Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Breckinridge.
Washington , July 21, 1896 .
Sir: Your No. 339 of the 3d instant, in relation to the application of Mr. Simon Behrman for a passport, has been received.
From the statements inclosed with your dispatch it appears that Sigismund Behrman, father of the present applicant, a Russian subject, came to the United States from Kovno in 1860, “remained long enough to become a citizen,” returning at intervals to Russia to visit his family, none of whom he ever took to the United States, finally quitted the United States in 1875 bearing a United States passport and, after establishing apparently permanent domicile at Saratov, died there in 1887.
The present applicant, Simon Behrman, was one of three minor children left by Sigismund Behrman and was born in Kovno July 2, 1870. He has never been within the jurisdiction of the United States.
The statements lead to the inference that Sigismund Behrman, the father, had evidence of naturalization in the United States and that his papers, with the exception of his passport, were destroyed by fire, leaving the son unable to produce evidence of his father’s citizenship.
The consul, Mr. Chambers, does not appear to have given you the facts as to the father’s “old and ragged passport.” Had he mentioned its date and place of issuance examination of the question would be simplified. As it is, the records of this Department have been carefully examined for some years anterior to 1875, and the only record of a passport issued here to a person of the name given is of passport No. 46,245, issued June 17, 1875, to Sigesmund Behrman (or Bearman) upon an application made before David Klein, notary public, of New York City. In that application Sigesmund Behrman, as the signature reads, swears that he “was born in the city of Cherston (Charleston?), State of South Carolina, on or about the 15th day of May, 1823.” This is wholly incompatible with the facts stated in your dispatch, and gives rise to the reasonable conjecture that the passport was obtained in fraud of this Department on the eve of Mr. Behrman’s final return to his native country. It becomes important, therefore, to ascertain whether the old passport now in the possession of Mr. Simon Behrman agrees in number and date with this Department’s record. I inclose a copy of Mr. Sigesmund Behrman’s application for your information.
The essential point in the case of a person born abroad and never coming to the United States, but claiming American citizenship through his naturalized father, is to ascertain whether he was born prior or subsequent [Page 517] to the naturalization of the father. If born prior to the father’s acquisition of American citizenship he is born an alien, and the act of the United States court in admitting the father to naturalization, being effective only within the jurisdiction of the United States, could not operate to naturalize a foreign-born subject residing in a foreign jurisdiction. If, however, born subsequently to the naturalization of the father his status under United States law is indistinguishable from that of a foreign-born son of a native citizen of the United States.
It seems clear, therefore, that the conditions of the present case will not be satisfied by the test you impose in your instruction to Consul Chambers, namely, that Mr. Simon Behrman give additional satisfactory proof of his being the son of Sigismund Behrman and also satisfactorily establish his willingness and purpose to come to the United States at the end of two years, here to reside and discharge the duties of citizenship. The fact and date of the father’s naturalization are essential to a determination of the vital point, viz, whether Simon Behrman is or is not lawfully a citizen of the United States, by birth, under section 1993 of the Revised Statutes. If not, inasmuch as he has never dwelt within the jurisdiction of the United States during his minority, he could not acquire American citizenship through his father under section 2172 of the Revised Statutes.
Your further report upon the subject will be awaited.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.