Mr. Adee to Mr. Powell.
Washington, August 6, 1902.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 1119 of the 17th ultimo, discussing the question of the right of refuge or asylum as claimed in Haiti.
In reply I have to say that the consideration of the question presented [Page 682] in your dispatch is to be wholly disassociated from all questions of internal politics. It is a question to be considered by itself, and on the merits and the circumstances of each particular case, and the solution of the question whether in such case refuge should or should not be accorded by you is to be determined in the light of the instructions mentioned in your dispatch.
In passing on such question you will not consider for a moment the other wholly immaterial question whether the person seeking asylum may or may not become the Executive of the Government, or whether one or the other of the contending parties may succeed or fail.
There is not known to the law of nations, nor does the Government of the United States, in practice, recognize any “right of asylum” in its legations of refugees from the scenes and disorders of civil conflict. Any claim or assertion of such right, as such, is not to be conceded or recognized for a moment. The privilege of refuge may, in the execution of a sound discretion and under the previous rulings and instructions of the Department, with which you are presumed to be familiar, sometimes be granted, under the restrictions stated and solely from motives of humanity, which is the principle governing the grant of the privilege. Questions of political expediency have no place in the consideration of the principal question. The strict observance on your part of the Department’s instructions will relieve you of the many embarrassments, mentioned in your dispatch, which naturally result from disregarding them. In this connection you are referred to the Department’s No. 89 of June 5, 1899, to Mr. Sampson, Foreign Relations 1899, page 257.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.