No. 124.
Mr. Lowell
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
London, May 4, 1882.
(Received May 18.)
No. 350.]
Sir: The case of John R. McCormack, a prisoner in
Clonmel jail, who asserts his American citizenship, and sends me a
certificate of naturalization bearing the name of John McCormiek, is one of
those that will still embarrass me with the question of continuous domicile,
even should he succeed in establishing his identity with the person named in
the certified extract from the record of the justice’s court of the district
of Troy, New York, on which he bases his claim for my intervention in his
behalf.
The date of the certificate of naturalization is the 25th October, 1867. A
letter from Mrs. McCormack informs me that her husband returned to Ireland
in 1869, and has continuously resided there ever since (with the exception
of a visit to the United States in 1873) as the publisher and editor of a
local newspaper.
The United States have from the first justly insisted on and have finally
established the principle of the right of expatriation; but when a man has
completed the process of expatriating himself and returns to the land of his
birth, I should be glad to be instructed how far his residence there may be
prolonged without extinction of the acquired and revival of the original
allegiance; over how many years may the animus
revertendi be reasonably considered elastic enough to stretch; and
what kind or continuity of business pursuit may be supposed to establish the
animus manendi.
In treaties with the North German Confederation and with Würtemberg, [Page 240] the United States have agreed to
consider two years as the reasonable limit beyond which a continuous
residence in his native country by the naturalized citizen of another will
be considered as establishing the animus manendi.
Some of the decisions of the court seem to imply a much shorter period.
In the cases of most, if not all, the so-called American suspects in Ireland,
continuous residence has exceeded this term; in some it has greatly exceeded
it; in the case of McOorraack it has apparently extended to thirteen years.
I cannot help thinking that the British Government would be justified in
questioning the final perseverance (if I may borrow a theological term) of
adopted citizenship under adverse circumstances like these.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 350.]
Mr. McCormack to
Mr. Barrows.
Clonmel
Prison, Tipperary,
23, 2,
’82.
Dear Sir: I beg to bring under your notice that
I am an American citizen, suffering imprisonment under the English
coercion act. I am guiltless of any crime punishable by law, and what I
request is that, in pursuance of a resolution passed by the United
States legislature, you use your office in securing for me that
protection which I claim as a citizen of the United States, and that
justice which, only through your government, I can obtain. If the
government of this most unhappy country has a charge against me, all I
ask is that I be brought to trial and given a chance of refuting the
charge before one of the legal tribunals of the country. If there be no
charge against me other then, perhaps, that of fallacious suspicion,
founded upon the whisper of an ambitious
policeman, or grounded on the elastic information
of a hireling informer, then I think it is no more than ordinary justice
to demand my release or my trial. It is not necessary, however, that I
should here enter into a discussion of the injustice which I am
suffering at the hands of a rather strange government and the action,
nay the duty, of that magnanimous government which you represent, and
which I have sworn to maintain. For the present I think it sufficient to
inform you of my position, and to request that you will see to it.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 350.]
Mr. Barrows to Mr.
McCormack.
Consulate of the United States,
Dublin, February 24,
1882.
Sir: I am in receipt of yours of the 23d, and
in reply beg to inform you that the fact of your being an American
citizen confers upon you no immunity from arrest and imprisonment under
the coercion act. The minister can interfere only:
- 1st.
- When such person being in Ireland in the prosecution of his
lawful private business, and taking no part in political
meetings or partisan disturbances, has been arrested by obvious
mistake; or,
- 2d.
- When a distinction has been made to the disadvantage of the
prisoner on the ground of his American nationality.
The above are the decisions of Minister Lowell, under whose instructions
I am acting. Should there be a peculiar hardship in your case, not
affected by these decisions, please submit all the facts in the case,
together with evidence of your American citizenship, and the matter
shall have my prompt attention
I remain. &c.,
B. H. BARROWS,
United States
Consul.
[Page 241]
[Inclosure 3 in No. 350.]
Mr. McCormack to
Mr. Barrows.
Naas
Bastile, April 18,
1882.
Dear Sir: Herewith I forward you certificate of
my American citizenship, and beg to request that you will lose no time
in forwarding it to Mr. Lowell. I lost the original document, and in
consequence of your reply tome last February, I neglected sending for a
duplicate until the 20th ultimo. I trust that Mr. Lowell will lose no
time in representing my case, as I am now undergoing my fourth month’s
imprisonment without the slightest shadow of a charge against me. Of
course my business as a journalist and newspaper proprietor is suffering
severely through this most wanton outrage perpetrated on me by the
British Government, and I think it would be nothing more than ordinary
justice that Mr. Lowell should demand compensation for me for the losses
which I have sustained. I shall expect at least that my trial or
unconditional release will be demanded forthwith. Surely four months
should be time enough for the British authorities to trump up a charge
against me if they could, but I defy them to do so.
It might be necessary for me to explain the slight difference between the
name under which I was arrested and that in my certificate of
citizenship. The name under which I was arrested is John R. McCormack,
the R being used by me from my mother, whose name is Ryan, in order to
distinguish me from several John McCormacks in Tipperary, amongst them
three first cousins of my own. Of course I am prepared to prove that I
am the actual person mentioned in the inclosed duplicate.
Your faithful fellow-citizen,
[Inclosure 4 in No. 350.]
Mr. Barrows to Mr.
Lowell.
Consulate of the United States,
Dublin, April 19,
1882.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit here with
copy of the naturalization papers of John R. McCormack, an American
suspect, at present confined in Naas jail.
Mr. McCormack wrote me from Clonmel jail, where he was then confined, on
the 23d February last, stating his case, and I replied to him the next
day. His letter to me and a copy of my reply are submitted herewith,
together with Mr. McCormack’s letter of April 18.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 5 in No. 350]
Mr. Lowell to Mr.
Barrows.
Legation of the United States,
London, April 21,
1882.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 19th instant, inclosing two letters from Mr. John R.
McCormack, a suspect confined in Clonmel prison, to yourself, a copy of
your letter to him, and his certificate of naturalization.
Will you be kind enough to state to Mr. McCormack that I shall give
proper attention to his case.
I am, &c.,
