Mr. Breckinridge to
Mr. Gresham.
Legation of the United States,
St. Petersburg, May 17, 1895.
(Received June 1.)
No. 71.]
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your
No. 46, of April 15, relating to the refusal of the Russian consul at
New York, under instructions from his Government, to visé passports
issued by the Department to persons of Jewish faith, and instructing me,
unless good reasons to the contrary should occur to me, to present to
the Russian Government the views of our Government as contained in the
Department’s No. 60, of February 28, 1893.
After consulting the dispatch above referred to, and the references it
contained, and carefully considering the matter, I concluded to address
a note to Prince Lobanow upon the subject, copy of which, of this date,
is herewith inclosed.
The records of this legation have not disclosed, after a careful search,
the reply of the Russian Government to the position taken by our
Government in the dispatch referred to. From long absence, however, of
further complaint, I presume the objectionable practice was
discontinued. Its resumption or continuation after the most earnest
representations of our Government, and knowing how obnoxious such an
extraterritorial step, especially concerning religious liberty, must be
to the United States, seemed to make it impolitic and unjust to be
silent, and useless to speak in any terms but the plainest, though of
course in a spirit of courtesy and kindness, which conclusion and course
I respectfully submit.
[Page 1057]
In this connection I may add that soon after writing this note to Prince
Lobanow, I was handed by our consul-general two applications from Mr.
Arm and de Potter, a tourist agent, of New York, to secure the visé of
the passports of Hebrew families.
These I simply transmitted, calling attention to my previous note.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 71.]
Mr. Breckinridge
to Prince Lobanow.
Legation of the United States,
St. Petersburg, May
5/17, 1895.
Your Excellency: I am directed by my
Government to bring to the attention of the Imperial Government the
refusal of the Russian consul of New York to visé passports issued
by the United States to its citizens if they are of the Jewish
faith.
As your excellency is aware it has long been a matter of deep regret
and concern to the United States that any of its citizens should be
discriminated against for religious reasons while peacefully
sojourning in this country, or that any such restraint should be
imposed upon their coming and going. Painful as this policy toward a
class of our citizens is to my Government, repugnant to our
constitutional duty to afford them in every possible way equal
protection and privileges and to our sense of their treaty rights,
yet it is even more repugnant to our laws and the national sense for
a foreign official, located within the jurisdiction of the United
States, to there apply a religious test to any of our citizens to
the impairment of his rights as an American citizen or in derogation
of the certificate of our Government to the fact of such
citizenship.
It is not constitutionally within the power of the United States
Government, or of any of its authorities, to apply a religious test
in qualification of the equal rights of all citizens of the United
States, and no law or principle is more warmly cherished by the
American people. It is therefore impossible for my Government to
acquiesce in any manner in the application of such a test within its
jurisdiction by the agents of a foreign power.
When this matter was the subject of correspondence between my
Government and the Imperial representative at Washington, as shown
by Prince Cantacuzène’s note of February 20/8, 1893, such action by
the Russian consul at New York was shown to be “according to the
instructions of his Government.”
I can sincerely assure you that the continuation of this practice is
as embarrassing as it is painful to my Government, especially when
it is on the part of a nation for whose Government and people such
intimate friendship has so long been manifested by the United
States. I am happy that in this spirit I can frankly submit the
matter to your excellency with the sincere hope that assurance can
be given that such practices will be henceforth interdicted on the
part of Russian officials located within the jurisdiction of the
United States.
I avail, etc.,
