Mr. Adee to Baron de Fava.
Washington, September 11, 1899.
Excellency: I have the pleasure to tell you that after consulting the President I have to-day sent to the governor of Louisiana a telegram to the effect that you have inquired what progress has been made by the State authorities in the investigation of the lynching of Italians at Tallulah, and that the President had requested me to express to the governor the gratification it would afford him to be enabled to assure you, what he can not doubt, that the justice of the State proves potential for the pursuit and punishment of the offenders.
Adverting to your inquiry about the United States law in regard to the bringing of suits for damages by aliens in the courts of the United States I find that under section 629 of the Revised Statutes as amended by the act of August 13, 1888, alien subjects may sue citizens of the United States in the circuit court of the United States in the district where the alien resides. This was stated by Mr. Blaine in his note of April 14, 1891, to the Marquis Imperiali, when he said:
The right to judicial remedy which Mr. Webster assured to the Spanish subjects is likewise assured to the Italian subjects. The right is specially guaranteed in the [Page 460] second section of the third article of the Constitution. And, as Mr. Webster points out, the resident alien has a privilege which is denied to the citizen. The widows and children of the citizens who lost their lives by mob violence may sue the leaders and members of the mob only in the courts of the State of Louisiana, while the widows and children of the Italian subjects who suffered death have the right to sue each member of the mob, not only in the State courts, but also the Federal tribunals for the district of Louisiana. (Foreign Relations, 1891, p. 684.)
The situation in this regard is the same as it was in 1837, when the Attorney-General, Benjamin F. Butler, advised the President in a case where two Frenchmen domiciled in New Orleans had been maltreated that—
While we have no act of Congress giving to the courts of the United States jurisdiction of the criminal offense if those offenders are citizens of Louisiana, the parties injured may, as aliens, bring their actions for damages in the circuit court of the United States for the State of Louisiana. (See Opinions of the Attorneys-General, vol. 3, p. 254.)
I am, etc.,