No. 252.
Mr. Fish
to Mr. Schlözer.
Washington, January 8, 1875.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st ultimo, inclosing—sub petitione remissionis—the certificates of naturalization as citizens of the United States of Jacob Kastellan and Herman Kastellan, former subjects of Prussia.
The certificates bear date, respectively, the 12th of January and the [Page 578] 13th of February, 1871, arid your note conveys the information that in the same year, 1871, the Messrs. Kastellan returned to Prussia and settled at Koshmin, in the province of Posen, their native place.
It appears, also, that after the return of the brothers Kastellan to Koshmin, certain inquiries were instituted by the local authorities of that place in relation to their citizenship, and that in response to the inquiries Jacob Kastellan stated that he received his discharge as a Prussian citizen from the government of Posen in I860, and left for the United States in the month of May of that year; that Herman declared that he received his discharge from the same authority in 1867, and that he left for the United States in the same year; “and you further state that official inquiry made at the government of Posen verified the correctness of these statements as to the date of the respective discharges, Jacob Kastellan having, as it is alleged, received his on the 20th of February, 18(56, and that of Herman having been granted on the 6th of May, 1867.
These subsequent statements and facts appearing to be incompatible with the declaration of the certificates to the effect that each of the parties in question had resided in the United States five years previous to his naturalization, you desire to be informed, first, whether the certificates are valid before the laws of the United States; and second, whether on the strength of these documents Jacob and Herman Kastellan are recognized by this Government as American citizens.
These inquiries involve a question of the gravest judicial character. The two papers which I had the honor to receive with your note are certificates of regular decrees purporting to have been rendered by courts of general jurisdiction, and are accompanied with the ordinary evidence recognized by the laws of the United States as attesting the genuineness of solemn documents emanating from such tribunals; they are received as verities in all other courts of the United States and of the several States, and accepted with like credit by the executive branch of the Government.
It appears, moreover, that these certificates expressly state that the fact of the required previous residence was proved to the satisfaction of the court; and it will be remembered that the law requires proof to be furnished in such cases by the oath of the party and other sworn testimony in corroboration thereof.
What the precise evidence submitted in the case under consideration may have been, this Department is not informed; but the presumption of correctness and regularity which obtains in relation to proceedings in judicial tribunals, under the laws of the United States, is equally applicable to naturalization proceedings, and applies to them with full force.
By the decree, therefore, of a competent court, after a hearing upon sworn testimony and with the parties before the court, it has been adjudged that these applicants for citizenship had complied with the law, as to residence and otherwise, and that they were legally admitted to citizenship.
Such an adjudication affects the rights and property of individuals and their children, and may seriously affect a change in the rights or interest of third parties.
To assume to question the legality or binding force of such a decree upon statements afterward made by the parties or obtained from other sources, would practically amount to the annulling of such decree affecting all these classes of persons, upon statements not under oath, taken ex parte, and without a hearing on the question.
[Page 579]If the political department of the Government may, from time to time, pass upon such questions according to the apparent credibility of the particular evidence offered to impeach the decree, or the varying statement of an interested party, no uniformity of decision or security for acquired rights could exist.
In view of all these considerations, I have the honor to inform you that under the circumstances, and in the case you state, certificates of naturalization, valid on their face and founded on the decree of a competent court, cannot be questioned except through judicial proceedings instituted for the purpose, or in which the correctness of the facts formerly passed upon may properly be adjudicated, and that it is not within the province of the political department of the Government to anticipate what would be the result of a judicial inquiry into the question.
In pursuance of your request, I have the honor to return, herewith, the two certificates in question.
Accept, &c.,