No. 413.
Mr. McLane
to Mr. Bayard.
Paris, November 12, 1888. (Received November 26.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 395 in reference to the passport issued to Mr. Stephen E. Heidenheimer by this legation on July 20, 1888. If the fact stated in your dispatch is correct that Mr. Heidenheimer was fraudulently naturalized, and it certainly appears to be so, I will promptly withdraw the passport in question, but I beg your attention to the declaration made by him to this legation, which did not, to my mind, suggest the idea that he did not reside uninterruptedly five years in the United States and which, therefore, did not raise presumption that the naturalization was fraudulent, while the exhibition of a passport received from the Department of State naturally confirmed Mr. Heidenheimer’s declaration as to his naturalization, of which the Department of State must have assured itself before issuing the passport on the 2d of May, 1871, to which state of facts the identification by Consul-General Rathbone gave further confidence.
Mr. Jay, whose handwriting you recognize in the declaration, reports to me that he remembers this case; that he noted Mr. Heidenheimer’s inability to fix the exact date of his arrival in the United States, but as Mr. Heidenheimer told him it was some time in the early part of the year 1866, he attributed this inability to simple forgetfulness [Page 564] after the lapse of twenty-two years. Of course he was influenced by Mr. Heidenheimer’s oath that he had resided five years uninterruptedly in the United States, by his exhibition of his certificate of naturalization and of the passport from the Department of State, and by his obtaining a proper identification, to all of which I have just referred.
Mr. Jay also reminds me that he called my attention to the fact that Mr. Heidenheimer had left the United States very soon after naturalization and had resided seventeen years abroad, but as that residence had been in France, and not in Germany, the country of his origin, and as he swore to his bona fide intention to return to the United States, he was considered to be entitled to a passport.
As to the phrase in the declaration indicating his intention to return to the United States, it is certainly vague, and I will impress upon the legation that while we may not be able to fix the time of return specifically, we will endeavor not only to satisfy ourselves that it is the real intention of the applicant to return, but will seek as much certainty as possible in the phrase indicating this intention.
In this connection I have considered your No. 394, and have replied thereto assuring you that though I may not be able to fix the time of an applicant’s return, I would satisfy myself that he really intends to return.
I have, etc.,
P. S.—Since writing the foregoing dispatch Mr. Heidenheimer has returned his passport and has promised to obtain evidence that he went to the United States in the beginning of 1866, and was therefore entitled to his certificate of naturalization. I will address you further on the subject if I receive such evidence.