Mr. Foster to Mr. Lincoln.
Washington , August 10, 1892 .
Sir: Your No. 733, of July 27, in relation to the application of Theodore Rosenberg for a passport, has been received.
Mr. Rosenberg, having presented himself to obtain from you a passport in lieu of one issued to him February 25, 1890, by this Department, declared himself to be a native-born citizen, but your inquiries having disclosed that he was “the son of a father who was a citizen by naturalization prior to the birth of the son,” he was unable to produce the record of his father’s naturalization, as required by the appropriate form in such cases. From his want of knowledge on this important subject, and his denial of any obligation to produce the prescribed proof, you were very naturally led to think it probable that his former statement to this Department may have been in some respects inaccurate in its statement of his personal history.
An examination of the records shows that the passport issued to Theodore Rosenburg February 25, 1890, was in renewal of one issued May 13, 1887, and this in turn a renewal of the original passport here issued to him April 2, 1881, No. 310. The application upon which it was granted is found to be regular and sufficient in its statements. Theodore Rosenburg swears that he was born June 21, 1853, at Siezen, Prussia, and claims citizenship through the naturalization of his father, David Rosenburg, whose record of naturalization was exhibited and noted, from which it appears that he was admitted to citizenship by the Chambers County circuit court, of Alabama, September 18, 1858. The son’s birth was, therefore, prior to the father’s naturalization, not subsequent, as he seemed to have averred to you. It may therefore be necessary, if Mr. Rosenburg should renew his application, for you to secure evidence that he himself resided in the United States at some time during minority. Naturalization of the parent here does not confer citizenship on his minor children born abroad before that event and continuing to reside and attain their majority abroad.
It is probable, however, that you may be spared the necessity of obtaining exact autobiograpical details from Mr. Rosenberg if, as the concluding paragraph of your dispatch indicated, he intends to reside permanently abroad. Should that fact appear, it would of itself warrant you in declining to issue a passport to him.
I am, etc.,