Mr. Lincoln to Mr.
Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
London, July 10, 1889.
(Received July 22.)
No. 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that
application has been made to this legation by Mr. Rudolph Ernest Brünnow for
the issuance to him of a passport, he making to me a verbal statement in
substance as follows:
His father went in 1854, being then a subject of the King of Prussia, to the
United States and became an officer of the University of Michigan; in 1857
he declared his intention to become an American citizen, and shortly
thereafter married the daughter of the chancellor of the university, a
native citizen of the United States. The applicant was born in 1858, and,
being yet Unmarried, has ever since lived with his parents. They remained in
America until 1863, when they returned to Germany, and there resided until
1867, when the father was appointed by Trinity College, Dublin, to be
astronomer royal of Ireland. He resigned this office in 1873, went to
Switzerland and lived there until 1888, [Page 451] when lie changed his residence to Oxford, in England.
It is now the purpose of the family, including the applicant, to establish
their residence at Heidelberg, it being the special purpose of the son to
assume a relation to the University at Heidelberg as a “privat docent,”
which I understand to be that of a semi-official instructor. No member of
the family has been in the United States since 1863; and, while it is not
intimated that the parents have any thought of returning there, it is stated
that neither the father nor the applicant has done any act which could be
construed as a renunciation or to operate as a forfeiture of citizenship of
the United States. The applicant stated, as to himself, that he had no
present intention of returning to America, using in particular the
expression that he could not say within five years when he might do so. He
added, however, that he would be glad to get a professorship at some
institution, of learning in the United States, but did not intend to go
there personally to seek it.
He has since addressed to me a letter, of which I inclose a copy herewith;
but this does not, I think, materially affect his verbal statement, unless
importance is given to the remark in his letter to the effect that he
desires the passport in order to become an officer of a foreign university,
and that he would abandon his claimed citizenship, if necessary, to obtain
the place he is seeking. It is, perhaps, a baseless conjecture to associate
the peculiar liability which rested on all our able-bodied citizens in 1863
with the departure from America of the applicant’s father for a sojourn
abroad, which has lasted without interruption for twenty-six years, and is
to last indefinitely; and if such an association were well founded, the
applicant, then an infant, would not be responsible for any deduction from
it; but his own failure, during the ten years which have elapsed since he
attained his majority, to assume any of the duties of our citizenship, and
his present utter lack of a reasonably definite purpose ever to assume them,
and, more, his declared purpose of its renunciation if necessary to obtain a
petty office in Germany, make me reluctant to give him a badge of the
citizenship he appears to value so lightly.
It is true that his case does not involve the consideration of any act from
which might be implied the taking on of an allegiance to another government;
but if I correctly apprehend the policy of the Department in former times,
as indicated in the extracts from instructions mentioned in the “Digest of
International Law,” his application, in the circumstances in which he
permits himself to be, is not one that would have been looked upon with
favor. It seems, however, that his case is essentially similar to that of
Rau, which was the subject of an instruction by Mr. Evarts to Mr. Fish,
October 19, 1880; and unless the ruling of Mr. Evarts is held to be modified
by the more recent issuance by the Department of State of the blank form of
application for passports, providing for a sworn statement of a purpose to
return to the United States within a time to be indicated by the applicant,
or unless it has been modified by some instruction to which my attention has
not been directed, it would seem to be my duty to issue a passport to Mr.
Brünnow. As, however, I should greatly regret to learn after having done so
that, in your opinion, he was not entitled to a passport, I beg to request
your instructions in the premises.
I have, etc.,
[Page 452]
[Inclosure in No. 31.]
Mr. Brünnow to Mr.
Lincoln.
2 Norham Gardens, Oxford,
July 4, 1889.
Sir: In the interview your excellency kindly
granted to me I omitted to state that my father had already, before
leaving Germany in 1854, formally renounced his Prussian allegiance;
consequently, he was not a Prussian at the time of my birth in 1858;
and, in fact, had no nationality whatever, as he had not yet become an
American citizen. The official paper attesting this renunciation is in
my father’s possession. Can I, therefore, be considered an American
citizen by birthright, or was I born without any nationality? In any
case, I was not born as a subject of any foreign power whatever.
I find in the United States Digest for 1878, p. 123, the following
decisions, which I would respectfully submit to your excellency:
- 1.
- Removal from the country and residence under another
government for a period of years does not deprive one of his
citizenship in this country.
- 2.
- The citizenship of the child is determined by that of the
father, and though the latter reside in another country, the
child will be a citizen of this, if the father has not forfeited
or surrendered his allegiance thereto (1876, State v. Adams, 45 Iowa, 99).
I am well aware that these decisions are based upon the common law, and
that the common law is no longer followed in questions of citizenship;
but in all the cases which I have been able to examine where it was not
followed, either the child, though of an American father, was born out
of the country, and had never returned there, or the father, though his
child was born in America, had never become naturalized. But my case
does not fall under either of these two heads, and the decisions quoted
above appear to be perfectly applicable to it. My father came to America
with the full intention of becoming naturalized, a fact which is proved
by the paper releasing him from his Prussian allegiance. Two years after
my birth he became an American citizen, and he has remained one ever
since, for he never placed himself under the dominion of any foreign
government, and never renounced his citizenship. I was not born a
subject to any foreign power, and I certainly participated in my
father’s citizenship at least until I was twenty-one. Shortly after I
had attained that age, in 1880, I applied for and obtained from the
United States minister at Berne a passport, which was accidentally
burned a couple of years ago. Was not this application a sufficient
declaration of my intention to remain an American citizen? Neither I nor
my father, nor my grandfather ever had the slightest idea that I could
forfeit my citizenship; nor did one ever suggest the possibility of such
a contingency, as we all imagined the common law which gave me
citizenship by virtue of birthright to hold good; and we never thought
it necessary for me to take any extraordinary steps to retain it.
Besides the protracted illness of two members of my family would have
prevented my returning to America at that time for any lengthened
period.
Two years ago I could have unequivocally declared that it was my
intention to live in America, as I had at that time some prospect of a
university post, and we had in fact made our preparations for the
voyage, when the severe illness of my mother put a sudden stop to our
plans, the doctors having declared her unfit to take a long sea voyage
for some years to come. I have since then applied to ex-President White,
of Cornell, who had expressed his hope of seeing me soon at an American
university when he was visiting us in Vevey, to inquire what my chances
were at present, and received from him the answer that every place was
filled, and that it would be better for me to become a Privat-Docent at
a German university, as this would give me far more chance of being
appointed to a professorship in America than if I returned there now
myself, teachers from German universities being much sought after. Your
excellency will, therefore, I trust, understand why I could not at the
present moment give an unqualified assurance that I would return to
America within a given period, although I may have the wish to return.
Without a passport I can not become a Privat-Docent, and I should
probably even have difficulty without one in becoming a German citizen,
should I eventually feel myself forced to apply, in order to become a
Privat-Docent. I should, therefore, be compelled to remain in England,
unless my family circumstances should allow me to return to America
without a university post. If, on the other hand, an American passport
should be granted to me, and circumstances should lead me to definitely
decide upon remaining in Europe and making it my permanent home, I
should consider it a matter of honor to return my passport at once. I
wish particularly to state that I should have no intention whatever of
making any improper use of such a passport in endeavoring to elude
duties which I might legally incur by residing in a European state, and
thus causing the American Government embarrassment. But it appears to me
that, as I was not born a German subject, I could never incur any such
duties, military or civil, by residing in Germany. And I [Page 453] trust also that your excellency will not
leave out of consideration the fact that my having lived so many years
away from America was owing to the force of circumstances, and that I
did not do so of my own free will.
In conclusion, I hope your excellency will pardon the liberty I have
taken in addressing you at such length, hut it seemed to me that a
careful restatement of my case from my own point of view would perhaps
not he superfluous.
I have, etc.,
