No. 967.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Thompson.
Washington, July 6, 1888.
Sir: I inclose copy of a dispatch from the consul at Puerto Plata concerning the request of Mr. Morris Myerston for a passport. Mr. Simpson has been instructed that passports should be issued by the minister, in accordance with paragraph 134 of the Consular Regulations.
Assuming that on May 12, 1873, Abraham de Mesa Myerston, the father of the present applicant, exhibited a passport at the Puerto Plata consulate from the Department of State, this, by itself, would, at the present period, be no proof that he is at this time domiciled in the United States, so as to entitle him, or such of his family as have the right to partake of his domicile, to a passport of this date.
But, aside from this view, there is no evidence before Mr. Simpson, according to his dispatch, that Morris Myerston, who, he says, was thirty-two years of age when this passport was presented to his consulate by Mr. Myerston, sr., was at that time a citizen of the United States. [Page 1423] The mere fact of the lather being a citizen at that date does not make the son so; for the son may, if the father was a naturalized citizen, have been born out of the United States before the father’s naturalization, and may have been of full age at the time of such naturalization, in which case he would not partake, under section 2172 of the Revised Statutes, of his father’s citizenship. The same section also applies only to such children of such naturalized parents as are “dwelling in the United States,” and though a mere temporary visit to San Domingo would not exclude the supposition of such “dwelling,” yet no proof of “dwelling in the United States” at any time appears to have been offered.
The mere declaration of the father, in 1873, that his three sons, of whom Morris was one, “were citizens of the United States,” is no proof of such citizenship, because it involves a conclusion of law as to facts of which there is no evidence. And even supposing that the son was born in the United States, or was entitled, when coming of age, to citizenship on the basis of his father’s citizenship, yet the fact that he has remained, if such be the case, in San Domingo since 1873 without seeking to return to the United States, there to assume the duties of a citizen thereof, would preclude him from claiming a passport from you.
The facts appear to be too imperfectly stated by Mr. Simpson to enable the Department to decide whether Mr. Morris Myerston is entitled to a passport, and these suggestions are merely made to put you on inquiry and to suggest the evidence you should require to be furnished before complying with Mr. Myerston’s request.
I am, etc.