267. Fee in 1870. consuls were to charge the same amount, accounting for the funds directly to the Department. The act of June 30, 1864, increased the fee to five dol-13 Stat., 276. lars, both at home and abroad, the method of Fee in 1864. collecting being the same as before. The receipts, being sent to the Secretary of State, were in turn transmitted by him to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, by whom they were charged to the collector's account. The act of July 14, 1870, "to 16 Stat., reduce internal taxes, and for other purposes," provided that the tax on passports should cease October 1, 1870. The appropriation act of June 20, 18 Stat., 90. 1874, ordered that a fee of five dollars should be Fee in 1874collected for each citizen's passport issued by the Department. An account of the fees was to be kept, and the amount collected paid into the Treasury at least quarterly. April 30, 1878, an act was 20 Stat., 240. approved directing the Secretary of State to issue No fee in 1878 passports free of charge to colored Americans going people. to Brazil to work on the Madera and Mamore Railway. March 23, 1888, the fee was reduced to the 25 Stat., 45. present rate of one dollar. Since that date diplomatic and consular officers have been, under Executive order, obliged to charge the same official fee as the Department. to certain colored Fee in 1888. charge. While no fee for a passport was officially col-Improper lected up to 1862, there had been, during the administration of Timothy Pickering, an irregular and unofficial charge made by the clerks in the Department for making out passports. When the facts 16 Stat., 368, 369. Passport clerk to administer oaths free. were learned by the Secretary he dismissed the two clerks implicated in the transaction.* An act approved February 2, 1870, prescribed that "the clerk in the Department of State who may from time to time be assigned to the duty of examining applications for passports is hereby authorized and empowered to receive and attest, but without charge to the applicant, all oaths, affidavits, or affirmations which are or may be required by law or by the rules of the Department of State, to be made before granting such passport or passports; and such oaths, affidavits, or affirmations shall be deemed to be made under the pains and penalties of perjury." Before the date of this act, it may be that the passport clerk, having also an appointment as a notary public, exacted the regular notarial fee from such applicants for passports as made affidavit before him. *See Upham's Life of Pickering, vol. iii, p. 308, et seq. The following is the story of this, one of the few cases of dishonest practices by Government clerks: A certain dry goods merchant of Philadelphia, a native of Scotland, called at the Department of State November 12, 1796, to obtain a passport, and was shown into an office where he found a "gentleman alone," who made out the passport and handed it to him. Upon asking what was the charge, he was told, “There is no particular sum charged; it is left to the people's generosity." He accordingly laid down five dollars, which the gentleman "pocketed, rose, saw the merchant to the door, and made a low bow." The merchant did not know Pickering, and the latter's enemies hearing of the transaction, endeavored to make it appear that it was the Secretary himself who had received the money. The incident was printed January 24, 1797, in the chief opposition newspaper, The Aurora, as evidence of Pickering's dishonesty. He made an investigation, from which it appeared that the merchant had dealt with “a lusty man, a clerk in the office of the Secretary of State." The clerk implicated an associate, and both were dismissed. CHAPTER VII. DURATION OF THE PASSPORT. But in the Department circular passports. Consular THE early returns of passports issued by our Early ministers and consuls abroad, show that many of them, being granted for a specific voyage or journey, terminated after their purpose was accomplished. General passports contained no notice of their limitation. of 1845 it was announced that a new passport must Ante, p. 46. be procured each time a citizen might go abroad. Regulations, As long as he remained in foreign lands, he was Good for one expected to renew his passport at a legation or Ante, p. 54. consulate annually. By the circular of September Good for two 1, 1873, the duration of the passport was limited to two years, and since early in 1892 the statement "Good only for two years from date" has been printed upon each passport issued. 1868, par. 706. year. years. Up to 1889 a new passport was issued to a person Renewal. who held an old one simply upon the receipt of the old passport and a certificate that the holder was at the time within the United States. This prac procurement. tice, however, was found to be a fruitful source of imposition upon the Department. Unscrupulous Unscrupulous persons while still abroad would send their old passports to agents in this country, who would present them to the Department, at the same time leading it Special passport. to suppose, often by false statements, that the original holder was in this country at the time the application for renewal was made. Accordingly, in 1893, the renewal of passports was stopped, and since then a new application has been required in each case where a new passport is desired. These remarks are applicable to the regular passport. The special passport contains no statement upon its face of the length of its duration; but, generally speaking, it may be said to be subject to the same limitations as the ordinary passport. CHAPTER VIII. WORDING AND PICTORIAL FEATURES OF THE PASSPORT. THE first passport found in the records of the Form in 1796. Passport Division is dated July 8, 1796. It is on a printed form, and there is every reason to suppose that similar documents had been issued by the Department from the organization of the Government. It was apparently sent to the Department with request for its renewal. It is as follows: To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Passport The Bearer hereof, Francis Maria Barrere a citizen of No. 1. the United States of America, having occasion to pass into foreign countries about his lawful affairs, these are to pray all whom it may concern, to permit the said Francis Maria Barrere (he demeaning himself well and peaceably) to pass wheresoever his lawful pursuits may call him, freely and without let or molestation in going, staying or returning, and to give him all friendly aid and protection, as these United States would do to their citizens in the like case. [SEAL.] (Gratis.) In faith whereof I have caused the seal of the TIMOTHY PICKERING Secretary of State. |