No. 3.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Osborn

No. 168.]

Sir: I have received and duly considered your dispatch No. 350, of the 10th of February last, relative to the questioned citizenship of Mr. John S. Rowe.

It seems that Mr. Rowe, an Argentine citizen by birth, having resided and been naturalized in the United States, has been arrested for military duty on his return to his native land; that on your representations he has been released, and that proceedings before an Argentine tribunal, in the nature of an appeal on Mr. Rowe’s part, are now pending.

You also represent the earnest desire of the Argentine minister of state to reach a harmonious understanding with this government in the matter of conflicting claims of citizenship under the organic laws of the two countries, and you accordingly ask the instructions of the Department in the premises, as well as copies of the late naturalization treaties of the United States with foreign powers.

Responding to your specific request, I send you herewith a number of naturalization treaties for your examination. I may add, however, that these treaties do not create rights for our naturalized citizens returning to the land of their nativity; they simply recognize and define the rights of expatriation, which we hold to be an inherent right of all men.

Even in the absence of a specific treaty on the subject, this government must, in consonance with the principle it uniformly follows, claim for a duly naturalized citizen of the United States abroad all the rights which a native American citizen would possess under like circumstances, save only in the case of the performance by the naturalized citzen of some voluntary act amounting to an intelligent relinquishment of his acquired citizenship and resumption of his birth allegiance. If conflicts arise as to the status of individuals, they are within the competence of diplomacy to arrange. It is, therefore, regarded as somewhat unfortunate that you have consented, pending the needful diplomatic discussion of Rowe’s case, to refer to the Argentine courts the question of his military allegiance to the Argentine Republic.

As the case now stands, we should with difficulty assent to the pretension that an American citizen, returning in good faith and honesty to the land of his original allegiance, and relying on the power of his government to protect his acquired rights there as elsewhere, may be surprised by an announcement, judicial or otherwise, that by the mere act of return, and without intention on his part so to do, he ceases to be an American citizen.

If, under cover of a judicial decision, the Argentine Government should insist on its claim that Rowe’s return to Argentine jurisdiction annuls the rights he has acquired here, we shall expect and insist that he shall be given notice of this, and allowed a reasonable time to quit the country if he has not the intention of resuming his original allegiance. This expectation is not an innovation. Its principle is found in the greater number of modern treaties of extradition, where, in case of fresh proceedings against a surrendered criminal tor offenses other than those for which he was extradited or condemned, it is provided that he shall first be allowed one month in which to leave the country. It is certainly not unreasonable to expect that a peaceful and reputable citizen should be allowed at least equal consideration with a convicted criminal.

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In other words, we can only assent to recognize as valid and in accordance with the principles of human rights and international jurisprudence a voluntary and intelligent resumption of Argentine citizenship on the part of Rowe or any other American citizen so situated, and not a surprised and enforced submission.

You will submit these views to the minister of foreign relations, saying that, in view of his expressed desire for a conciliatory good understanding in the premises, it is not doubted that the ground held by this government will commend itself to him as one which he would desire, in return, to see govern the personal status of an American naturalized in the Argentine Republic and returning to the United States on innocent business.

I am, &c.,

FRED’K T. FRELINGHUYSEN.