Chapter II ISSUANCE Domestic HISTORICALLY, the development of the British passport highlights England's strong influence on travel procedures in Colonial America. From the birth of the U.S. passport in colonial days, through its present indispensable role, to its potential role in the future, the U.S. passport document and issuance methods have constantly changed to facilitate travel for all U.S. citizens. Yet, long before the arrival of the colonists in America, the American Indians had their form of passport to serve as a means of identification. The use of wampum (from the Algonquian word wampumpeag) was widespread throughout what later would be called Colonial America. "Employed as mnemonic devices, as money, and as guarantees of promises or agreements in intertribal councils, wampum were bits of seashells from the Atlantic Coast, cut, drilled, and strung like beads into strands or belts. A longstemmed pipe, later given the French name calumet, was also in wide use as a passport of messengers and emissaries and as an important element in councils and certain religious rites. In peace ceremonies it was passed from hand to hand and smoked by each of the participants." 1 The first settlers did not need mnemonic devices but used passes from the Governor to leave the colony. Instructions from the Office of the Lord High Admiral of England, etc., of July 24, 1621, to Governor Francis Wyatt required that clerks set fees for the issuance of "passes, warrants, copies of orders, etc." Applications for passports to leave the colony were made to the Governor and approved by the General Court. (Exhibit 1) 1 Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Indian Heritage of America, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., N.Y., 1968, p. 93. A MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL AND GENERAL COURT OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA ( 57 ) fecond of May 1625 COURT held the fecond of May 1625 beinge Ante S francis Wyatt Knight Gou'no' &c St George Yardley Knight, George Sandys Threar Cap' Smith Cap' Hamer Capt John Martin Ma Abraham Perfy M' WTM Cleybourne. Yt is ordered yt a generall warrant be granted be granted for all those who are indepted to y* adventu'es for y magazine of the maides," and eyther to make plent payment of the Tobacco dew from them, or to appeere at James Cyttie before the Gouernor & Counsell to fhew caufe to the Contrarye. Yt is ordered y' Robert Poole who hath been Interpreter long tyme to the Colony, at his humble fuite and request, shall have his Passe granted him to goe for Englande. Yt is ordered y' notwstandinge A Lie ẞduced in Court by Mr W- Horwood from Cap Hamer that the former order shall stand in force for ye payment of fiftie waight of tobacco and fower barrells of Corne, and A warrant to be granted to Cap Hamer for ye recovery thereof to be paid the fowerteenth of maye next. "Adventurers for the magazine of the maides" means subscribers to the fund used in sending over these young women to Virginia. The episode of the coming of the young women to Virginia in 1620-22, in order to find husbands, is more fullvt reated than elsewhere in an article, "The Maids who came to Vinnnia in 1620 and 1621 for Husbands," by H. R. McIlwaine, which aparea in No. 4 of Vol. 1 of "The Raineer" (Richmond, Va., April I, 1921). Courtesy: Virginia State Library, Archives Branch Exhibit 1. Excerpt from Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, 1625 Information on the history of travel in Colonial Virginia can be found in the Archives Branch of the Virginia State Library, Commonwealth of Virginia. Excerpts of their material follow: The first act setting forth procedures for passports (1642) was aimed at preventing escape from the colony without payment of just debts. The act stipulated that no person was to be transported from Virginia without a pass from the governor, nor before he had advertised his intention of leaving and given security for all debts. Subsequent acts altered this 1642 legislation slightly. A 1661 act required that a notice of intended departure be posted on the local church door for two Sundays. By 1705, servants, persons in debt, and slaves were prohibited from leaving Virginia without a pass. By this time the secretary of the colony was given authority to appoint deputies in each locality authorized to certify passports. Since Virginia was part of the British Empire, additional requirements were placed upon the colony as a result of English international agreements. The enclosed letter of instruction to Francis Nicholson of June 21, 1700, sets forth in detail the form of passports and bonds required as a result of an agreement between England and Algiers. [Exhibits 2, 3, 4] From available evidence, there appears to have been little change in the manner of issuing passports during the revolutionary period. Advertisement of departure was still required, as was the posting of bond for debts.2 A travel pass was required by British authority for travel between "provinces," now States, in 1756. (Exhibit 5) Late in 1782, the preliminary Treaty of Peace to end the Revolutionary War was signed in Paris. Since the United States and Great Britain were still legally at war, American citizens needed passports to travel.3 With the end of the Revolutionary War now in sight, "the granting of passports to American citizens for their protection in travelling abroad was a function which fell to the Government under the general provisions of international law as soon as there was competent authority for the purpose." 4 The Department of Foreign Affairs, later known as the Department of State, was given responsibility for granting these documents. Historically, a resolution of the Continental Congress of January 10, 1781, created a Department of Foreign Affairs. This resolution was repealed by another of February 22, 1782, which enlarged the duties of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs including that he "reduce to form all passports, safe conducts. . . ." The Department was reconstituted without interruption of its functions by an Act of Congress signed by President George Washington on July 27, 1789, as the Department of Foreign Affairs under the Constitution. On September 15, 1789, Congress changed the name to the Department of State.5 Although the issuance of passports has always been under the jurisdiction of the Department of State, conflicting passport issuances by local and state authorities took place concurrently until 1856. A citizen's request for a U.S. passport actually constituted a request for a service from the Government to facilitate and safeguard the citizen's private undertaking, which could, if necessary, be accomplished without Government aid. Except for brief periods during wartime, until 1914, passports were not generally required for travel abroad and few obstacles were imposed by foreign states' passport requirements. 2 Reprinted by permission from letter of Feb. 13, 1975, from John W. Dudley, Head, Archives Branch, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Va., to Emil W. Kontak, Chief, Administrative Division, Passport Office, Department of State. 3 Randolph G. Adams, “A Passy Passport", reprinted from the Journal of Rutgers University Library, Dec. 1941, vol. V, No. 1, pp. 5–7. 4 The Department of State of the U.S.-Its History and Functions, U.S. Government Printing Office, Wash., D.C., 1893, pp. 176, 177. 5 Outline of the Functions of the Offices of the Department of State, 1789 1943, National Archives, Wash., D.C., 1943, pp. 218-219. • Passports and the Right to Travel-A Study of Administrative Control of the Citizen, 85th Cong., 2d sess., U.S. Government Printing Office, Wash., D.C., 1958, pp. 11-12. |