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 The action of Mr. Angell was approved by the Department of State, and Mr. Sherman afterwards expressed his gratification at the result of the remonstrance. (Ibid.)

The United States has heretofore insisted upon the treaty rights of its citizens, irrespective of discriminations in foreign countries made not only on account of religion, but also on account of race or color. Thus, in June, 1882, Mr. Frelinghuysen, our Secretary of State, in writing to Mr. Hamlin, Minister to Spain, called attention to the fact that the Spanish Consul-General at New York had refused to vise the American passport of a colored citizen of the United States on the ground of his color. It seems that the refusal to vise was arbitrary, and the vise was ordered to be granted by the Spanish Government. The Secretary of State nevertheless took occasion to remark that there would be no good reason why a negro resorting to Cuba bearing a passport as an American citizen should be refused admission or be met by legal prohibitive measures such as depositing large sums as a guaranty. He afterward stated that if a case should be brought to his notice the Department would remonstrate against it “as imposing a race discrimination not affected by treaty or recognizable under the amended Constitution.” (Moore, International Law Digest, Vol. 4, p. 109, quoting from MSS. Inst. Spain XIX, p. 139.)

The normal relation of states, especially under conditions of modern life, even in the absence of treaty, is one of free intercourse. This was recognized by Vattel as early as the seventeenth century, when he contrasts the condition of China and Japan with that of Europe, where “the access is everywhere free to every person who is not an enemy of the state.” (Droit des Gens, 1, ii, c. viii, s. 100.) We would not wish to be understood as denying the theory of international law that in the absence of treaty, each state has the right to exclude aliens from its soil. This right is commonly spoken of as one of the essential at-