Mr. Rublee to Mr. Fish.
Sir: The ordinary summer session of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland commences to-day. The most important question likely to occupy the attention of the assembly is the proposed revision of the federal constitution. It is quite probable, however, that definite action upon it may be again postponed, and its consideration remitted to a special session during the coming autumn, at which no other business will be taken up.
During the interim between the last and the present session, two committees, one composed of members of the national council, and the other of members of the council of states, have been engaged in maturing plans of revision. Each has prepared a long series of amendments to the present constitution. These amendments are in many instances identical, and, in their general scope, indicate considerable harmony of views between the respective committees. They have been published in a pamphlet in connection the text of the existing constitution, so as to show at a glance the precise innovations proposed, and the divergencies that exist between the two committees. A copy of this pamphlet will be forwarded to you by the same post with this dispatch.
The general effect of the amendment would be, if adopted, to enlarge materially the bounds of the federal authority, and to give the government a more centralized form and character.
The most important changes proposed are those which would place the organization of the army entirely within the dominion of federal legislation, and entail directly upon the confederation the charges for its instruction and equipment, as well as maintenance, and those which would deprive the cantons of all direct interest in the receipts from customs, tolls, postages, and the tax on exemptions from military service. There is much difference of opinion in respect to the policy of such a radical change in the existing system. Some of the most experienced [Page 880] and enlightened public men of the country hesitate to give them their approbation, or openly oppose them. These doubt or deny that the relief afforded the cantons through the assumption by the confederation of the expenses of the army would compensate the cantons for the loss they would sustain by abandoning their present receipts from tolls, postages, &c., while they apprehend a serious diminution of local zeal in the collection of such taxes, as well as in the maintenance of rates essential for the needs of the government, should the proceeds be directed into the federal treasury.
The other principal modifications of the present constitution proposed are:
1. Respecting citizenship. A Swiss citizen establishing himself in any canton is to enjoy all the rights of such canton, except participation in the property of the bourgeoisie or of corporations. After three months’ residence, he may vote at cantonal and communal, as well as federal elections. At present he may be excluded; from voting at canonical elections, and the residence required before he is permitted to vote at cantonal elections is regulated by the law of the canton, limited by a provision of the actual constitution which declares that not more than two years’ residence shall be required. Cantonal laws in regard to settlements are to be submitted to the sanction of the Federal Council.
2. A Swiss citizen who acquires or accepts a foreign citizenship will forfeit his Swiss citizenship.
3. The free exercise of worship is guaranteed. At present this guarantee is limited to recognized Christian confessions.
4. Cantonal laws for the repression of abuses that may arise from the exercise of the right of association accorded to the people must be submitted to the approval of the Federal Council.
5. The abolition of the death penalty. This is only proposed by the committee of the national council.
6. The federal tribunal constituted a supreme federal tribunal, with a jurisdiction more approximated to that of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Of the new articles proposed, the principal are in substance as follows:
1. Legislation respecting the constitution and management of railways appertains to the confederation.
2. The opening of gambling-houses is prohibited. Those already licensed to be closed when the present license expires.
3. Regulations for the conduct and police of industrial establishments, as well as in regard to the labor of adults and children in factories, will be prescribed by federal legislation.
4. Liberty of conscience guaranteed. No one to be disquieted in the exercise of his political or civil rights on account of religious opinion, or to be compelled to perforin religious acts, or to incur any penalty for abstaining from them, or to be made to pay taxes for the support of a worship or religious confession to which he declares he does not belong. No person to be released from the performance of civil duties on account of his religious opinions.
5. Marriage placed under the protection of the confederation. Marriages not to be hindered on account of the indigence of either of the parties thereto, or their previous conduct; marriages performed in accordance with the laws of the canton where they are solemnized to be valid throughout the confederation; the wife will acquire the rights of citizenship and of bourgeoisie of the husband; children born out of wedlock to become legitimate on the subsequent marriage of the parents.
[Page 881]6. Federal legislation to be extended over the subjects of commercial law, contracts, marriage, domicile, the keeping of the registers of the stat-civil, prosecutions for debts, and bankruptcies.
7. When 50,000 electors demand a modification or the repeal of an existing law, or that a new law be enacted, on a specified subject, the two houses of the legislative body, if they approve of the demand, are to prepare a bill in conformity therewith, and submit it to a vote of the people and of the cantons. If the two houses do not approve of the demand, this is to be submitted to a vote of the people and of the cantons, and if a majority of the people and of the cantons approve of the demand, it will be the duty of the legislative body to frame a bill in conformance therewith, and submit such bill to a vote of the people and of the cantons.
The principle of the last-mentioned amendment has been incorporated in the constitution of the canton of Zurich. It is called “popular initiative.” The proposition to include it in the federal constitution proceeds from the committee of the national council, and is not concurred in by the committee of the council of states. The principle, however, is very favorably regarded in Switzerland, and it is not unlikely to prevail if any considerable portion of the projected plans for a revision prevail. The committee of the council of states, while rejecting the “popular initiative,” propose that laws involving an expenditure of more than one million of francs shall be submitted to a vote of the people and of the cantons, when the two houses of the legislative body so decree, or when, within three months after the publication of such a law, five cantons, or 50,000 electors, shall ask for such submission.
The demand for a revision appears to proceed chiefly from the political and commercial classes of the population. The latter, especially, are urgent in calling for a unification of the laws regulating contracts, the collection of debts, &c., great inconvenience and injustice frequently resulting from the conflicting systems which at present prevail in the several cantons. At the same time, the agricultural and laboring classes seem indifferent, or to take very little interest in the subject. Again, many persons, Who would otherwise look with favor upon propositions for giving increased authority to the central government, in view of the peculiar circumstances in which Switzerland is placed, the progress made under the established order of things, and the present very satisfactory condition of the country, both in its internal and external relations, deem it unwise to enter upon new experiments. The primitive cantons, the French cantons, and the Catholic element of the population are also pronounced in their opposition to the general scope of the revision projects. Conservatives of all shades shrink from giving any occasion for disturbing the harmony now prevailing between the different sections of the confederation, and fear that such might be the consequence of any considerable centralization of the government. Three different races of people, each speaking a different, language, are comprised in the population of Switzerland. Of these, the German-speaking portion is largely predominant in numbers, and can at will wield the federal authority as it chooses. Thus every increase of the federal power would give increased ascendency to the German-speaking element of the people, and would afford additional pretexts, if not just grounds, for apprehensions and jealousies on the part of the French and Italian cantons.
It is not improbable that the Federal Assembly, notwithstanding some serious differences of opinion on the subject between the two houses, will be able to harmonize upon a project of revision; but it is still a matter of considerable doubt whether, in case sufficient interest is awakened [Page 882] to call out a full vote of the electors, the result of their deliberations will secure a popular approval.
I am, sir, &c.,