- Richard Olney
:"For the Member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts, see
Richard Olney II ; for the food and wine writer, seeRichard Olney (food writer) ."Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Richard Olney
order=41st
title=United States Attorney General
term_start=March 6 ,1893
term_end=April 7 ,1895
predecessor=William H. H. Miller
successor=Judson Harmon
order2=34th
title2=United States Secretary of State
term_start2=June 10 ,1895
term_end2=March 5 ,1897
predecessor2=Walter Q. Gresham
successor2=John Sherman
birth_date = birth date|1835|9|15|mf=y
birth_place =Oxford, Massachusetts , U.S.
death_date = death date and age|1917|04|08|1835|09|15
death_place =Boston, Massachusetts , U.S.
party=Democratic
spouse=Agnes Park Thomas
profession=Lawyer ,Politician
religion=Presbyterian Richard Olney (
September 15 ,1835 –April 8 ,1917 ) was an American statesman. He served as bothUnited States Attorney General and Secretary of State under PresidentGrover Cleveland .Olney was born in
Oxford, Massachusetts , and studied atBrown University (Class of 1856), andHarvard Law School (Class of 1858). In 1859 he began practicing law inBoston , and attained a high position at the bar. He served in theMassachusetts House of Representatives in 1874.In March 1893, Olney became U.S. Attorney General. During the
Pullman strike in 1894, he instructed the district attorneys to secure from the Federal Courtswrits of injunction restraining the strikers from acts of violence; thus setting a precedent for "government by injunction." He also advised the use of Federal troops to quell the disturbances in the city, on the ground that the government must prevent interference with its mails and with the general railway transportation between the states.Upon the death of Secretary of State
Walter Q. Gresham , Olney succeeded him onJune 10 ,1895 . He quickly elevated U.S. foreign diplomatic posts to the title of Embassy, thus making it official that the U.S. would be regarded as an equal of the world's greater nations (up until that time, the United States had had only Legations, which diplomatic protocol dictated be treated as inferior to Embassies). He became specially prominent in the controversy withUnited Kingdom concerning the boundary dispute between the British andVenezuela n governments, and in his correspondence with Lord Salisbury gave an extended interpretation to theMonroe Doctrine which went considerably beyond previous statements on the subject.In 1897, at the expiration of Cleveland's term, Olney returned to the practice of the law.
References
*1911
* George B. Young, "Intervention Under the Monroe Doctrine: The Olney Corollary," "Political Science Quarterly," Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jun., 1942), pp. 247-280 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2143553 in JSTOR]
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