The Path of Empire. A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power
by Carl Russell Fish
Venezuela appealed to the United States, "the most powerful and oldest of the Republics of the new
continent," for its "powerful moral support in disputes with European nations." Several times the United
States proffered its good offices to Great Britain, but to no effect. The satisfactory settlement of the
question grew more difficult as time went on, particularly after the discovery of gold in the disputed
region had given a new impulse to occupation.
President Cleveland took a serious view of this controversy because it seemed to involve more than a
boundary dispute. To his mind it called into question the portion of Monroe's message which, in 1823,
stated that "the American continents...are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future
colonization by any European powers." According to this dictum, boundaries existed between all nations
and colonies of America; the problem was merely to find these boundaries. If a European power refused
to submit such a question to judicial decision, the inference must be made that it was seeking to extend
its boundaries. In December, 1894, Cleveland expressed to Congress his hope that an arbitration would
be arranged and instructed his Secretary of State to present vigorously to Great Britain the view of the
United States.
Richard Olney of Boston, a lawyer of exceptional ability and of the highest professional standing, was
then Secretary of State. His Venezuela dispatch, however, was one of the most undiplomatic documents
ever issued by the Department of State. He did not confine himself to a statement of his case, wherein
any amount of vigor would have been permissible, but ran his unpracticed eye unnecessarily over the
whole field of American diplomacy. "That distance and three thousand miles of intervening ocean make
any permanent political union between a European and an American state unnatural and inexpedient,"
may have been a philosophic axiom to many in Great Britain as well as in the United States, but it surely
did not need reiteration in this state paper, and Olney at once exposed himself to contradiction by adding
the phrase, "will hardly be denied." Entirely ignoring the sensitive pride of the Spanish Americans and
thinking only of Europe, he continued: "Today the United States is practically sovereign on this
continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition."
The President himself did not run into any such uncalled-for extravagance of expression, but his
statement of the American position did not thereby lose in vigor. When he had received the reply, of the
British Government refusing to recognize the interest of the United States in the case, Cleveland
addressed himself, on December 17, 1895, to Congress. In stating the position of the Government of the
United States, he declared that to determine the true boundary line was its right, duty, and interest. He
recommended that the Government itself appoint a commission for this purpose, and he asserted that this
line, when found, must be maintained as the lawful boundary. Should Great Britain continue to exercise
jurisdiction beyond it, the United States must resist by every means in its power. "In making these
recommendations I am fully alive to the responsibility incurred, and keenly realize all the consequences
that may follow." Yet "there is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which
follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and
honor beneath which axe shielded and defended a people's safety and greatness."
Perhaps no American document relating to diplomacy ever before made so great a stir in the world. Its
unexpectedness enhanced its effect, even in the United States, for the public had not been sufficiently
aware of the shaping of this international episode to be psychologically prepared for the imminence of
war. Unlike most Anglo-American diplomacy, this had been a long-range negotiation, with notes
exchanged between the home offices instead of personal conferences. People blenched at the thought of
war; stocks fell; the attention of the whole world was arrested. The innumerable and intimate bonds of
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