I have reliable information that Mr. Kracke is in the utmost distress at the situation in which he finds himself. He is utterly unconscious of any intentional offense against the laws or government of his native country, on account of the manner of his emigrating from it. For fourteen years, from his early boyhood, he has not resided in Prussia, and, in the meantime, he has made a home for himself in another and distant country, where he has assumed the rights and duties of citizenship, where his property is situated, and where all his interests in life. are centered. Returning to visit the place of his birth, having become, as he believed, in every legal and just sense, a foreigner, he finds himself seized upon as a soldier of his Majesty the King, and he sees nothing before him but the certain sacrifice of his property, and the blasting of all his prospects in life. I am sure that no officer in his Majesty's service can exercise military authority over this unhappy man without painfully feeling the appeal which the laws of common humanity must perpetually make in his behalf. In the application which I now present for the discharge of Mr. Kracke, I wish to avoid all reference to the abstract question of the rights of sovereignty which may be supposed to be involved in the case. I wish it to be understood, also, that I am aware of the importance, in a military point of view, which the government of his Majesty may attach to the laws of Prussia which regulate and control the emigration of his Majesty's subjects. The actual case is one of pressing and painful interest, and one in which the relief ought to come promptly. I am happy to believe it is one in which this relief may be granted without the sacrifice of any principle or any interest which Prussia may think it important to maintain, whether for her rights of sovereignty or for the efficiency of her military power. I seize this occasion to offer to your excellency the renewed assurance of my distinguished consideration. His Excellency BARON VON MANTEUFFEL, &c. D. D. BARNARD. Mr. Kracke to the American Minister. [Translation.] MUNSTER, September 29, 1852. The humble petition of Johann Joseph Kracke, native of Recke, near Tecklenburg, some time musketeer in the second company of the musketeer battalion of the fifteenth infantry regiment at Munster, for the gracious intervention, for his discharge from the Prussian army, of the American minister. Your excellency will graciously allow me to place the following petition before you : I was born at Recke, near Tecklenburg; I was a royal Prussian subject according to the constitution of that time. In my fourteenth year I left Recke, my birth place, and went to Osnabruck, in Hanover, where I learned my occupation, and labored from my seventeenth year to the twentieth in Holland. At this time my parents, at Recke, came to the determination to emigrate to the United States of North America, and I followed them from Holland. Although I know not whether the consent of the royal Prussian government to the release from the condition of the bond of allegiance was sought by my family on my behalf, I believed, at least, that I was discharged from my condition of subject, because from my fourteenth year I had not resided within the Prussian territory, and was already naturalized and a subject of military obligations towards the United States. Upon my arrival at New York I went on to Cincinnati, became there domiciled by a purchase of real estate, and there obtained the rights of a citizen of the United States of North America. The beforementioned matters are established, in part, by my written depositions at the bureau of the headquarters of the regiment, partly from the official archives of the burgomaster's office at Recke, and also can be proved by searches in the municipal government of Cincinnati city. I had now lived, until this year, as a citizen of Cincinnati, and traveled by direction of my physician, on account of impaired health, back to Europe, furnished with a passport issued by that government, certified by my superior military chief. On my arrival at Recke I was at once arrested by the police of the place, and for the fulfilling of my military obligations as a Prussian subject, which I no longer consider myself, was brought here for military service, and must moreover serve three years on military duty. My real estate in the city of Cincinnati, if I cannot go back to take care of it for three years, will be reduced to ruin, but also every probability that it will be aliened so that on return all my possessions and effects will have vanished, and I shall have become a poor man. Under these very unfortunate circumstance I turn myself with the utmost confidence to your excellency with the humble petition that you will intercede with the Prussian royal government that I as a citizen of the United States of North America, and as such not under allegiance as subject of this country, shall be set free from military restraints. Should, nevertheless, the impossibility of the fulfillment of this my petition be against me, then I request your excellency to give knowledge of it to the government of the United States, in order that until my return my real estate, left at the city of Cincinnati, may be taken care of. In hopes of your highest welfare, I subscribe myself, your excellency's most obedient servant, JOSEPH KRACKE. Mr. Fay to Mr Webster. [Extract.] No. 103.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Berlin, October 26, 1852. SIR: In his dispatch No. 57, [71,] under date July 13, 1852, Mr. Barnard communicated copy of a note addressed on the 8th to the Prussian government, presenting the case of Mr. B. Meyer, native of Paderborn, Prussia, who having emigrated seven years previously, without a permit of emigration, and just returned to Germany, furnished with a passport as an American citizen, dated May 6, 1852, from the Department of State, had been notified of a judgment condemning him to a fine of fifty thalers, for not having complied with the conscription law of Prussia. His case presented circumstances of peculiar hardship, and furnished a proper opportunity for trying the question whether the government of Prussia intends to persevere in a strict application of the Prussian military law to naturalized American citizens, even having emigrated in early youth, resided long in the United States, and returned to Europe only temporarily, from the necessities of business, or the claims of private affection. Mr. Barnard, therefore, with a strong statement of the case, addressed an application to the foreign minister, that permission should be granted Meyer to visit Paderborn upon some imperative private business, and to see his mother, aged seventy years, and requested that no measures might be taken on account of the fine, or to force him into the Prussian military service. After a lapse of three months and a half, a reply has just been received, of which a copy is subjoined. It was not my intention to address you during the absence of Mr. Barnard, but this document is of a character to be brought to your notice without delay. The substance of it is as follows: It flatly refuses Mr. Barnard's request that Mr. Meyer should be allowed to make a temporary sojourn at Paderborn, and declares, should he set foot on Prussian territory, he would be instantly incorporated into the army. Even upon payment of the fine, his obligation to serve in the army remains. No power can legally disengage him from the bonds attaching him to Prussia. If the government of the United States desires in future to avoid similar collisions, it should never receive as a citizen any native of Prussia, unless furnished with a permit of emigration. Finally, if the government of the King undertakes to execute the law against a Prussian subject, upon Prussian territory, that of the United States will have too high a sense of its own dignity to offer any opposition. * * * A recent statistical publication, entitled "Hubner's Year Book for Agriculture and Statistics," estimates the German emigration of 1851 at 113,000, declaring that these are not the idle, vicious, and poor, but the industrious, the intelligent, the skillful, and the moderately thriving; and that, on an average, each individual carries from the country 200 thalers. If this be true, (and an emigrant can hardly leave this continent without some cash for his passage, &c.,) ther twenty-two millions of thalers a year, and more than two hundred and twenty-six millions in ten years, are drained from Germany by the ever-increasing emigration. * * * * * I have the honor to be, sir, with the highest consideration, your obedient servant, THEO. S. FAY. Baron Manteuffel to Mr. Fay. [Translation.] BERLIN, October 22, 1852. MONSIEUR: The letter which Mr. Barnard did me the honor to address to me, the 8th of July last, on the subject of one Meyer, a native subject of Prussia, born at Paderborn, who had emigrated to America, has given occasion for a correspondence with the minister of the interior, who has just communicated to me the report which he had called for on this matter from the proper provincial authority. In Here is the result: The person in question, born in 1827, is a son of the inn-keeper Meyer, whose widow still lives at Paderborn. 1845, when he had scarcely attained the age of eighteen, he went to America, in the hope of finding opportunity to make a better living than in his own country, where even his mother with difficulty supported herself. Young Meyer did not at that time ask for a permit of emigration, he desired to reserve to himself the privilege of return to Prussia, in case he should not succeed in making a condition for himself in the United States. When he had attained the required age, he was summoned to return to Prussia to satisfy his military obligations, and having neglected the citation, a sentence passed 7th July last, year, condemned him to a fine of fifty crowns. In this state of things the government cannot authorize Meyer to make a temporary sojourn at Paderborn to regulate his family affairs; it must insist, on the contrary, that this young man, if he place his foot on Prussian soil, be incorporated into the army. I have already had the honor, sir, to cause you to observe above, that before quitting Prussia, Meyer had not asked to dissolve the ties which bound him to his native country, as he might have done, in the terms of Section 17, No. 1 of the law of December 31, 1842. On the contrary, he wished to continue to be a Prussian, to provide for the contingency of return to his country. If, notwithstanding, he has caused himself to be admitted as a citizen of the United States, he must blame himself, if by such step he has brought about collisions as to his personal relations towards two States. In his quality of Prussian subject, he is subject to military service in Prussia; not having presented himself in due time to range himself under the banners, he was duly condemned to a fine conformably with the regulations of law. Even if Meyer pay the fine which has been imposed on him, he still continues under obligation to do duty in the army, as every other subject of the King able to bear arms; and until this obligation is satisfied, he cannot lawfully be released from the bonds which bind him to Prussia. The government of the United States would be in the wrong to accuse that of the King of a want of good will, because he may make full and entire application of the law to one of his subjects who has caused himself to be received as citizen of the United States. If your government desires to avoid for the future similar collisions to that which has been brought about by the conduct of young Meyer, a simple means of attaining that end presents itself; it is only never to receive as citizen a Prussian by origin if he is not able to produce a permit of emigration. When any individual obtains naturalization in a foreign country, the government of his native country can never acknowledge that this fact, of itself, releases him from the obligations which were imposed upon him before his naturalization in his former country. I will add, that in cases like this, in which the said Meyer finds himself, it is much less a question of retaking any individual to enrol him in the army, than to maintain the respect due to the law, and to insure its execution. And if the government of his Majesty proposes to execute the law against a Prussian subject on Prussian territory, I desire to persuade myself that the government of the United States has too much respect for its own dignity to be willing to oppose itself thereto. Accept on this occasion, sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration, Mr. FAY, Chargé d'Affaires of the United States. MANTEUFFEL. Mr. Barnard to Mr. Everett. [Extract.] No. 91.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to inclose to you herewith a copy of Baron Manteuffel's letter to me in the matter of Dr. Gutowski. My previous correspondence in this case will show the view I took of it. I allowed Dr. Gutowski to make his case and his request known to the Prussian government through me. The position in which he had placed himself did not admit of my doing more. The answer of the government shows that great pains have been taken to look into his character and pretensions, and the reasons are fully and plainly stated for the peremptory decision to which the minister of the interior has come. * In my late temporary absence at Paris, Baron Manteuffel sent in his reply to my letter to him, of the 8th of July last, in the Ex. Doc. 38-4 |