Mr. Hay to Mr.
Hardy.
Department of State,
Washington, April 23,
1901.
No. 7.]
Sir: The Department is in receipt of a letter,
a copy of which is inclosed, from the Rev. Carl F. Kupfer, president of
William Nast College of Central China, from which it appears that in
August last he applied to your predecessor for a passport, sending as
evidence of his citizenship a passport issued to him by the Department
in 1881, and that he was told that that passport was not sufficient
evidence of his citizenship to warrant the issue of a new passport upon
it.
You are now informed that when Mr. Kupfer’s passport No. 3261 was issued
to him on September 23, 1881, he presented his father’s naturalization
certificate, issued at the March term, 1863, by the Marshall County
court of Virginia.
Upon this statement of facts you are instructed that a passport issued by
this Department should always be accepted prima facie as proof of the
citizenship of the person to whom it was issued.
I am, etc.,
[Page 509]
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Kupfer to
Mr. Hay.
Kinkiang, China, March 20, 1901.
Honored Sir: On September 16, 1881, I
sailed from New York for China via Suez Canal. Before leaving New
York I left an application for a passport, and wrote to my mother,
Sherrard, Marshall County, W. Va., to send to the State Department
my father’s naturalization papers. She did so, and Hon. J. G.
Blaine, then Secretary of State, issued a passport which was sent to
me in Bremen, Germany.
Since then I have been a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. The years 1889 and 1890 I spent in the United States, also a
part of last year, 1900. Last August I brought my family to Zürich,
Switzerland, and applied to the United States minister, through the
consul at Zürich, for a passport for Switzerland. With my
application I sent to the minister my old passport issued by Mr.
Blaine, a Chinese passport issued by the United States minister to
China, also a consular certificate of the births of our children,
and my own birth certificate. But the minister refused to give me a
passport for Switzerland, insisting that I must furnish the
naturalization papers of my father. The old papers having long since
been lost, I wrote to Moundsville, the county seat of Marshall
County, W. Va., asking the clerk to send me a copy of my father’s
naturalization papers. Before an answer came I was called by cable
to return to China, and when the answer came from the clerk it
proved to be only a statement that Carl G. Kupfer (my father) had
upon a certain date called at the office and applied for his
naturalization papers. Upon this the minister again refused to give
my family a passport; and the authorities in Zürich are giving my
family no little trouble. It is only through the consul’s kind aid
that they have been able to remain in Zürich. My wife has written
again to Moundsville, but can get no reply. While I was in
Switzerland I went twice from Zürich to Berne to see the minister,
but neither time did I find him at home. His secretary, a Swiss, who
was in charge, had the audacity to tell me that I was no longer an
American citizen, having been out of the country for more than
twelve years.
In this distress for the peace of my family, may I trouble you to
kindly send, at an early convenience, a record of my first passport
to the minister at Berne, that my family may no longer be harassed
by the authorities of Zürich. I shall be greatly obliged.
Believe me, etc.,
Carl F. Kupfer,
President of William Nast College of Central
China.
