any evidence, registration, or other acts required by this Act shall be filed with the Department of State for record." The administration of the law is a part of the duties of the Bureau of Citizenship. It prepares the forms of registration required of American citizens residing abroad, receives the duplicates, which become a part of its files, and conducts the correspondence.

CHAPTER XV

AUTHENTICATIONS. INTRODUCTIONS

THE

HE same difficulty with reference to the signature on passports was presented in the question of signing authentications under the Department's seal. The memorandum of the Chief of the Passport Bureau, October 25, 1905, said:

As for the certificates of authentication, these were formerly signed with the pen and much delay and inconvenience in the transaction of public business resulted, for the requests for authentication come in at all hours of the day and often should be signed at once. After the use of the stamp began here, the Attorney General continued to sign with the pen, and lawyers doing business with us frequently commented upon the greater facility encountered here. The Attorney General, accordingly, abolished the use of the pen, and his signature is now affixed by a stamp as our Secretary's is. No instance has come to our attention of the refusal of a court or other public authorities to accept the authentications signed by the stamp. I do not believe anything would be gained by changing the practice in respect to authentications. Owing to the character of the papers and the irregularity with which they are presented to us for authentication, I am convinced that the Secretary would be put to incessant vexation if he were obliged to sign these documents.

"Nevertheless the use of stamps is to be disconE. R." was the endorsement made by

tinued.

Secretary Root on this memorandum. A way out of the difficulty was found by the Secretary designating the duty of signing the authentications to the Chief Clerk.

[1905]

It is hereby ordered that certificates which have heretofore been authenticated under the signature of the Secretary of State and the seal of the Department of State, shall hereafter be authenticated under the seal of the Department by the Chief Clerk, acting for the Secretary. The form of authentication shall be as follows:

"In testimony whereof I, Elihu Root, Secretary of State, have hereunto caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed and my name to be subscribed by the Chief Clerk of the said Department, at the city of Washington, this day of

190 .

by...

Secretary of State.

Chief Clerk.”

ELIHU ROOT,

Secretary of State.

By order of February 23, 1909, this was modified by Secretary Robert Bacon so that the authentication is under the name of the Chief of the Bureau of Citizenship instead of the Chief Clerk, but later the former practice was reverted to.

ORDER BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

[No. 36]

It is hereby ordered that certificates which have heretofore been authenticated under the signature of the Secretary of State and the seal of the Department of State, shall on and after August 7, 1911, be authenticated under the seal of the

Department by the Chief Clerk, acting for the Secretary. The form of authentication shall be as follows:

"In testimony whereof, I, P. C. Knox, Secretary of State, have hereunto caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed and my name subscribed by the Chief Clerk of the said Department, at the city of Washington, this

The sixth section of the act creating the Department provided:

That there shall be paid to the Secretary, for the use of the United States, the following fees of office, by the persons requiring the services to be performed, except when they are performed for any officer of the United States, in a matter relating to the duties of his office, to wit; for making out and authenticating copies of records, ten cents for each sheet containing one hundred words; for authenticating a copy of a record or paper, under seal of office, twenty-five cents.

The amount received for affixing the seal was never large. A memorandum shows that it was: for 1850, $102.25; for 1851, $95; for 1852, $154.50; for 1853, $33.50.1 By Act of April 23, 1856, it was abolished.

In order that it may have actual knowledge of the seals which it certifies to, the Department has impres1 Register of certificates, Bur. of Citizenship.

2 11 Stat., 5.

sions of them. To name them is to give the list of the seals which the Department has authority to certify to:

The seals of all the Executive Departments, of the Library of Congress (Copyright office, the Library itself having no seal), the Smithsonian Institution, the States and Territories, Porto Rico, the Philippines. On one occasion, at least, it certified to the seal of the Senate. This was in 1896 when John Hays Hammond, an American citizen, being condemned to death for participating in an attempt to overthrow the government of the (then) Transvaal Republic, the desire for his pardon, which was universal in the United States, and which under the circumstances could receive no official sanction, found expression in a petition to the Transvaal Government signed by all the members of the United States Senate each acting in a private character. To the petition was affixed a certificate under the seal of the Senate that the signers were Senators. Upon request, and in view of the fact that there was no other authority which a foreign government would recognize, the State Department certified to the genuineness of the seal of the Senate. The incident was not based on precedent, nor would it, probably, be deemed a precedent. On April 17, 1873, the Assistant Secretary of State wrote to the Librarian of Congress:

This Department cannot certify that Mr. Howe is Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. If you can verify the contract to the satisfaction of the respective parties before Chief Justice Cartter or one of the