As the naturalization laws require renunciation of any title or order of nobility, a passport will not be issued to a naturalized citizen under such a title or designation, nor will a passport be issued on an application containing it. Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Mr. Porter, amb. to France, No. 745, March 15, 1900, MS. Inst. France, XXIV. 273, in relation to the case of Baron Seillière, supra, § 491; infra, § 513. 9. FEES. § 511. "Passports are granted by the Department gratis." Mr. Dickins, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Ashley, Oct. 20, 1836, 28 MS. Dom. 66 The postage on letters to the Department relative to passports should be prepaid, and that accruing on the transmission of passports must also be defrayed by the individuals for whom they are intended." (Mr. Trist, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Gifford, Oct. 1, 1845, 35 MS. Dom. Let. 280.) The act of Aug. 18, 1856, while providing, in accordance with the previous See Mr. Evarts, Sec. of State, to Mr. Christiancy, No. 92, July 22, 1880, By the internal revenue act of July 1, 1862, 12 Stat. 472, a charge of three dollars was prescribed for every passport issued in the United States or abroad. In giving notice of this enactment, Mr. Seward stated that so much of the Personal Instructions to Ministers as directed the issuance of passports by them "free of charge," and so much of the Consular Regulations as authorized a fee of a dollar for a passport issued by a consul general or consul, was annulled. Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to U. S. min. and consuls, circular, No. 15. "The consular fee for issuing a passport is one dollar, payable in coin, and by act of Congress of June 30, 1864, an additional sum of $5.00 is imposed as an internal revenue' fee, which, in the opinion of this Department, is payable in the currency of the United States in coterminous British provinces." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Fessenden, Sec. of Treas., Jan. 18, 1865, 67 MS. Dom. Let. 575. By sec. 3 of the act of July 14, 1870, 16 Stat. 256, the tax of $5.00 on each passport was abolished on and after Oct. 1, 1870; but consuls continued" to collect the fee of one dollar for viséing a passport." Mr. J. C. B. Davis, Act. Sec. of State, to U. S. mins. & consuls, circular, "In pursuance of the authority conferred upon me by the 16th section of the act entitled 'An act to regulate the diplomatic and consular systems of the United States,' approved August 18, 1856, I do hereby prescribe, in addition to the fees heretofore prescribed, that the sum of five dollars shall be charged for the granting or issuing of each passport granted or issued in any foreign country, by any diplomatic or consular officer of the United States." President Grant, Executive order, Oct. 13, 1871, MS. Circulars, I. 448. "By act of Congress, approved June 20, 1874, a fee of $5.00 is required to be collected for every citizen's passport. A passport is good for two years from its date and no longer. A new one may be obtained by paying the fee of five dollars," etc. Instructions in regard to passsports, Department of State, May 1, 1886, Wharton's Int. Law Dig. II. 470. As to this citation see comment supra, § 503. By the act of Congress of March 23, 1888, a fee of one dollar is exacted for every citizen's passport. 25 Stat. 45. Under Executive order, the same fee is charged abroad. The number of "travelling passports" called for "by Americans in Japan in 1891-1892 was 1,645; and the expense of messenger and postal service involved was $97.39. To meet these outlays you suggest the imposition of fees. In reply to your inquiry, I have to refer you to the provisions of sec. 1745 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, by which you will see that an imposition of fees, such as you suggest, would require the special authorization of the President. It does not appear to me that such interposition is at present necessary." Mr. Foster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Coombs, No. 22, Aug. 17, 1892, MS. Inst. V. GROUNDS OF REFUSAL. 1. DISCRETION AS TO ISSUANCE. § 512. Passports"may be refused even to citizens of the United States, who have so far expatriated themselves as to have become bound in allegiance to other nations, or who in any other manner have forfeited the protection of their own." Mr. Adams, Sec. of State, to Mr. Nelson, min. to Spain, No. 2, April 28, 1823, MS. Inst. U. States ministers, IX. 175. “Insurrectionary assemblages avow the fact that they are sending agents to Europe on errands hostile and injurious to the peace of the country and dangerous to the Union. Such agents ought not to be allowed to pervert the authority of the Government so as to sanction their proceedings. You are therefore strictly enjoined to grant no passport whatever to any person of whose loyalty to the Union you have not the most complete and satisfactory evidence. You will further immediately make report to this Department in every instance of the passport granted, and the evidences on which the grant is made." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, circular, May 6, 1861, MS. Circulars, I. 179. "I am of the opinion that any citizen of the United States has a right to be furnished with such evidence of citizenship, and of his right to the protection of his Government, as has been adopted for that purpose, upon complying with the usual regulations, and that the necessity there for is a matter for the judgment of the party himself. A passport duly issued is the usual evidence of citizenship in a foreign land. 66 It would therefore seem that the desire of a naturalized citizen to be supplied with the usual evidence of his nationality, in case he be called upon for military service, is natural and entirely allowable.” Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Davis, Jan. 14, 1875, MS. Inst. Germ. XVI. 6. "The issuing of passports is at the discretion of the Secretary (Rev. Stat., § 4075), and they will not be granted to persons engaged in violation of the laws of the United States." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, general instructions in regard to passports. May 1, 1886, Wharton's Int. Law Dig. II. 469, 471. As to this citation, see comment supra, § 503. "Determination of the fact of citizenship is not an executive function. What is reserved to the executive is the use of its proper discretion as to the protection of a person abroad when the facts prima facie establish his citizenship by origin or naturalization, and the issuance of a passport is part of the exercise of that discretion.” Mr. Sherman, Sec. of State, to Mr. Storer, min. to Belgium, Nov. 8, 1897, "The Secretary of State has the right in his discretion to refuse to issue a passport, and will exercise this right towards anyone who he has reason to believe desires a passport to further an unlawful or improper purpose." Rules Governing the Granting and Issuing of Passports in the United See, to the same effect, Mr. Hill, Assist. Sec. of State, to Mr. Clarke, Nov. 4, 1898, For. Rel. 1899, 88. “As a general statement, passports are issued to all law-abiding American citizens who apply for them and comply with the rules prescribed; but it is not obligatory to issue one to every citizen who desires it, and the rejection of an application is not to be construed as per se a denial by this Department or its agents of the American citizenship of a person whose application is so rejected.” Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to dip. & cons. officers, circular, March 27, 1899, For. Rel. 1902, 1. Secs. 4075 and 4076, Rev. Stat., which confer on the Secretary of State authority to issue passports to citizens of the United States, are not in terms mandatory, but authorize the exercise of discretion in the discharge of the function so conferred. Knox, At.-Gen., Aug. 29, 1901, 23 Op. 509, citing the opinion of Hoar, At.-Gen., June 12, 1869, 13 Op. 89, 92, and distinguishing the opinion of Taft, At.-Gen., 15 Op. 117. Attorney-General Knox, in the course of his opinion, says: “Circumstances are conceivable which would make it most inexpedient for the public interests for this country to grant a passport to a citizen of the United States. For example, if one of the criminal class, an avowed anarchist for instance, were to make such application, the public interests might require that his application be denied." (23 Op. 511.) "As your archives will show, and as you are doubtless aware, in August, 1879, this Government sent circular instructions to all our ministers abroad to request all proper assistance from the Governments to which they were accredited in suppressing the proselyting for the Mormon church. In the face of such a circular it would seem to be inconsistent to issue passports to persons who are undoubtedly Mormon emissaries, even if they are American citizens. The law as to issuing passports is permissory, not obligatory, and the decision is left with the Secretary of State, under section 4075 of the Revised Statutes. Inasmuch as polygamy is a statutory crime, proselytism with intent that the emigrants should live here in open violation of our laws would seem to be sufficient warrant for refusing a passport. But it would be well to have the fact of the applicant for the passport being a Mormon emissary, and actively engaged in proselyting, conclusively proved to your satisfaction by some kind of evidence which can be put on the files of your legation and this Department. This might be obtained, perhaps, from the police authorities or the public press in case any meetings were held for the object of inciting to emigration. It is noticed that in your report of the case you did not give the applicant's name. It would be as well to obtain in all such cases of refusal of passport application, a detailed statement from the applicant, duly signed and sworn to, in support of his application, a copy of which can then be forwarded to this Department for its action and to refer to in case the application is renewed here." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Magee, Nov. 3, 1885, MS. Inst. See, to the same effect, Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Winchester, In a later instruction to Mr. Winchester, No. 59, July 20, 1886, Mr. Bayard said: "My previous instruction is not to be understood as obliging you to issue a passport in any case in which you have strong and reasonable suspicions that the person applying for the same is a Mormon emissary." (For. Rel. 1886, 851, 852.) For the text of the circular of 1879, see For. Rel. 1879, 11. It is to be observed that by reason of the renunciation by the Mormon church of the practice of polygamy, the position of the Government of the United States toward the Mormons is now changed. See infra, § 556. The previous instructions are, however, highly important as illustrating the application of the principle of discretion. "A passport, which is the primary form and evidence of protection given to a citizen by his government, has frequently been denied to persons residing in a foreign land, in contumacy or violation of the laws of the United States. Were Winslow [Ezra D., who, when discharged on habeas corpus in England, in 1876, fled, apparently to the Argentine Republic, and thus escaped extradition] merely an applicant for a passport, the fact that he is a contumacious fugitive from the justice of Massachusetts would be a sufficient reason for denying to him that evidence of the reciprocal duty of the law-abiding citizen and the obligation of his government." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hanna, min. to Arg. Rep., No. 22, In June, 1899, two women in Port Arthur wrote to Mr. Fowler, United States consul at Chefoo, requesting him to send them passports and stating that they were "tourists, stay in Port Arthur indefinite." Mr. Fowler replied that in order to secure a passport the applicant must appear in person. Subsequently, on learning that the applicants were disreputable characters who desired passports in order to remain in Port Arthur, Mr. Fowler sought instructions from the United States legation at Pekin. The legation replied that while, "as a general rule, it would hardly do to make moral character a basis for the issuance of passports," yet, in Eastern countries where certificates of citizenship stand for so much, it would not furnish passports to persons of the class to which the applicants belonged, and that when the facts were clear the consul might refuse to forward the application as well as to give travel certificates. |