Page:International law and the discriminiations practices by Russia under the Treaty of 1832 (IA internationallaw00kuhn).pdf/14

 "“The treaty just ratified secures, it is true, only the rights of French Jews, but it will be followed by treaties with other powers, and must, in the end, enfranchise the whole race, since the Swiss authorities having taken the first step in a movement so obviously just, and so imperatively demanded by the spirit of the age and their own position as the vanguard of liberty in Europe, they cannot recede, but must go forward.” (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1864, p. 402.)"

The correspondence of the Department of State with other countries besides Russia, discloses a consistent policy against permitting local discriminations in foreign countries to operate unfavorably upon our citizens because of religious belief. Thus, in 1897, an application was addressed by the United States Consul at Jerusalem to the Turkish officials in charge of the Land Department there, for permission on behalf of one Lowenstein, a United States citizen, to purchase a small property consisting of a house and some land. The application was denied on the ground that Lowenstein was a Jew, and, under Ottoman law, prohibited from holding land. Under the sanction of Mr. Sherman, United States Secretary of State, a remonstrance was addressed to the Sublime Porte and a nullification of the order was demanded:

"“If an American citizen be denied the right to acquire real estate in this empire on the ground that he is alleged to be of a certain religious faith, the duty of the minister to his government would require him to protest against such discrimination as inadmissible. Equal rights under treaties are claimed for all American citizens, regardless of the faith they profess.” (Mr. Angell, United States Minister, to Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1898, p. 1104.)"