Foreign Troops

The grant of permission to foreign troops to cross any part of the United States has been frequently considered by the federal executive. In 1790, Washington, having advised on the subject with Adams, Jefferson and Hamilton, on the advice of the first against the inclination of the last two, declined to allow the passage of British troops through United States territory from Detroit to the Mississippi, presumably because the only purpose of such movement would be an attack upon Spanish possessions on the Mississippi, with which country we were at peace. In 1862 permission was given by Secretary Seward to the British government to land troops at Portland for transport to Canada because the St Lawrence was closed by ice. Pursuant to action by the senate of Maine, the governor of that state applied to Secretary Seward for information on the subject. In a communication dated January 17, 1862, from Seward to Governor Washburn, the facts were set forth and the propriety of the original order was argued at length, but it concluded that if the state of Maine would feel aggrieved the directions in question would be cheerfully modified. This letter is quoted at length in 2 Moore’s Int L. Dig. 890. In 1876 permission was granted to Canada by the United States to transport “through its territory certain supplies designed for ed from the governor of the state does not appear. The request of the French government to the state department for permission to send French seamen to the Chicago World’s Fair to guard the French exhibit in 1893 was referred to the governor of Illinois for his consent by Secretary Foster. The request of the London Artillery Company to enter the United States in uniform with arms, to pass through New York and other states, was referred by Secretary Bayard to the governors of those states. See 2 Moore’s Int. L. Dig. 395,.397. In Tucker v. Alexandroff, 183 U. S. 424, 22 Sup. Ct. 195, 46 L. Ed. 264, Brown, J., said (obiter)'. “While no act of congress authorizes the executive department to permit the introduction of foreign troops, the power to give such permission without legislative assent was probably assumed to exist from the authority of the president as commander in chief of the military and naval forces of the United ‘States.” The application for leave must be made by the representative at Washington of the foreign power. The grant of passage implies a waiver of all jurisdiction over the troops during their passage; Tucker v. Alexandroff, 183 U. S. 432, 22 Sup. Ct. 195, 46 L. Ed. 264. The cases are considered in 2 Moore, Int L. Dig. 390, and in Tucker v. Alexandroff, 183 U. S. 424, 22 Sup. Ct. 195, 46 L. Ed. 264.