlin, December 13,
1887.
No. 2620.]
Sir: Your letter of the 10th instant,
transmitting the passport application of Mr. Manny Ehrenhacher, is
received.
Mr. Jacob Ehrenbacher, the father of the applicant, returned after
naturalization in the United States to his native country, Germany, in
1869, with the latter and with his entire family.
In 1875 Mr. Bancroft Davis, at that time the American minister at this
post, declined to issue a passport to the father for the reason that he
could not be regarded as having an intent to return to the United States
within the meaning of the treaty, which decision was subsequently
approved by the Department of State.
Since then a further period of twelve years has elapsed, making in all
one of about eighteen years, during which the father has resided in
Germany with his family, his son, the present applicant for a passport,
included, without either lather or son having at any time been in the
United States since the return of the father and his family in 1869.
In view of these facts and of the circumstances that Mr. Manny
Ehrenbacher, who has spent about eighteen of the twenty-one years of his
life in Germany, manifests no intent to return to the United States and
to elect to become a citizen of the United States by taking up his
residence there, and performing the duties of citizenship, the legation
feels constrained to decline to issue the passport for which he has
applied, except on the condition that he at once return to the United
States for the purpose aforesaid, and to enable him to do so.
Mr. Ehrenbacher’s birth certificate, his father’s certificate of
naturalization, and the passport application forms are herewith
returned, the latter to be transmitted here
[Page 591]
again, properly amended, in ease a passport is
desired upon the above stated condition.
Be so good as to acquaint Mr. Ehrenbacher with the contents of this
communication.
By direction of the minister.
I remain, etc.,
[Inclosure 3 in No. 555.]
Mr. Black to Mr.
Pendleton.
United
States Consulate,
Nuremberg, December 15,
1887.
Sir: In reply to your communication of the 13th
instant, I have the honor to inform you that I notified Manny
Ehrenbacher that the legation declines to issue the passport to him,
except on the condition that he at once returns to the United States and
performs there the duties of citizenship. His father has notified me
to-day that his son withdraws his application for passport, and as he
intends going to the United States shortly he will make application for
one there.
Manny Ehrenbacher told me, when he first made his application, that he
was going to travel for a wine house in Frankfort-on-the-Main, and that
he expects to travel for that house in the United States for four
months. If he does, therefore, apply for a passport in the United
States, it will be merely to overcome the objections made to issuing him
one here, and I am fully satisfied that he has no bona
fide intention of ever permanently residing in the United
States and performing the duties of citizenship there.
I am, etc.,
