Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1905
Mr. Hauge, late Chargé d’Affaires of Sweden and Norway, to the Acting Secretary of State.
Sir: In addition to my letter of the 12th instant, I have the honor to forward translation of a letter to His Majesty King Oscar from the members of the Norwegian Government, dated June 6, 1905, translation of a resolution passed by the Storthing on June 7, 1905, translation of an address from the Storthing to His Majesty King Oscar, dated June 7, 1905.
Accept, etc.,
Letter to His Majesty King Oscar from the members of the Norwegian Government, dated June 6, 1905.
To the King: In a state council at the palace of Stockholm on May 27, it has pleased your Majesty, in reply to our humble resignations, to resolve as follows:
“It being evident to me that no other government can now be formed, I do not comply with the resignations tendered by the ministers.”
According to the fundamental law of Norway it is incumbent on the King of Norway to procure for the country a constitutional government. At that very moment the policy of the King prevents the formation of a responsible council the Norwegian royal power has ceased to be in function.
By Your Majesty’s resolution the constitutional relationship between Your Majesty and the responsible ministers of the crown has, further, been brought into a position which does not admit of being maintained. In a constitutional country no government, nor any single member of the same, can be forced to continue against his will, with the responsibility of a minister when their responsible advice in important questions vital to the country is not followed by the King, who according to the constitution is free from responsibility. As it is in these circumstances the unquestionable right of every single member of the ministry as a free man to resign his charge, so this will generally also be a duty toward the country for the maintenance of its constitutional rights.
Your Majesty has declared that no other government can now be formed. Your Majesty has found this to be so evident that the King of Norway has, during these serious days, remained at the palace of Stockholm without making any attempt to restore the country to a constitutional position.
The policy which has found its expression in Your Majesty’s attitude toward the question of sanctioning the consular law is, in our opinion, incompatible with the Norwegian constitution. But no more than any new government can assume the responsibility for this policy can we by remaining in our offices render ourselves accessory to it. It is therefore our duty to retire from the management of our offices and instantly to give the Storthing due notice hereof.
This will now be done.
Profound and irreconcilable political incongruities have thus broken the frame of the constitutional Norwegian Kingdom. Matters and circumstances have been stronger than the wills of individuals. But the solution of the union which has now been initiated by Your Majesty’s above-named resolution—certainly taken with a heavy heart, but also with a clear understanding of its consequences—may yet, so is our hope, within a short time prove to have been the beginning of better and happier days for the two nations, whose prosperity and welfare Your Majesty has always had at heart.
Finally, we beg to present to Your Majesty our most humble thanks for the personal graciousness and kindness shown to us during the time we have had the honor of being members of Your Majesty’s council.
We beg Your Majesty to receiye the assurance that we fully realize Your Majesty’s difficult position, and we beg to profess our unaltered high esteem. But before all things go our duties toward the country.
(Signatures of all the members of the ministry.)
Resolution passed by the Storthing on June 7, 1905.
Whereas all the members of the ministry have resigned their offices;
Whereas His Majesty the King has declared himself unable to procure for the country a new government; and
Whereas the constitutional royal power has thus ceased to be in function,
The Storthing authorizes the members of the ministry resigning to-day for the present in the capacity of the Norwegian Government, to exercise the authority vested in the King, in accordance with the fundamental law of the Kingdom of Norway and the laws in force, with such modifications as are necessitated by the fact that the union with Sweden under one King has been dissolved, in consequence of the King having ceased to act as Norwegian King.
Address from the Storthing to His Majesty King Oscar dated June 7, 1905.
Your Majesty: All the members of the ministry having this day in the Storthing resigned their offices, and Your Majesty having in a protocol of May 27 of the present year officially declared that Your Majesty is unable to procure for the country a new government, the constitutional royal power in Norway has thus ceased to be in function.
It has therefore been the duty of the Storthing, as representing the Norwegian people, immediately to authorize the members of the resigning ministry in the capacity of the Norwegian Government to exercise for the present the authority vested in the King, in accordance with the fundamental law of the Kingdom of Norway and the laws in force, with such modifications as are necessitated by the fact that the union with Sweden which implies a joint King has been dissolved, in consequence of the King having ceased to act as Norwegian King.
The evolution of events which has been mightier than the desires and wills of individuals, has led to this result.
The union entered upon in 1814 has from the very first moment been differently construed by the two peoples both as regards its nature and contents. From the Swedish side exertions have been directed toward extending the partnership, from the Norwegian side toward limiting it to what has been prescribed in the act of union, and otherwise to maintain the exclusive right of both kingdoms to decide for themselves in all matters which are not described in the act of union as being of a union character. This radical opposition in the conception of the union’s character has given rise to much misunderstanding between the peoples and caused many frictions, and in the views which during the last negotiations between the kingdoms have been maintained by the Swedish Government toward Norway the Norwegian people has, necessarily, seen violation of its constitutional right, its independence, and its national honor.
The union was justified as long as it was able to contribute to furthering the welfare and prosperity of both peoples with the maintenance of their independence as sovereign states; but above the union stands for us Norwegians, our Norwegian, for the Swedes, the Swedish native land; and more valuable than a political union is the feeling of solidarity and free concord of both peoples. To this sympathy between the Norwegian and the Swedish people, which ought to secure the prosperity of both peoples and be their strength outwardly, the union has become a danger.
Now that the union is being dissolved the Norwegian people has no higher desire than to live in peace and good understanding with everyone, and not least with the people of Sweden and with the dynasty under whose rule our country, despite much bitter union strife, has made such important intellectual and material progress.
As a testimony that the Norwegian people’s work and struggle for the complete independence of the country has not arisen from any animosity against the royal house or the Swedish people and has left no bitterness against any of them, the Storthing respectfully begs to solicit Your Majesty’s concurrence with a view to obtain permission for a prince of Your Majesty’s house to be elected King of Norway, the prince having to renounce his hereditary right to the throne of Sweden.
The day when the Norwegian people elects its own King to ascend the old throne of Norway will initiate an era of tranquil working years for Norway, of a good and hearty relationship to the Swedish people, and of peace, unity, and faithful concord in the north, for the defence of the culture of the nations, their freedom and independence.
Fully satisfied hereof, the Storthing ventures to express the confident hope that that which has now happened will turn out for the best of everyone, and of Your Majesty as well, for whose person the Norwegian people will maintain unabated its high esteem and affection.