No. 139.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Bancroft
Washington, June 4, 1873.
Sir: I have received your dispatches, 480 and 481, and have read with great attention the reasons which you give in the latter for not [Page 293] pressing at present for the unification of the naturalization treaties with Germany.
It is much to be regretted that the present government at Berlin is not disposed to listen favorably to the suggestion which you were authorized to make, that the naturalization treaty with the North German Union should be extended over the empire.
The circumstances under which the existing treaties were negotiated, necessarily made them what they are. To have gained at that time the recognition of the principle of the right of emigration was a triumph of which everyone connected with it has good right to be proud. But the fact that the negotiations were made with different and independent governments, each with its own peculiar views, has been the cause of the divergencies referred to in my No. 569. Notwithstanding what you say in your No. 480, I still think it would be better to remove these differences, and to have but one rule for all Germany. And I had thought that, as your name is identified with the recognition of the great principle upon which the treaties were founded, it was due to you that the complete structure which must inevitably come should bear your signature. I regret to learn from you that there is no present probability of such a result.
A German can now come to America, obtain his naturalization papers through the operation of our laws, return to Germany and reside there indefinitely as an American citizen, provided he does not reside the requisite time for renunciation in the territories under the jurisdiction of the particular power of whom he was formerly a subject. It is true that such a course would be a fraud upon the United States, and a fraud upon the German Empire. We should be deprived of the resources of the naturalized citizen towards the support of the state; Germany would be deprived of the right to call upon him for her defense. It is for the interest of neither to perpetuate this. We are ready on our side to remedy it by extending the provisions of the treaty with North Germany over the empire, as I have already said; but if our proposition will not be listened to, we must await the return of a better reason. Meanwhile it is not wise to take any half-way measure as to Alsace and Loraine.
I am, &c.,