The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-12-18
KElLEY'S CASE.

Summary of the Offlcial Correspondence
| Between Secretary Bayard and the Ita1-
| ian and Austrian Governments Regard.
ing the Rejection of the virgfnlan as
Minister.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15.-The Kelley cor.
respondence was sent to the Senate yester-
day. 1t consists of a letter from the Italian
Minister, dated April 49, Directing to the
appointment of Mr.. Kelley as Minister to
Italy on account Of his utterances hostile to
the present Kings father; curt
letter in reply from Secretary Bay
ard, informing the Minister that it
lay with his Government alone to
object to the appointment of Min
lister; a telegram conveying formally the
objections of the Italian Government to Mr..
Keiley's appointment, and Mr.. Keiley's res
ignaton of the position.
On May Secretary Bayard informed
Baron Schaeffer, the Austrian Minister at
Washington that the President had APP
pointed Mr.. Kelley to succeed Mr.. Francis
as Minister at Vienna. On May objec-
tions were made by Austria to Mr.. Keiley's
appointment in a telegram, the closing
words of which are these:
The position of a foreign envoy welded to
aJewess by a civil marriage would be unten-
able and even impossible in Vienna.
On May Is Secretary Bayard wrote long
| letter to the Austrian Minister, in which he
says that the United States Government
denies the right of the Austrian Govern
ment to refuse to receive an accredited
Minister on religious grounds, and con-
tinues:
The supreme law of the land expressly de-.
clares that 'no religious test shall ever be re-
quired as a qualification to any Office or any
public trust under the United States" and by
the same authority it is declared that "Con.
gress shall make no law respecting an es-
taDlishment of religion or prOhj biting the
free exercises thereof 1t is NOT
within the power of the President, nor
OF Congress, nor of any judicial tribunal in
the United States to take or even bear
testimony, or i'll any mode to inquire into or
decide upon the religious belief of any Off
cial. and the proposition to allow this to be
done by any foreign Government is necessary
and fort orr inadmissable To suffer an in
traction of this essential principle would lead
to q Acknowledgement of our citizens because
OF their religious belief, and thus impair or
destroy the most important end which
our. Constitution of Government was in
tended to secure. Religious liberty
is the chief corner stone of the
American system OF government, and provis-
ions for its security are imbedded in the writ
ten charter and interviewer in the moral
fabric of its laws. Anything that intends to
evade right so essential and sacred must be
carefully guarded against and am salts fed
that my countrymen, ever mindful of the suf-
fering and sacrifices necessary to obtain it,
will never consent to its impairment for any
reason or under any preteXt whatsoever.
Minister Francis having informed the
Government that Austria's real objections
to Mr. Kelley were identical with those of
Italy, and Austria having finally and abso-
lutely refused to receive Mr.. Kelley after
the recall of Mr.. Francis, Secretary Bayard
wrote our Secretary of Legation to Vienna
as follows:
From the correspondence two facts appear:
First. that the alleged race and religious faith
of the welded wife of an envoy Of the United
States is held cause of his rejection; and,
further, that objections by third parly--''a
friendly power ARE necessary to be removed
in order to allow proper reception to be ex-
tended. These conditions are simply intolera-
BILE, and are, in the case of the United States
not only Inhibited by the PLAIN letter and un.
dying spirit of our Constitution of Govern
ment, but are inconsistent with that decent
selT-respect which forbds nation of 60,0jO,-
600 OF freemen to accept the position of a
diplomatic dependency of 1.-The friendly
power" whose behests appear to have been
acquiesced in and carried out by AUSTRIA
Hungary in the presentinstance.