Mr. Gresham to Mr. Gray.
Washington , May 13, 1893 .
Sir: Mr. Ryan’s dispatch, No. 1234, of the 1st instant, in relation to Mr. Martin Schafer’s application for a passport, has been received.
Mr. Schafer’s case, as stated by Mr. Ryan, suggests uncertainty and doubt on two essential points—his original citizenship and his conservation of right to protection as a citizen. Himself born abroad at Hamburg, March 12, 1858, he claimed citizenship through the alleged native-born status of his father. The latter, in turn, appears to have left the United States “when a young man,” but at what age is not stated, and to be permanently domiciled in Germany. The grandfather, a native of Germany, is thought to have been a naturalized citizen of the United States. No evidence whatever is adduced of the grandfather’s naturalization or of the father’s birth and age when he went to Germany to live. The applicant himself has never resided in the [Page 424] United States, having only been in this country three times, on brief visits. His domicile for fourteen years has been in Mexico, where he is registered as a citizen of the United States.
It is not possible, in the lack of necessary evidence, to form an opinion as to the legal status of Mr. Schafer. The time and place of his father’s birth, the date of his grandfather’s naturalization, and the age at which his father removed to Germany, are all factors in the case which can not be supplied by conjecture. Merely by way of noting one phase of the problem, it would seem that if Mr. Schafer’s father (assuming him to have been born in the United States) went to Germany while a minor, there to marry and pass the rest of his life, he thereby voluntarily acquired German domicile, and invested himself with the German character to such a degree as to bring his German born children within the range of German jurisdiction. In this connection it may be pertinent to inquire at what age the applicant left Germany—during minority or when sui juris—for if he quitted the country of his birth while a minor, to dwell thereafter elsewhere than in the United States, no option of American status as against any adverse claim of Germany is apparent.
Apart, however, from the determination of Mr. Schafer’s legal status as a citizen or subject, which is a judicial function not within the competence of the executive, it is the province and duty of the executive to use its discretion touching the individual’s right to protection, with due regard to the reciprocal relation between him and the State.
The facts reported by Mr. Ryan disclose a total absence of American residence, covering the whole past and future life of the applicant, and the whole life of his father from early manhood. For two generations neither father nor son has evinced a purpose to fulfill the duties of good citizenship. Mr. Schafer has orally declared to Mr. Ryan “that he intended to reside in Mexico City permanently for the future.” His sworn application likewise exhibits no purpose of residence in the United States. In such cases the Department uniformly declines to issue a passport, and Mr. Schafer will be so advised at the address given.
The signed passport sent hither by Mr. Ryan is herewith returned.
I am, etc.,