Mr. Adee to Count Vinci.
Washington, August 9, 1899.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, with which you transmit to me copy of the report submitted to you by the Chevalier Romano, gerant of the royal consulate at New Orleans, in pursuance of the instructions, given him to investigate the lynching of five persons of Italian origin, which recently occurred in the State of Louisiana.
The report and the accompanying documentary proofs will have the careful attention of this Department, in connection with a report to be received from his excellency the governor of Louisiana, as the result of the investigation which he has ordered, and in connection also with the result of the action to be taken by the judicial branch of the State authority.
Permit me in passing to advert to the statement of Signor Romano that the five copies of the judicial records of the district court of the seventh district of Louisiana and parish of Madison, copies of which were inclosed by him, show “that Francesco Difatta presented his first request for American citizenship November 8, 1895; Carlo Difatta (whose true name would seem to be Pasquale Difatta), who, however, presented his application under the name of Siha Deferach.” The three papers you sent me, and which are thus referred to by Signor Romano, appear, however, upon examination to be the full and final record of a competent court admitting Charles Defatta, Frank Defatta, and Seha Deferach to citizenship of the United States and of the State of Louisiana. The form employed is entirely different from the preliminary declaration of intention. The evidence furnished in regard to these three men by Signor Romano agrees with the judicial record of the district court for the seventh district of Louisiana and parish of Madison, certified copies of which, under the seal of the court, have been communicated to me by his excellency the governor of Louisiana.
Accept, etc.,