officers. P. Not only had the practice of issuing special passports to persons not in official life become common after Mr. Seward's administration, but those issued to officials had increased in number also, and many were given to men, holding inferior civil or military rank, who were not journeying abroad on public errands. Officers of the Army, according to the To Army rule laid down by Secretary Fish in 1874, should Fish's rule. not receive them unless they were majors or held a Post, p. 34. higher rank; but this rule fell into disuse, and all Army officers, including cadets at the Military Academy, were granted special passports upon request of the Secretary of War. In May, 1894, the attention. of the Secretary of War was informally invited to this increase, and he ceased from that time to call for any special passports for Army officers, unless they were ordered abroad on public service. In April, 1897, the question was reopened by the War Department, which suggested that the rule of 1894 was too strict, because it deprived Army officers of certain privileges, while in foreign countries, to which their rank entitled them and which they might use for the benefit of the service. The Secretary of State, in consequence, modified the practice, so that passports might be issued to Army officers for whom the War Department had requested the privilege, the understanding being that they should be used for purposes tending to increase the efficiency of the military service, and not for purely personal convenience. The ruling was made to apply equally to Sherman's letter. the Navy. The letter following explains the position taken: MAY 5, 1897 The Honorable The SECRETARY OF WAR. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your reference of April 17 to this Department of the letter of J. W. Clous, Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, upon the subject of granting special passports to officers of the Army about to proceed abroad. Lieutenant-Colonel Clous states that embarrassment occurs to officers traveling with ordinary passports which do not state their rank, and you indorse his letter with the statement that you are "inclined to favor the resumption of the custom of obtaining special passports for all Army officers who may go abroad, either on duty or on leave of absence." On August 19, 1874, Mr. Fish, Secretary of State, in a letter to the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, laid down the following rule in respect to special passports: "It is the rule of the Department to issue special passports only to prominent officials about to visit foreign countries on public business. In the military service of the Government they are given to officers not below the rank of major in the Army and the relative rank in the Navy." It has also been an established rule of the Department that special passports for Army officers should be issued only on requisition of the War Department. Of recent years the granting of special passports became more common, Mr. Fish's rule was disregarded, and the War Department made requisition upon this Department for special passports for all Army officers going abroad, whatever their rank and whatever their purpose in traveling. During the last Administration an effort was made to check the too free issue of these documents, and to revert, in so far as possible, to the original intention in regard to them. The informal notice to your Department in May, 1894, that they would no longer be issued to Army officers, unless they were proceeding abroad under Government orders, was, it is understood, caused by the increasing number of requisitions for officers of inferior rank, even for military cadets, who intended to travel, as this Department had reason to suppose, entirely for the purpose of recreation, and who, in consequence of holding passports describing their rank and title and occupation, enjoyed privileges which were denied other citizens holding ordinary passports. The Department is now, however, in view of the representations made in Lieutenant-Colonel Clous's letter and your indorsement thereon, prepared to modify the informal notice of May, 1894, and will hereafter issue to officers of the Army special passports, depending upon your Department to ascertain before making requisition for such passports that they will be put to uses tending to increase the efficiency of the military service and will not be used for purposes of purely private and personal convenience. They will be issued only upon request of your Department, and never upon direct request of Army officers. It is proper to add that by a recent ruling of this Department the fee of one dollar required by law to be collected for every citizen's passport issued must accompany every application for a special as well as an ordinary passport. I return herewith Lieutenant-Colonel Clous's letter, a copy having been retained for the files of this Depart ment. I have, etc. JOHN SHERMAN, Treaty of 1778 with France. vision till 1856. CHAPTER III. PASSPORTS ISSUED BY OTHER THAN FEDERAL AUTHORITY. THE treaty of 1778 with France, which was the first made by the United States, provided for a form of passport to be given by the two Governments to No legal pro- their respective vessels, but until 1856 there was no law restricting the granting of passports to federal 1 Stat., 118. authority. April 30, 1790, an act was approved providing for the imprisonment and fine of any person violating a safe-conduct or passport “duly obtained and issued under the authority of the United States,' or for striking, wounding, etc., an ambassador or other public minister; but from its wording it is evident that the act had in view passports issued for use in this country to the representatives of foreign powers near the Government of the United States. An act approved February 4, 1815, "to prohibit intercourse with the enemy," provided that no citizen, or "person usually residing within the United States," be permitted to cross the frontier into the enemy's country or territory in his possession without a passport from the Secretary of State, Secretary of War, "or other officer, civil or military, authorized by the President of the United States to grant the same, or from the governor of a State or Territory," under penalty of fine and imprisonment. 3 Stat., 199. The act was to be operative only during the war with Great Britain then in progress. In 1835 the Supreme Court of the United States Supreme described the situation thus: There is no law of the United States in any manner regulating the issuing of passports, or directing upon what evidence it may be done, or declaring their legal effect. It is understood, as matter of practice, that some evidence of citizenship is required by the Secretary of State before issuing a passport. This, however, is entirely discretionary with him. Court's 9 Peters, 699. ment of State: Its History tions, p. 177, In the absence of any law upon the subject, the The Departissuing of passports to Americans going abroad nat- and Funcurally fell to the Department of State, as one of its et seq. manifestly proper functions. Nevertheless, as they had doubtless been issued before the adoption of the Constitution by State or municipal authorities, By State and the practice continued without statutory prohibition, until 1856. Following is a copy of a passport granted in 1805 by the governor of Connecticut By governor to Prof. Benjamin Silliman, of Yale College: [SEAL.] municipal authorities. I Con necticut. Letters. His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull, Governor Passport To all Persons, of whatsoever Nation, People, or Country, who may see these Presents, Hereby Certifies & Makes Known.—That Benjamin Silliman Esq' the Bearer of this Instrument, is a native Citizen of the United States of America, born in the Town of Trumbull, in the State of Connecticut, of very respectable parentage,—has had a liberal Education at our College of Yale in sa State; and |