William Lindsay Scruggs
William Lindsay Scruggs | |
---|---|
United States Ambassador to Venezuela | |
In office 30 May 1889 – 15 December 1892 | |
President | Grover Cleveland |
Preceded by | Charles L. Scott |
Succeeded by | Frank C. Partridge |
Personal details | |
Born | Georgia | September 14, 1836
Resting place | Westview Cemetery |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Diplomat |
Profession | Journalist, author, lawyer |
Signature | |
William Lindsay Scruggs (September 14, 1836 – July 18, 1912) was an American author, lawyer, and diplomat. He was a scholar of South American foreign policy and U.S.
Early life and ambassadorships
William L. Scruggs was born in Nashville in 1836.[1] He was a lawyer and journalist in addition to being a diplomat.
Scruggs was U.S. Minister to Colombia from July 24, 1873, to October 26, 1876, and again from July 19, 1882, to December 15, 1885.[2] In 1884 he became known as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Colombia. Previously his title was simply Minister Resident, Colombia.
Scruggs was U.S. Minister to Venezuela from May 30, 1889, to December 15, 1892.[3] In 1889 he became known as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Venezuela. Scruggs appeared to resign his ambassadorship to Venezuela in December 1892, but in fact had been dismissed by the US for bribing the President of Venezuela.[4]
Venezuela lobbyist
In 1893 Scruggs was recruited by the Venezuelan Government to operate on its behalf in Washington, D.C., as a
Scruggs collaborated with
By December 17, 1895, President Cleveland delivered an address to the United States Congress which was perceived as direct threat of war with Great Britain if the British did not comply with Venezuelan demands (now openly championed by the United States). Almost immediately after Cleveland's statement to the United States Congress, the US military was put on combat alert for a potential war with Great Britain. Ultimately Britain backed down and tacitly accepted the US right to intervene under the Monroe Doctrine. This US intervention forced Britain to accept arbitration of the entire disputed territory.
On December 18, 1895, Congress approved $100,000 for the United States Commission on the Boundary Between Venezuela and British Guiana. It was formally established on January 1, 1896. Jose Andrade, the Venezuelan Minister to Washington, on February 26, 1896, announced that Scruggs had been appointed by the Venezuelan President as his "agent charged with submitting information" to the United States
By standing with a Latin American nation against European colonial powers, Cleveland improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors, but the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted also made for good relations with Britain.
Later life
Scruggs retired to
Bibliography
- "Restriction of the Suffrage". The North American Review, vol. 139, issue 336 (1884)
- "Blundering American Diplomacy". The North American Review, vol. 145, issue 370 (September 1887)]
- British Aggressions in Venezuela: The Monroe Doctrine on Trial (pamphlet, 1895)
- Fallacies of the British Blue Book on the Venezuela Question (pamphlet, 1896)
- The Guyana Boundary Dispute: Important testimony by an English geographer. The Essequibo River recognized by England as the frontier line between Venezuela and British Guiana as late as 1822 (pamphlet, 1896)
- Lord Salisbury's mistakes (pamphlet, 1896)
- The Venezuelan question: British aggressions in Venezuela, or The Monroe doctrine on trial; Lord Salisbury's mistakes; Fallacies of the British "blue book" on the disputed boundary (book, collected works, 1896)
- Case of Venezuela: Brief concerning the question of boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana (book, 1898)
- The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics, with notes on other parts of Central and South America (book, 1900)
- The Monroe doctrine: Whence it came, what it is, and what it is not (pamphlet 1902)
References
- ^ New York Times. July 19, 1912.
- ^ "US Ambassador to Colombia US government office". nndb.com. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
- ^ "US Ambassador to Venezuela US government office". nndb.com. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
- ^ R. A. Humphreys (1967), "Anglo-American Rivalries and the Venezuela Crisis of 1895", Presidential Address to the Royal Historical Society10 December 1966, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 17: pp131-164
- ^ Ishmael, Odeen (1998). "The Trail Of Diplomacy A Documentary History of the Guyana-Venezuela Border Issue".
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(help) - ISBN 0-674-92276-X.
- ISBN 0-691-01035-8. pp145–146
- ^ Gibb, Paul, "Unmasterly Inactivity? Sir Julian Pauncefote, Lord Salisbury, and the Venezuela Boundary Dispute," Diplomacy and Statecraft, Mar 2005, Vol. 16 Issue 1, pp 23-55
- ^ Blake, Nelson M. "Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy," American Historical Review, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Jan., 1942), pp. 259-277 in JSTOR
- ^ Ishmael, Odeen (1998). "The Trail Of Diplomacy A Documentary History of the Guyana-Venezuela Border Issue".
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(help) - ^ Ferrell, Robert H. "Monroe Doctrine". ap.grolier.com. Retrieved October 31, 2008.
- ^ Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage (1932). ASIN B000PUX6KQ., 550, 633–648
- ^ Historian George Herring wrote that by failing to pursue the issue further the British "tacitly conceded the U. S. definition of the Monroe Doctrine and its hegemony in the hemisphere." – Herring, George C., From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, (2008) pp. 307–308
- ISBN 9781626199675. Retrieved May 4, 2021 – via Google Books.
Further reading
- Grenville, John A. S. and George Berkeley Young. Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy: Studies in Foreign Policy, 1873-1917 (1966) pp 125–57 on "The diplomat as propagandist: William Lindsey Scruggs, agent for Venezuela"