By the act of July 26, 1894, supra, § 386, adult seamen in the Navy or Marine Corps, who have served five consecutive years in the Navy or one enlistment in the Marine Corps, may be naturalized. As heretofore pointed out, service in and honorable discharge from the Army entitle an adult alien to naturalization after one year's residence in the United States. Service in Army. Supra, § 386. V. CONVENTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS. 1. TREATIES WITH THE GERMAN STATES. (1) NEGOTIATIONS, § 390. The first naturalization treaty concluded by the United States was that with the North German Confederation, signed at Berlin February 22, 1868. It was negotiated on the part of the United States by George Bancroft. Its acceptance on the part of North Germany may be ascribed largely to the sagacity and good will of Count (afterward Prince) Bismarck. It was followed by the conclusion of similar treaties with other German States, as follows: Bavaria, May 26, 1868; Baden, July 19, 1868; Würtemberg, July 27, 1868; Hesse, August 1, 1868. All these treaties were negotiated on the part of the United States by Mr. Bancroft. “You are familiar with the never-ending dispute between this Government and those European governments which claim to exact military service from persons born within their allegiance, but who have become naturalized citizens of the United States. The question is one which seems to have been ripening for very serious discussion when the breaking out of the civil war in this country obliged us to forego every form of debate which was likely to produce hostility or even irritation abroad. It is in our intercourse with Prussia that the question produces the most serious inconveniences. "Soon after the close of our civil war, Count Bismarck made some offers to the United States which were conceived in a spirit of great liberality. Your predecessor, the lamented Mr. Wright, was hopeful that, through the negotiation thus opened, the two governments might arrive at a satisfactory conclusion of the question. It soon became apparent, however, that the United States could not surrender the principle of the absolute right of expatriation, while on the other hand Prussia was not prepared to acknowledge the principle in its full extent. "The present attitude of Prussia is one of strength and repose, as is also that of the United States. Prussia might now even derive strength from a concession of the democratic principles upon which we insist. "I will thank you to look over the records of your legation so as to review your early impressions upon the subject, and thus form for me an opinion whether the discussion can now be reopened with a prospect of success. In that case you will bring the question in the proper way to the attention of Count Bismarck. "Mr. Yeaman, our indefatigable minister at Copenhagen, has just published there an argument upon the subject. It has so much merit that I have instructed him to send you a copy thereof." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Prussia, Aug. 22, 1867, "Your despatch of the 3d of March, No. 47, has been received. The naturalization treaty still remains before the Senate. It meets with some opposition from a class of unnaturalized Germans who prefer to agitate for more rather than to accept what has been agreed upon. There is a partial indifference also in the Western States, resulting from the fact that their State constitutions and laws admit a preliminary declaration of intention and eighteen months' residence to qualify the emigrant as a member of the political state. Nevertheless, the prospect for the treaty is favorable. Indeed, the chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the Senate assured me yesterday that he thought the treaty would be ratified within the next forty-eight hours, an assurance which is very satisfactory, when we consider the other grave occupations with which the Senate is now engaged." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Prussia, March 23, 1868, MS. Inst. Prussia, XIV. 508. For the opinion of Bismarck as to the effect of the treaty, see S. Ex. Doc. As to the negotiation of the treaty, see Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. By the treaty with the North German Confederation the citizens or subjects of one of the contracting parties "who become" naturalized within the jurisdiction of the other, and who shall have resided therein uninterruptedly for five years, are to be treated as naturalized citizens of the latter. By the treaties with Baden, Würtemberg, Bavaria, and Hesse, citizens or subjects who "have" or "shall" become naturalized, and who have so resided, are to be treated as naturalized citizens. It thus appears that, of the treaties mentioned, four "ex pressly relate to past acts of naturalization as well as to future ones," while the "most important one is entirely silent as to past acts." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Germany, April 14, 1873, "I am able to assure the Department that the phrase in which the words As to the treaty with Hesse, see Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Mayns, As to the treaty with Austria-Hungary, see Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. As to North Germany, see Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Gietz, Feb. 8, In 1873 the United States proposed a revision of the naturalization treaties, and stated that the extension of the provisions of the treaty with the North German Union to the other States would, in the opinion of the President, be the simplest and best way to solve the question, adding to it such a provision as might be necessary under German laws to enable Germans who had declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, but had not yet become such, to inherit real and personal property in Germany, as well as a provision that the effect of the treaty should extend to all past naturalization. The proposal was declined. Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Germany, April 14, 1873, In a dispatch of May 8, 1873, Mr. Bancroft traces the history of the negotiation of the treaties and expounds their meaning. He says: "I am unable to find in the treaties of naturalization all the defects which are suggested. On the contrary, I think that the most important of them do not exist and that others are of no practical moment." Mr. Bancroft, min. to Germany, to Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, May 8, 1873, In a dispatch of May 8, 1873, Mr. Bancroft said: “I do not regard it as (2) CONDITIONS OF CHANGE OF ALLEGIANCE. § 391. By the treaty with the North German Confederation, citizens or subjects of the one country who become naturalized citizens of the other, and "shall have resided uninterruptedly" within the latter five years, shall be treated as its naturalized citizens. A similar provision is made in the naturalization treaties with Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, and Würtemberg, but in the case of Bavaria, by a protocol signed at the same time as the treaty, it is agreed that the words "resided uninterruptedly" do not mean "a continued bodily presence;" that "that" a transient absence, a journey, or the like, by no means interrupts the period of five years contemplated by the first article;" and that a five years' residence may indeed not be required where the individual has previously been discharged from his original citizenship. By this protocol " we are bound to a construction of the word uninterruptedly' which we have not a right to insist upon " as to the other treaties. Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Germany, April 14, 1873, "There was no protocol with North Germany, but the treaty was ex- "A person exceptionally naturalized by reason of his service as a soldier, upon proof of one year's residence, is obviously not within the protection of the convention with the North German Union. unless he has resided five years within the United States, but in respect to the question of what constitutes residence and when it is to be deemed interrupted, or when he shall be regarded as having renounced his allegiance to the United States, he is to be judged in the same manner as other naturalized citizens." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, Sept. 20, 1870, MS. Inst. S. was naturalized March 27, 1869. The record recited that he had resided in the United States more than five years. It appeared by his own admissions, made to the American legation in Berlin, that he had not at the time of naturalization resided in the United States five years. The record also recited that he had enlisted in the United States Army in 1865, and had been honorably discharged. In an opinion of January 21, 1871, the Attorney-General said: "This fact [of enlistment and discharge] has no bearing upon the matter in hand, because naturalization, unless accompanied by a five-years' residence in the adopted country, confers no rights under the treaty. "Hence I am of opinion that Mr. Stern, though regularly naturalized in the United States, not having had an uninterrupted residence of five years here, is not entitled to the immunities guaranteed by the treaty with North Germany of 1868." Akerman, At. Gen., 1871, 13 Op. 376, 377. "In that opinion the Department fully concurs, and the minister of the United States at Berlin has been advised accordingly." (Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Strong, M. C., March 7, 1871, 88 MS. Dom. Let. 443; Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, Jan. 27, 1871, MS. Inst. Prussia, XV. 195.) See Williams, At. Gen., 1872, 14 Op. 154; 1873, 14 Op. 295. The Bancroft treaties require, as conditions of expatriation, both an uninterrupted residence of five years and naturalization. If, therefore, a person be naturalized in the United States in less than five years, as under § 2166, R. S., relating to the naturalization of persons in the military service of the United States, he must, in order to obtain the benefit of the treaty, also complete his five years' residence. Mr. Adee, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Kunze, Aug. 3, 1897, 220 MS. Dom. But he need not be naturalized again, after the completion of the five Richard Braeg, a native of Baden, was admitted to citizenship of the United States at San Francisco, California, July 19, 1879. In the following year he returned to Europe, and settled on an estate in Switzerland near the German frontier, but conducted a business on the German side of the line at Constance, in Baden, where a prosecution was instituted against him on the charge of having made insulting remarks about the German Emperor and the Grand Duke of Baden at Tivoli, in Switzerland. He was acquitted by the court at Constance on the ground that not being a German he was not answerable for the commission of the offense on foreign soil. An appeal was taken by the state's attorney to the imperial court at Leipsic, where the question was raised as to the defendant's loss of German nationality. It appeared that he had resided in Europe from June, 1874, till April, 1879. The imperial court therefore held that he was not naturalized either in conformity with the treaty between the United States and the North German Union of February 22, 1868, or with that between the United States and Baden of July 19, 1868, the latter recognizing as citizens of the United States citizens of Baden who have resided uninterruptedly within the United States five years and have become citizens of the United |