Mr. Willis to Mr. Olney.
Honolulu, October 20, 1895. (Received Nov. 8.)
Sir: Mr. Frank Godfrey, who claims to be an American citizen, has asked the intervention of our Government on two grounds—(1) his detention in the cholera hospital (where he was a voluntary patient) for one day longer than necessary, and (2) because of an assault upon him on the night of the 17th ultimo by four or five masked men, who beat him severely and then covered him with tar and feathers. The supposed cause of this attack was certain reports circulated by Godfrey as to the management of the hospital.
I did not feel at liberty to consider his first complaint, for the reason that it seemed trivial and unjustifiable. As to the assault, he claimed to know two of the assailants, but has neither taken out warrants for their arrest nor brought suit for damages. I therefore said to him that the assault being the act of individuals and not of this Government, his claim would not, in my opinion, be entertained by you until he had exhausted the local judicial remedies and could satisfy you that there has been a denial of justice to him.
There was also, as I said to him, doubt as to his right to claim protection. He has been a continuous resident of this city since March, 1879. He was a voter under the Monarchy, but claims that he declined “several lucrative positions offered by King Kalakaua, on account of nondesire to expatriate himself.” He asserts that in 1887 and in 1891 he “reported to the American legation for service, for which he was court-martialed in a local corps;” that in 1893, when there were rumors of an attack on United States forces, he “reported for service under [Page 866] the American flag.” He exhibited copy of a letter to President Dole, of that date, informing him (Dole) of this position. In September, 1894, he was granted special “letters of denization,” a copy of which, at his request, I inclose. Article 19 of the Hawaiian constitution refers to such letters and gives the oath required, which oath Mr. Godfrey signed, and by virtue of which he voted for members of the constitutional convention. He has held various positions under the Government, as “clerk, proof reader, compiler, and in special service” (under the marshal), but he claims that such employments were “temporary, none of them over three months, and that he took no oath and received no commission.”
He states that in 1890 he “went to San Francisco to make necessary arrangements for returning thither with his family to reside. The illness of his wife caused his return. Of later years the unsettled condition of affairs here and the hope of a possible closer union of this country with the United States has caused his remaining here.”
Mr. Godfrey served for three years (1863 to 1866) in our Navy, is now a journalist by profession, and claims to have been the Hawaiian representative of the Associated Press of the United States and a correspondent to many leading papers in the United States, which practice of the profession makes him of use to newspapers in the United States and is a special plea for continued residence in this country, combined with regard for the health of his family.”
Mr. Godfrey has furnished me with a lengthy communication, with seven exhibits, from which I have made the foregoing extracts, covering the material and some of the immaterial statements bearing on the question of his citizenship. In view, however, of the telegram of the Department of April 21, 1894, and of its dispatch No. 83, of May 14, 1895, I informed him that until further instructed I could not admit his status as an American citizen.
I am, etc.,