"1. All persons enlisted for the United States Navy have to be enlisted by regular naval recruiting officers at permanent or temporary recruiting stations in the United States; and by the commanding officers of vessels cruising on foreign stations in time of peace. During war no one can be recruited in a foreign country. "2. Certain aliens, who declare their intentions of becoming naturalized citizens, and, in exceptional cases, those who do not, are enlisted, provided they can understand the English language sufficiently well for receiving instructions. There is no fund for paying traveling and other expenses before enlistments are made. "3. If aliens are enlisted, they are eligible to any position for which they can qualify, but the customs and regulations of the service have been that only men of long and continued service receive the higher ratings; and it is the opinion of the Bureau that not even a citizen of the United States residing abroad can enlist in time of war without coming to the United States, unless neutrality laws are violated." Report of Capt. Crowninshield, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, June 1, 1898, communicated by Mr. Allen, Acting Sec. of the Navy, to the Sec. of State, June 1, 1898, For. Rel. 1898, 1175. The British Government uniformly grants requests of the Government of the United States for the discharge of American citizens from the army upon satisfactory proof that they enlisted while minors without the consent of their parents. But, as a condition of making such request, the Department of State requires the deposit with the American minister at London of a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of the transportation of the individual to the United States, this rule having been adopted in consequence of the distress in which young American citizens were involved by being discharged without means in places where they could find no employment. Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mrs. Lewis, July 17, 1886, 161 MS. Dom. See, to the same effect, Mr. Porter, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Biggs, Oct. 4, See Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Sec. of War, Jan. 9, 1889, enclosing a note of the British legation of Jan. 2, 1889, asking for the discharge of Septimus Reynolds, who had enlisted in the military service of the United States while a minor, without the consent of his parents. (171 MS. Dom. Let. 285.) 2. COMPULSORY SERVICE. § 548. Three American citizens engaged in business as merchants at " Jackmel, St. Domingo" (now Jacmel, Hayti), having been subjected to forced loans and military service, decided to leave the island, and for that purpose applied for passports, which General Pageot, the French commander, refused to give them. They then tried to depart without passports, and were arrested and imprisoned. The United States protested against their detention, saying: "The most inviolable and most obvious right of an alien resident is that of withdrawing himself from a limited and transitory allegiance having no other foundation than his voluntary residence itself. The infraction of this right is consequently among the greatest of injuries that can be done to individuals, and among the justest of causes for the interposing protection of their government." Mr. Madison, Sec. of State, to Mr. Pichon, French chargé, May 20, 1803, 14 "Citizens or subjects of one country residing in another, though bound by their temporary allegiance to many common duties, can never be rightfully forced into military service, particularly external service, nor be restrained from leaving their residence when they please. The law of nations protects them against both, and the violation of this law by the avowed impressment of American citizens residing in Great Britain may be pressed with the greater force on the British Government, as it is in direct inconsistency with her impressment of her own subjects bound by much stronger ties to the United States, as above explained, as well as with the spirit of her commercial laws and policy, by which foreigners are invited to a residence. The liberation of the persons comprehended by this article, therefore, can not be justly or honorably refused, and the provision for their recompense and their return home is equally due to the service rendered by and the wrong done to them." Mr. Madison, Sec. of State, to Mr. Monroe, min. to England, Jan. 5, 1804, In reply to a complaint of the French minister, that a Mr. de Testaret, a French subject, while in Ohio on private business, had been enrolled in the militia and called on to perform military duty in defense of the country, as a citizen of the United States; and that a similar demand had been made on Mr. Dumas, another French subject, in Missouri Territory, Mr. Monroe stated that he would immediately write to the governors of Ohio and Missouri and request their attention to the subject. Mr. Monroe, Sec. of State, to Mr. Serurier, French min., July 30, 1813, "I can hardly suppose that there exists, anywhere in the world, the erroneous belief that aliens are liable here to military duty. If you think otherwise, there will be no objection to your giving any publication you please to this communication." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Gamble, Aug. 14, 1862, 58 MS. Dom. See Ex parte Blumer, 27 Tex. 734. "I regret that absence from this city has prevented, until now, the receipt of your letter of the 28th of August last. The question which it presents is not without its difficulties. The provision found in the constitution of Indiana and in other States, which admits foreigners to citizenship there who have not perfected their naturalization, has not been unknown to this Department. So long as questions arising under it have only a local bearing, serious difficulties may easily be avoided. The occurrence of the present civil war brings up questions under it, which affect the relations of the United States to foreign nations. "There is no principle more distinctly and clearly settled in the law of nations, than the rule that resident aliens not naturalized are not liable to perform military service. We have uniformly claimed and insisted upon it in our intercourse with foreign nations. While the State of Indiana holds that an alien becomes a citizen by one year's residence and declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, the law of Great Britain holds that a native British subject owes allegiance to the British Government, until he has completely effected his naturalization in the United States, under the laws of Congress. "In the very beginning of the war, the question arose between the two Governments in this way. A British subject residing in Maryland, who had filed a declaration of intention, but had not perfected his naturalization under the laws of Congress, claimed protection and redress from this Government on the ground that he had a British passport. On examining the records of this Department, it was found that from the foundation of the Government the Department had refused to grant passports as citizens to aliens who had merely filed the preliminary declaration of intention, and who had not effected their naturalization under the United States laws, and had informally recognized the passports granted to them by the proper authorities of the governments of which they had been born subjects. It was deemed wise and. prudent to adhere to this course, insomuch as it seemed to be not only equal and just, but also entirely in conformity with the laws of Congress. The conjuncture of a civil war, moreover, was thought an unfavorable one for a departure from the settled practice of the Government in its intercourse with foreign countries, with all the hazards of conflict. It is proper to state, however, that in every case where an alien has exercised suffrage in the United States, he is regarded as having forfeited his allegiance to his native sovereign, and he is in consequence of that act like any citizen liable to perform military service. It is understood, moreover, that foreign governments acquiesce in this construction of the law. It is hoped that under this construction your militia force will not be sensibly reduced." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Gov. Morton, Sept. 5, 1862, 58 MS. Dom. Let. 169. See, however, supra, § 387. "No alien-born person is liable to render military service unless either he has been naturalized on his own application or has made a voluntary declaration, on oath, of his intention to become a citizen by naturalization, according to law, or has claimed and actually exercised the political right of voting as a citizen of the United States." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Williams, Nov. 24, 1863, 62 MS. Dom. See Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Stanton, Sec. of War, Aug. 8, 1863, Orders Nos. 53 and 65 of the provost-marshal-general made it the duty of provost-marshals, when not satisfied that the claimant was entitled to exemption from the military draft on the ground of alienage, to refer the case, with the affidavits and such other evidence as they might be able to procure, through the provost-marshal-general, for the decision of the Department of State, in the meantime suspending all action until such decision should be made. It was desired that the observance of these orders should be enjoined on the provost-marshals, in order that the evidence might reach the Department of State through the proper channel instead of being communicated to it by the parties interested. (Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Stanton, Sec. of War, Sept. 9, 1863, 61 MS. Dom. Let. 520.) In a case of alleged fraudulent enlistment of an alien, his government has an undoubted right and duty to ask for a prompt investigation and satisfactory answer; and, if it appears that he was improperly enlisted and he has fallen in battle, his family ought to have some compensation. (Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Stanton, Sec. of War, Aug. 2, 1864, 65 MS. Dom. Let. 399, referring to previous letters to Mr. Stanton of March 9 and May 26, 1864, and the latter's answers of May 28, and July 8, 1864, and a note of the French legation "of the 18th instant.") "In 1861, during the American civil war, the British Government declared that if enforced enlistments of British subjects for the war were persisted in, the Government would be obliged to concert with other neutral powers for the protection of their respective subjects; but neither in the Northern or Southern States was the discharge of any British subject enlisted against his will refused on proper representation. There is no international law prohibiting the government of any country from requiring aliens to serve in the militia or police, yet at the above-mentioned date the British Government intimated that, if the United States permitted no alternative of providing substitutes, the position of British subjects to be embodied in that militia would call for every exertion being made in their favor on the part of Her Majesty's Government.' The British Government in 1862 informed Mr. Stuart that as a general principle of international law neutral aliens ought not to be compelled to perform any military service (i. e., working in trenches), but that allowance might be made for the conduct of authorities in cities under martial law and in daily peril of the enemy, and in 1864 the British Government saw no reason to interfere in the case of neutral foreigners directed to be enrolled as a local police for New Orleans. "By the United States act, April 14, 1802, naturalized aliens are entitled to nearly the same rights and are charged with the same duties as the native inhabitants; and aliens not naturalized, if they have at any time assumed the right of voting at a State election or held office, are, according to the opinion of Mr. Attorney-General Bates, liable to the acts for enrolling the national forces. (See, also, act 3d March, 1863, and act 24th February, 1864; proclamation of President May 8, 1863.) This was acted on during the American civil war, and tacitly acquiesced in by the British Government." 66 2 Halleck's Int. Law (Baker's ed.), 6. "In our late civil war, when the Government of the United States was compelled to use every just effort to put down the insurrection by which its existence was assailed, and when in the application of its conscription acts it was compelled to consider many cases of aliens on its shores, there is not a single instance in which an alien was held to military duty when his Government called for his release." (Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. McLane, min. to France, Feb. 15, 188, For. Rel. 1888, I. 510, 512.) During the civil war in the United States, all persons who had voted as State citizens were claimed by the United States Government as liable to the conscription;' and the act of the Congress of March 3, 1863, expressly declared that the levy should include all persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their intentions to become citizens.' "Mr. Sellers, a British subject, who had announced his intention to become naturalized, applied, in October, 1862, to be informed whether he could claim the protection of the British Government. He was told that, as he had so acted without consulting the British Government, he must not expect that, until a case should arise in which its. interference might be requested, it would give any opinion of the view which it might take of such a case. (Parl. Papers, 1862.) "In 1862 certain native-born British subjects in Wisconsin claimed 'that, although they had voted at elections, they had done so under the State law as aliens, and had not thereby forfeited their British nationality.' |