Mr. Breckinridge to
Mr. Olney.
Legation of the United States,
St. Petersburg, February 23,
1897.
No. 489.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith copy
of a letter, without date, from Mrs. Louisa Lassonne, who wishes a
renewal of her passport, and to request the ruling of the Department
upon the case.
This is a case where the lady, the widow of a naturalized American
citizen, confesses to having no identity with the United States or
purpose of going there. Upon the other hand, she pleads inability to go,
from poverty and the infirmities of age; but it does not appear that the
necessity of her stay abroad has arisen from any vocation such as the
Department usually accepts as sufficient ground for protracted absence.
The case is a sympathetic one, but I feel that I can not accede to her
application without special authority to do so.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mrs. Lassonne
to Mr. Breckinridge.
Sir: I heard from Mr. Billhardt, the
American consul at Moscow, that you refuse to give me a new passport
on the plea that you wish to know a little more about me.
Well, I, Mrs. Louisa Lassonne, a native of Switzerland, born in
Vevey, Canton de Vaud, was married in the year 1874, on the 9th of
May, to Mr. Charles Lassonne, a naturalized citizen of the United
States of America, at St. Petersburg, at the United States legation,
by R. I. Hall, in the presence of Marshal Jewell, then ambassador of
the said legation.
I am an old woman, weak and sickly, a widow; I earn my bread by
teaching; in the winter I give lessons, in the summer I travel about
with families at whom I engage as governess.
I never was in America, and can not go there if I wished, having no
means; and what should I do there, I being a stranger, rather to
say, foreign to the country; in which way could I get my existence;
and should I say it frankly, I thought that I had a right to the aid
and protection from the country I became a citizen by legal rights,
and instead of that I am refused a passport. I ask for it lawfully,
by appellation, as I have been told to do by Mr. Billhardt. I will
hope, sir, that after this explanation you will not refuse to issue
me a passport; if in a contrary case, please teach me what I have to
do in future.
With high respect, etc.,
