Mr. Adee to Mr. Dun.
Washington, July 26, 1893.
Sir: I have to acknowledge receipt of Mr. Combs’s No. 131, of the 26th ultimo, in relation to the application of Mrs. Emily Jane Smith for a passport. Mrs. Smith was born at Vladivostok, Russia, in November, 1864, and was married in 1884, before the U. S. consul at Nagasaki, Japan, to Mr. Oscar Fitzallen Smith, a citizen of the United States, who died at Vladivostok in 1889. Her father, born in New York in 1835, is now dead, as is also her mother. Mrs. Smith states that since her marriage in 1884 she has resided at Vladivostok and at Yokohama, Japan, and that she desires a passport for use in traveling in Europe. She is about to marry a Russian, at Marseilles.
It thus appears that this lady, born abroad of a native American father, who appears to have permanently abandoned the United States, and married to another native citizen who seems likewise to have relinquished his original domicile, and who has herself never been in the country of which she claims protection as a citizen, has no intention of ever coming to the United States, and her object in asking the passport is to enable her to go to France, there to marry a Russian subject.
Under these circumstances Mrs. Smith’s claim to protection as one who bona fide conserves American citizenship is too intangible to warrant the issuance of a passport.
Under any circumstances this Department could not issue a passport to a person residing abroad. It would have to issue from the nearest legation.
Copy of Mr. Coombs’s dispatch and this instruction will be sent to the U. S. consul at Marseilles for Mrs. Smith’s information.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.