eignty of the people was fairly obtained, with an elective franchise exercised alike in town and country. Bloody encounters between cantons took place, such as that between upper and lower Valais, when the latter was vanquished by the former with more bloodshed and cruelty than ever illustrated the record of civil dissensions in a century. During this period each canton had a separate coinage, and the "raps and bats" of one were not a legal tender in the next; each had an agent at Vienna, Rome, and Paris; each one claiming to treat with kings and recognize all sovereign acts; each kept a custom-house on every road and manned a tower at every bridge, at which to levy rates; each load of grass and butt of wine, each sack of corn and pound of cheese that passed the boundary was taxed; the last remnant of these powers levying certain rates on wines at the cantonal frontiers, called ohmgeld, only disappeared in 1886, when the Government assumed a monopoly of spirits, both as to manufacture and tax. The perilous disposition to the employment of force between the cantons, or the Government and the cantons, culminated in 1847. The two extreme and opposite parties, one for the complete fusion of the cantonal government into one common and unitary confederation, the other for a complete disruption of the pact and formation of several governments out of it, distinct from each other, resulted in the formation by the latter of the sonderbund, a league of seven cantons-Lucerne, Freibourg, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Uri, Zug, and Valais. This league was pronounced to be illegal and an infringement of the pact. Refusing to disband, war was declared by the Diet, and 100,000 troops on the part of the Government, in eighteen days after entering, suppressed the rebellion; and from that day the peace of Switzerland has not been disturbed, every one of the cantonal governments manifesting an unshaken determination to maintain and strengthen the Confederation. The national Government has steadily extended its influence; every change has taken something from the canton and commune and bestowed it on the league or the citizen; each revision of the constitution has increased the authority of the nation at the expense of cantonal independence. This is no doubt in part due to the desire to strengthen the nation against foreign attack. Yet it is impossible to study attentively the march of Swiss affairs without seeing that what really lies next to the hearts of the people is their cantonal and communal system, and although a wellassured nationality is kept up in event of foreign danger, nevertheless the citizens look for protection, as well as for command, to their own cantonal authority. A familiar comparison is often used in speech which illustrates the relation of the cantonal to the federal feelings, "My shirt is nearer to me than my coat." The federal council, the executive power of the Government, still retain a very affectionate and reverential tone in their communications to the cantons, addressing them as "Faithful and dear confederates," and closing, "We embrace this occasion, faithful and cherished confederates, to commend you with ourselves to divine protection." From the foregoing summary given of the Swiss constitution and the laws enacted in furtherance of its aims, a paternal feature is very pronounced; it takes cognizance of the citizen at his birth by registration and guarding him through life by a multitude of guaranties; it insures him a "decent burial;" and this searching, far-reaching central authority has been administered in a beneficent and patriotic spirit, with the zealous preservation of all the highest natural rights of man. The position of Switzerland has always been, and continues to be one of extreme difficulty, but she has maintained herself with dignity and success. She has with every step taken made a steady advance in the direction of liberty, and has achieved, as shown, a form of government in its essential traits closely assimilated to ours. One of the greatest contributions she has made to the general progress of civilization has been to show how under a federal system even the obstacles and prejudices that are attendant upon differences in race, language, and creed can be surmounted. Her population is formed by four ethnical elements, distinct by their language as German, French, Italian, aud Roumansch; the last is found in the Grisons, and is less removed from the Latin than either the French or Italian. Thus in the central mountain region between Germany, France, and Italy portions of these three great peoples have formed small republican communities. Individual cantons have a national character, either because all their inhabitants belong to one people, as in the German cantons of northern and eastern Switzerland, or in the French cantons of western Switzerland, or in Italian Ticino; or because one nationality decidedly prevails, as the German in Berne and Graubünden, and the French in Freibourg and Valais. And in point of religion the cantons are sharply divided as Protestant and Catholic. The result of holding different peoples together without transforming them in favor of one nationality has been attained only by being impartial, and allowing each people free course in its inner life and civilization, and regarding them all as possessing equal rights, and in having a policy governed by general and not by special and national considerations. In spite of what would seem the most discordant and unmanageable elements, an enduring bond of unity has been found in a federation of peace and neutrality under one federal commonwealth, and to-day Switzerland is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. Deeper down than these deep-seated differences of speech and creed lies the feeling that comes from the common possession of a freedom, political and civil, greater than that possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the happy outcome of this attempt at federal union. Complete independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense cohesion of interests throughout the nation as no centralized government, however cunningly devised, could ever have secured. Although the league of cantons has survived a hundred monarchies and never ceased to be a union of republics, it has lived through many forms in the nearly six hundred years of public life; it has been feudal, clerical, imperial, radical, by turns; constitutions have been everthrown in 1798, 1803, 1814, 1846, 1848, 1866, and 1874; but all these changes were but the signs of life and growth; in every stage of her historical growth additional security and extension has been gained for those general rights and interests of the citizen which should lie beyond the proper sphere of local laws and customs. To-day it is a confederation formed by a fed eration of twenty-two cantons, the cantons a union of autonomous com munes; a rural democracy administering its business safely, wisely, economically, patriotically, seeking neither alliances nor conquests nor colonies. To be a citizen of a great and growing state or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world is a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is an equal justification for such a feeling in being a citi zen of a state which, in spite of its small dimensions, has nevertheless achieved so much, fighting as it were alone for centuries the battle of freedom. I am, etc., BOYD WINCHESTER. No. 129.] No. 1036. Mr. Bayard to Mr. Winchester. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 190, of the 13th ultimo, in relation to the application made in behalf of Mrs. Eliza Weiss, an insane pauper, by the authorities of Zurich, for a passport as a citi zen of the United States. As appears by previous correspondence, Mrs. Weiss, a native of the canton of Zurich, was married in the city of New York, in March, 1873, to John Weiss, a native of Baden, Germany, who in October of the year named became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1878 Weiss and his wife left the United States and returned to Europe. Two years later, in 1880, while residing in the canton of Zurich, Weiss deserted his wife and, it is said, returned to the United States, leaving her in her native place, where she has since remained. From the date of the desertion, eight years ago, to the present, it does not appear that anything has been heard of Weiss, and it is not known that he is alive or that he ever reached the United States. Mrs. Weiss having been abandoned by her husband, it was held by the Department that her remaining in Zurich after her desertion would under ordinary circumstances presumptively revive her Swiss domicile and nationality; and it was also held that, notwithstanding her lunacy, such a revival of domicile and nationality might be caused by the elec tion of her local guardians. Upon reading the instruction of the Department you declined to issue Mrs. Weiss a passport; but having misgivings as to your decision, you present the case again to the Department for consideration. It is not thought necessary to enter into the discussion of the abstract question you suggest, of how far the revival of original nationality of a wife which takes place when she elects to remain in her native country after the death of her husband may be held to exist where she elects so to remain in case of desertion by him. The Department would be disposed in such a case to make every allowance for the unfortunate situation of the wife, and in making its decision would not be unmindful of any circumstance of which humanity might require notice to be taken. But in the case you now present consideration for the helpless condition of the wife seems to be altogether against and not in favor of an extreme assertion by the Department of her American citizenship. The Department does not see in her what you describe as "a poor, helpless, demented woman, deserted by her husband, with neither the means nor the mind to do anything, asserting her American citizenship by the presentation through others of the naturalization certificate of her husband." On the contrary, turning to your No. 178, of the 22d of December last, the Department finds that it was the cantonal ministry of justice. and police who obtained from the New York court a copy of the decree of naturalization of her husband; that the same authorities obtained the certificate of her marriage to Weiss in New York; that they presented these papers to the United States consul at Zurich and requested for her a passport; and that, having failed in this request, they are now having a search made in the United States for the missing husband. This is explained by your statement in the same dispatch that Mrs. Weiss must, unless supported by her husband, remain a public charge. The only use to which, so far as the Department is informed, a passport could in her case be put would be to enable her to be exported to the United States, from which she would, as an insane pauper, be excluded unless able to establish American citizenship. So far as known, such exportation would merely involve, if she were admitted into the United States, the transfer of the burden of her support from the place where she now is to some community in this country. She claims no rights of property here and no political privileges; and her removal from the canton of Zurich to the United States would only be taking her from her place of nativity, where she has chiefly resided and is now cared for, to a place where, as a stranger, she would be wholly dependent upon fortuitous aid. At present, therefore, the Department does not perceive any reason for revising your decision. I am, etc., No. 1037 T. F. BAYARD. No. 130.] Mr. Bayard to Mr. Winchester. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 22, 1888. SIR Referring to your dispatch No. 168, of October 24, 1887, in which you inclose a memorial addressed by the direction of police of Berne to the executive council of the canton, concerning the organization and operation of Mormon agents, and suggesting measures necessary to be taken for their effective suppression, I have now to request you to bring to the attention of the Federal Government of Switzerland, orally and unofficially, the views of the Government of the United States in regard to Mormon emigration. It has come to the knowledge of this Government in various ways that Mormon agents in Switzerland have lately been increasing their activity. This Department has already had occasion to invite the attention of your predecessors to this subject, and you will find in the archives of your legation an instruction dated August 9, 1879, in which the matter was fully discussed, and our representative in Switzerland at that time was directed to urge the subject upon the attention of the Swiss Government. It is thought that the present would be a favorable occasion for renewing the representations then made to prevent the emigration to this country of persons who intend to violate the laws of the United States by entering into polygamous relations. In this connection, I may also call your attention to the act approved February 26, 1885 (U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 23, p. 332), as amended by the act approved February 23, 1887 (U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 24, p. 414), by which it is made unlawful "for any person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia, under contract or agreement, parol or special, express or implied, made previous to the importation or migration of such alien or aliens, foreigner or foreigners, to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia." It is believed that the Mormon emigrants brought over to this country come within the letter of this law, although perhaps the evidence of that fact may be difficult to secure. There can be but little doubt that they do make agreements, express or implied, to perform labor or service of some kind upon their arrival in the Territory of Utah, in consideration of the prepayment of their transportation and the assistance which is afforded them to emigrate. Your dispatch of October 24, 1887, indicates a disposition on the part of the Swiss Government to use their influence to check this migration, and it may be suggested to them that this influence can be perhaps profitably exerted in securing evidence under which the admission of such persons into the United States will be effectively prohibited under the provisions of the act to which I have herein called your attention. I am, etc., T. F. BAYARD. No. 210.] No. 1038. Mr. Winchester to Mr. Bayard. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Berne, April 20, 1888. (Received April 30.) SIR: The Swiss Government seems determined to break up the nest of anarchists in Zurich. For some years it has been a rendezvous for this class of men, principally from Germany, abusing the Swiss right of asylum, for the propagation of their doctrines by the publication of newspapers, pamphlets, etc., and the distribution of those published in other countries, including many from the United States. Very naturally, under the toleration shown them, their violence and disregard of the conditions under which they were entitled to domicile, soon reached a point rendering it necessary to enforce the law against them. In January last (reported in my No. 188), there was an expulsion of the most prominent leaders, and a warning served on others. This warning has not been heeded, but to the contrary, their organs defiantly declared that they would not and could not desist from, or in any degree abate, the temper and character of their utterances, for they were but discharging a sacred duty which they must fearlessly pursue. To-day the Swiss Federal Council promulgated a decree of expulsion against four of them: Edward Bernstein, the chief editor, and Herman Schlütter, distributing agent of the newspaper called The Social Democrat; and Ernest Motteler, distributor, and Johann Fauscher, foreman of the printing-office from which was issued a socialist pamphlet entitled Der Rothe Teufel (The Red Devil), containing a furious attack in prose, verse, and caricature on the German Government and the Emperor. All of them are natives of Germany, and Herman Schlütter is reported to be a naturalized citizen of the United States. I am, etc., BOYD WINCHESTER. |