No. 805.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Bragg.
Washington, August 24, 1888.
Sir: I have now to refer to your No. 75, of June 18, 1888, and to my No. 85, of the 11th ultimo, touching the case of Henry Brudigam, convicted of murder, and to say that the Department has received the desired additional information.
[Page 1222]According to the statement of Brudigam, made to Consul Heimké, of Chihuahua, and reported in his No. 38, of July 31, 1888, he was born in Gulzow, Mecklenberg, Germany, December 23, 1844, and came to the United States November 30, 1871.
According to the same statement the places where he has resided since then have been Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from November 30, 1871, to October, 1873; in Jackson, Louisiana, from November, 1873, to August, 1874; in Saint Louis, Missouri, from September, 1874, to March, 1878; in Maroa, Illinois, from April, 1878, to August of the same year; in Topeka, Kansas, from September, 1878, to December, 1878; in Solomon City, Kansas, from January to about August, 1879; and from about August, 1879, to February, 1880, in Beloit, Mitchell County, Kansas, wherein (in October, 1879) he took out his first citizenship papers signifying his intention to become a citizen of the United States. Leaving Beloit, he took up his residence in Kansas City, Missouri, in March; and from that place went in October or November, 1880, to Winfield, Kansas, where he remained until January, 1881.
He lived in different places in New Mexico from February, 1881, to June, 1882; and in El Paso, Texas, from July, 1882, to July, 1883, when he came to Mexico and accepted a position as cook in the camp of a Mr. Werner, in charge of a construction party of the Mexican Central i Railroad. This place he gave up in February, 1884, and came to the city of Chihuahua, where he has resided up to the present time. The consul adds that the occupation of Brudigam, according to his statement, is that of a baker and confectioner, and that his property at Chihuahua at the time of his arrest consisted of his bakery and fixtures, valued at about $500.
The Department is far from receding from the position taken in its personal instructions to its diplomatic representatives abroad, as well as in other documents, that it will claim for persons of foreign birth who are domiciled in the United States, though not naturalized, those rights which the law of nations assigns to domicile. The status of such persons, for instance, and the mode of distribution of their personality after their death, is determinable by the law of their domicile; and rights of this class belonging to them this Department will, on proper occasions, protect. But it must be remembered that domicile is a residence accepted as a permanent abode; and when a foreigner, who is sui juris, comes to the United States his declining to avail himself of the privilege of naturalization is a fact which goes far towards negativing the assumption that his domicile is in the United States. It is true that there are exceptions to this rule, such, for instance, as the cases of Quakers and others who have conscientious scruples against taking oaths of allegiance; of single women, who, whatever may be their rights as to naturalization, rarely claim them; and of persons under age who can not be naturalized but must wait until they are of full age, and yet who are left by an alien parent in the United States to take care of themselves; but within the scope of these cases that of Brudigam does not fall.
The evidence now before the Department goes to show that he has taken up a domicile in Mexico, where he has resided continuously for more than five years, and so far as the mere declaration of intention thus left inchoate for nearly nine years is concerned, it goes to strengthen this conclusion that he omitted or declined to perfect his American citizenship when he had the fullest opportunity of doing so.
I must therefore instruct you that Brudigam is not entitled to the interposition of the Department in his behalf.
I am, etc.,