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