Mr. Vroom to Mr. Statz. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have received your note of the 19th of last month, and, after carefully considering its contents, regret that I am unable to take any view of your case different from that taken in my communication of the 15th of October. Your letter to this legation and my answer to it have been transmitted without delay to the Secretary, at Washington; and whatever instructions may be given me in regard to your case will be strictly complied with. If no instructions shall be received, I shall conclude that the course I have pursued has been approved. 66 There is one fact stated in your last letter, and which was not mentioned in your first, that requires a single remark. It is, that you had a regular passport for a year, and therefore did not go from Prussia without leave and against law," as I had observed in my answer. I do not perceive that this alters the case in your favor. The passport was a mere permission to be absent for a year, and it implied a promise that you would return at the end of the time. This promise you violated; and, if you took advantage of the license to become a citizen of the United States, it does not place you in a better position than if you had gone without any leave whatever. By the remark I made, I intended to be understood that you had emigrated from and abandoned your country "without leave and against law;" and this is strictly true. I feel much concern for you in your present situation, and shall be glad, as you may well suppose, to do anything for your relief that may be consistent with my views of propriety and duty. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Mr. JOHN STATZ, Cologne. P. D. VROOM. Mr. Statz, who has been placed in the army, and whose case has been before referred to on several occasions, continues to write to the legation. In his last letter he endeavors again to show that, as an American citizen, he is entitled to full protection as against the claims of this government, and wishes to know at what time he may conclude, from my not receiving any special instruction, that the course I have taken in his case has been approved by the department. I have told him, as will be perceived by a copy of the correspondence, that if any instruction was to be given, it would be done without unnecessary delay. He thinks an absolute demand should be made for his release, and that before "the pronounced will of the United States" all difficulties must vanish. My reason for not making such demand was explained to him in my first letter of the 17th of October; and in the same letter I informed him that I had no reason to suppose the government of the United States would direct me to interfere.(See dispatch 99.) I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, P. D. VROOM. Hon. W. L. MARCY, Secretary of State. Mr. Statz to Mr. Vroom. COLOGNE, January 15, 1856. SIR: Your note of the 5th of this month, although it did not much encourage me, yet in its conclusion confirmed me in the favorable opinion I had already conceived of your concern for me in my present situation; nothing, therefore, but the duty of utmost self-defense impels me to trouble you with another letter. Your letter tells me that "if no instructions will be received" from Washington you will conclude that "the course you have pursued will have been approved;" but since all my other steps must be directed by the previous and certain information whether I am to expect that any instruction in my favor may possibly still arrive, I beg you will point out to me the probable term, which being elapsed, I may safely conclude that the course you pursued has been approved by the Secretary of State, and that I may give up all hope for protection by the government of the United States. By your observation that my regular Prussian passport did not alter the case in my favor, I am indeed convinced and assent to your opinion; only this may show that I am not quite a runaway, and that if I offended the law it was only in a passive way. Yet there was another point in my last letter which you did neither refute nor mention, on which, however, I lay the greatest stress. If I grant all other points, yet there remains the fact that the intention of becoming a citizen of the United States has a protective power, that citizenship itself therefore has a retrospective power. This has been acknowledged by our government, because they did intercede in the case of Koszta, and so I do not seem to demand unreasonably that in my own case, too, the government of the United States may act up to their own principle and protect me. This "power of the intention," or, which is the same thing, this "retrospective power of citizenship" must also have protected me against becoming liable to the military service of Prussia whilst I was staying in the United States with the intention, afterwards executed, and thus proved to be sincere, of becoming a citizen. That the difficulty of protectiug me is now greater than it was in the case of Koszta, I do not know. Besides this, all difficulties must vanish before the pronounced will of the United States. Moreover, this difficulty, that I am in the territory of Prussia, and that Koszta was in a neutral country, does not affect the chief point, the question of right in both cases; it does not make them entirely different. If this circumstance makes a superficial difference in favor of Koszta, the difference in my favor, viz: that I am a now citizen, and that Koszta only had the intention, must also be considered; and, moreover, the point in question is not whether I can be protected without difficulty, but whether I ought to be protected. If you, sir, would prove this claim of protection to be groundless, which I hope you will not, then, and only then, I shall be reduced to take the same view of my case which you took in both your communications. Awaiting, therefore, your answer and an information about the term after which no instructions are to be expected from Washington. I remain, sir, with thankful acknowledgment of the concern you profess to feel for me, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN STATZ, Musketeer, 30th Infantry Regiment, 8th Company. Mr. P. D. VROOM, Embassador of the United States, Berlin. Mr. Vroom to Mr. Statz. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Berlin, January 21, 1856. SIR: Your letter of the 15th instant has been duly received. I am not able to give you any satisfactory answer as to the time after which no instructions are to be expected from Washington in regard to your case. The papers have all been forwarded, and your last letter will be sent to-morrow. If, in view of the whole matter, the department shall think it advisable to give any special instruction, I am sure it will not be long delayed. Permit me to assure you again of my sympathy for you in your unfortunate situation. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Mr. Abel French, consul at Aix-la-Chapelle, has referred to me the case of Mr. George Schlemmer, who has applied to him for protection Ex. Doc. 38-7 and relief as a citizen of the United States. On examining the papers, I have informed Mr. French that an application to the government here would be entirely useless, and that I saw no mode in which Mr. Schlemmer could be relieved. The case is one of that class where persons obtaining from the government leave to go to the United States for a year, remain abroad long enough to become citizens, and on their return are compelled to perform military service. It is similar to that of John Statz, about which there has been considerable correspondence. Copies of the application of Mr. Schlemmer (through a relative) to Mr. French, of his letter to me, and my answer are forwarded with this dispatch. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, P. D. VROOM. Hon. W. L. MARCY, Secretary of State. Mr. French to Mr. Vroom. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, SIR: I inclose herewith a certificate of naturalization of Mr. George Schlemmer, together with a letter which covered it, from his brotherin-law, Mr. Stahlschmidt. I have written to Mr. Stahlschmidt that I should send his communication to you for such action as you might see fit to take, but that I feared that nothing could be done to relieve his relative from the unpleasant situation in which he has placed himself. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. FRENCH. Hon. PETER D. VROOM, United States Minister, Berlin. Mr. Stahlschmidt to Mr. French. The undersigned, brother-in-law of George Schlemmer, a citizen of the United States of America, naturalized on the 4th of December, 1854, wishes to claim the protection of the United States government for the said G. Schlemmer. Said G. Schlemmer emigrated to the United States in the year 1849, with a passport of the Prussian government for one year. Pecuniary difficulty prevented his returning to Prussia, and he became in due time a citizen of the United States. Family business made his return necessary; he was provided with a United States passport, dated Washington, October, 1855. After coming home, he was taken prisoner by the Prussian government, and made a soldier against his free will, and while protesting, as a citizen of the United States, they made him swear as a soldier by force. Believing this to be against the right of nations, he claims the protection of the United States government for the said G. Schlemmer. Hoping that you, as United States consul, will do everything in your power to release him, I sign, respectfully, your servant. Mr. FRENCH, United States Consul in Aachen. Mr. Stahlschmidt to Mr. French. [Translation.] REUSS, February 22, 1856. My brother-in-law George Schlemmer, returned some weeks ago from America, an a visit to his mother, brothers, and sisters. He is twenty-six years old, and emigrated at the age of nineteen. He tried to obtain permission to remain at Elberfeld, but it was refused to him. His American passport was taken from him, and he was sent to Dusseldorf, under the escort of gen d'armes. On his arrival there he was forthwith forced into military service. He has to undergo a great deal of drilling; is not allowed to go out without a guard, and all intercourse by letter is denied him. Those about him are strictly enjoined to watch him closely. My brother-in-law wrote the above statement in a hurry, and requested me to copy it, and to add some explanations, and then to put it into your hands. Now, as he is in a very unfortunate position, and has, moreover, business to attend to in America, which suffers greatly on account of his absence, I solicit your kind sympathy and assistance in his behalf. I herewith inclose to you his certificate of naturalization, which I beg you will return to me, requesting that you will communicate to my address the result of your kind efforts in the matter. Your most devoted, humble servant, A. FRENCH, Esq., United States Consul, Aix-la-Chapelle. W. STAHLSCHMIDT. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Your letter of the 23d instant, in regard to the case of George Schlemmer, has been received with the papers accompanying it. It appears that Mr. Schlemmer left Prussia for the United States in 1849, being then in his nineteenth year, with a passport from his government, giving him leave of absence for a year. Instead of returning, he remained in the United States upwards of five years, and in the meanwhile became naturalized as a citizen, in the court of common pleas for the city and county of New York, on the 4th of December, 1854, as appears by his certificate of naturalization. He has now returned voluntarily and placed himself within the power of |
