Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1884

No. 24.
Mr. Hall to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
in Central America,
Guatemala, January 3, 1884. (Received January 26.)

No. 189.]

Sir: Mr. Logan, in his dispatches numbered 44 and 45, of the 6th and 22d December, 1879, from this legation, invited the Department’s consideration of certain articles of the new constitution of Guatemala affecting the rights of foreign residents of the country, and conflicting with the laws of the United States and other countries, which declare that the children, wherever they may be born, of their citizens and subjects, retain the nationality of their parents. He also reports in the same dispatches the action taken by his colleagues of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, at a meeting called by himself to consider and to adopt a common action in recommending a modification of the articles referred to, the constitution being at the time under discussion in the Legislative Assembly. No modifications, however, were adopted, and a few days later the constitution, with all of its objectionable features, was promulgated.

As I had the honor to inform you in my No. 188, the Republic of Salvador has recently adopted a new constitution, into which many of the provisions contained in the constitution of Guatemala have been inserted, among them the same articles relating to foreigners (5, 14, and 23) of which Mr. Logan and his colleagues complained, as the following extracts will show:

Article 17 contains the following:

Foreigners shall not have the right of recourse to diplomatic aid except in cases of denial of justice. The sentence of a court which may not be favorable to the claimant shall not be considered a denial of justice.

The foregoing is a copy of the second paragraph of article 23 of the constitution of Guatemala.

Art. 37. Native Salvadorian citizens are those who are born in the territory of the Republic, except the children of diplomatic representatives or of foreigners who may be accidentally in the country.

The article in the Guatemalan constitution corresponding to the foregoing is as follows:

Art. 5. Paragraph 1. All persons born or who may be born in the territory of the Republic, whatever may be the nationality of the father, excepting the children ot diplomatic agents.

Art. 40. Neither Salvadorians nor foreigners can in any case claim indemnity for damages and injuries caused by factions.

The original, in Spanish, of the foregoing, is a copy of article 14 of the Guatemalan constitution.

Art. 42. The fact of a Salvadorian woman marrying with a foreigner does not divest her of her character of Salvadorian

The objections to the several articles of the Guatemalan constitution, as they affect foreigners and are set forth in Mr. Logan’s No. 44 and No. 45. apply to the same provisions in the constitution of Salvador. After the failure of the diplomatic corps to obtain any modification of the Guatemalan constitution while it was being discussed in the Legislative Assembly, the several representatives referred to addressed the minister for foreign affairs notes similar to Mr. Logan’s, a copy of which is annexed for convenient reference. Although I do not find any special instruction on this subject to Mr. Logan, but as notes were addressed by himself and his colleagues to the Guatemalan Government at the time of the adoption of its constitution, expressing dissent as to the provisions above mentioned relating to foreigners, I have, in accord with the same colleagues, deemed it advisable to call the attention of the Salvadorian Government thereto, by addressing the minister of foreign affairs the note of which inclosure No. 2 is a copy.

The representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy have also addressed the minister notes in similar terms.

I trust that my action as above reported will meet your approval.

I have, &c.,

HENRY C. HALL.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 189.]

Mr. Logan to Mr. Herrera.

Guatemala, December 19, 1879.

Sir: The undersigned has to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 17th instant, inclosing six copies of the constitution recently adopted by the National Constituent Assembly of Guatemala, and now officially promulgated as operative from the 1st day of March next.

Having carefully perused the printed copy, he has noticed certain articles of the constitution which seriously affect the plainest rights of his countrymen, as well as his own faculties and prerogatives as a foreign representative.

In view of the instructions of his Government, he has, therefore, to declare that he will continue in the future, as in the past, to protect the persons and interests of his countrymen, to cause their just rights to be respected, to sustain their proper claims, and to demand redress in all cases in which diplomatic intervention may be justified by the law of nations.

With sentiments, &c.,

C. A. LOGAN.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 189.]

Mr. Hall to Mr. Gallegos.

Guatemala, December 24, 1883.

Sir: I have the honor to inform your excellency that my attention has been invited to the new constitution of the Republic of Salvador (published in the Diario Oficial of that capital of the 8th instant), and especially to its provisions relating to foreigners. These provisions are identical in text or tenor with those of the constitution of Guatemala of 1879, which were at the time the subject of protest on the part of my predecessor, Mr. Cornelius A. Logan, who, in view of his instructions, declared to the Guatemalan Government that the provisions referred to affect “the plainest rights of his countrymen, as well as his own faculties and prerogatives as a foreign representative.”

In accordance with the same instructions, I beg leave, most respectfully, to state that wherein the above-named provisions affect the rights of citizens of the United States my Government will require that those rights shall be respected, that their just claims shall be sustained, and that redress shall be demanded in all cases in which diplomatic intervention may be justified by international law.

I have, &c.,

HENRY C. HALL.