No. 229.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.
Paris, May 5, 1874. (Received May 22.)
Sir: I have the honor respectfully to ask instructions in the following case:
An American lady, native born, after arriving at womanhood, came [Page 409] to Europe and married an Englishman. After living many years with her husband and having children by him, she has recently obtained a divorce in England. She now applies to me for a passport, to be issued in her maiden name and as an American citizen. I have declined giving such a passport for the reasons—
First. That there is nothing in the decree of divorce authorizing her to take her maiden name; and that I am not advised that the laws of England, independent of the order in the decree, authorize a divorced woman, at her option, to take her maiden name. Second. Touching the question of citizenship, I consider her case analogous to that decided by you in your dispatch No. 238, dated February 24, 1871, where you decided that it would be judicious to withhold a passport in a case where an American woman had married a foreigner, and her husband had afterward died, unless she gave evidence of her intention to resume her residence in the United States.
In the present case the party desiring the passport not only does not “give evidence of her intention to resume her residence in the United States,” but avows that her purpose in obtaining a passport in her maiden name is to enable her to marry a Frenchman.
I have been pressed to give this passport with so much insistence that I had to promise to submit the question to you for your decision. I might add that it is strongly contended, by the parties interested, that this case is different from the case referred to in your dispatch No. 238, and that the decree of divorce dissolves the nationality of the woman as well as the bonds of matrimony. I, however, do not take this view of the subject. I might add further, that this lady, who is, in my opinion, an English subject to all intents and purposes, now holds passports which were issued to her before her divorce, by two American ministers in Europe.
I have, &c.,