Richard Olney (September 15, 1835 – April 8, 1917) was an American statesman. He served as

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

in the cabinet of

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

and Secretary of State under Cleveland. As attorney general, Olney used injunctions against striking workers in the Pullman strike, setting a precedent, and advised the use of federal troops, when legal means failed to control the strikers. As Secretary of State, he raised the status of America in the world by elevating U.S. diplomatic posts to the status of

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

Early life and education

Olney was born into a prosperous family in Oxford, Massachusetts. His father was Wilson Olney, a textiles manufacturer and banker."Richard Olney Dies; Veteran Statesman"
(PDF) ''

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'' (April 10, 1917), page 13. Retrieved April 6, 2011 Shortly after his birth, the family moved to

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, and lived there until Olney was seven. The family then moved back to Oxford and Olney attended school at the

Leicester Academy Leicester Academy was founded on March 23, 1784, when the Act of Incorporation for Leicester Academy was passed by the Massachusetts General Court as a private, state chartered institution. The charter issued to the Academy bears the bold signatu ...

in Leicester, Massachusetts. He graduated with high honors as class orator from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1856. He received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

in 1858. In 1859, he passed the bar and began practicing law in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, attaining a reputation as an authority on

probate Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the st ...

, trust and corporate law.

Early career

Olney was elected a selectman in

West Roxbury, Massachusetts West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to th ...

and served one term in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

in 1874. He declined to run again, preferring to return to his law practice. In 1876, Olney inherited his father-in-law's Boston law practice and became involved in the business affairs of Boston's elite families."Richard Olney (1895–1897): Secretary of State"

Miller Center of Public Affairs The Miller Center is a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in United States presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history. History The Miller Center was founded in 1975 through the philanthrop ...

at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. Retrieved April 6, 2011 During the 1880s, Olney became one of the Boston's leading railroad attorneysThomas Frank
"Obama and 'Regulatory Capture'"
''

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'' (June 24, 2010). Retrieved April 5, 2011 and the general counsel for

Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

. Olney was once asked by a former railroad employer if he could do something to get rid of the newly formed

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...

(ICC). He suggested that the ICC would become a captive regulator, replying in an 1892 letter, "The Commission... is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal. Further, the older such a commission gets to be, the more inclined it will be found to take the business and railroad view of things... The part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it."

Attorney General

In March 1893, Olney became U.S. Attorney General and used the law to thwart strikes, which he considered an illegitimate tactic contrary to law. Olney argued that the government must prevent interference with its mails and with the general railway transportation between the states.

Pullman strike

During the 1894 Pullman strike, Olney instructed

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...

s to secure from the Federal Courts writs of injunction against striking railroad employees."Orders Sent to Indict Debs"
(PDF) ''The New York Times'' (July 5, 1894). Retrieved April 6, 2011 He ordered the Chicago district attorney to convene a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...

to find cause to indict Eugene Debs and other labor leaders and sent

federal marshal The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...

s to protect rail traffic, ordering 150 marshals deputized in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would be ...

alone. When the legal measures failed, he advised President Cleveland to send federal troops to Chicago to quell the strike, over the objections of the Governor of Illinois.

Secretary of State

Upon the death of Secretary of State

Walter Q. Gresham Walter Quintin Gresham (March 17, 1832May 28, 1895) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and of the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit and previously was a United Stat ...

, Cleveland named Olney to the position on June 10, 1895. Olney quickly elevated US foreign diplomatic posts to the title of

, officially raising the status of the United States to one of the world's greater nations. (Until then, the United States had had only Legations, which diplomatic protocol dictated be treated as inferior to embassies.) Olney took a prominent role in the boundary dispute between the British and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n governments. In his correspondence with Lord Salisbury, he gave an extended interpretation of the

Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act ...

that went considerably beyond previous statements on the subject, now known as the Olney interpretation.

Later years

Olney returned to the practice of the law in 1897, at the expiration of Cleveland's term. In March 1913, Olney turned down President Wilson's offer to be the US Ambassador to Great Britain, and later, in May 1914, when President Wilson offered Olney the Appointment as Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, he declined that appointment. Olney was unwilling to take on new responsibilities at his advanced age.

Personal life

In 1861, Olney married Agnes Park Thomas of Boston, Massachusetts. Olney was the uncle of Massachusetts Congressman

Richard Olney II Richard Olney (January 5, 1871 Milton, Strafford County, New Hampshire – January 15, 1939 Boston, Massachusetts) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Life He attended the public schools, Leicester ...

. Author

H.W. Brands Henry William Brands Jr. (born August 7, 1953) is an American historian. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD in history in 1985. He has authored 30 books on U.S. histor ...

recounts claims that Olney "responded to a daughter's indiscretion by banishing her from his home, never to see her again, although they lived in the same city for thirty years."

Honors

Olney received the honorary degree of

LL.D Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

from Harvard and Brown in 1893 and from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in 1901.

References

Bibliography

* Grenville, John A. S. and George Berkeley Young. ''Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy: Studies in Foreign Policy, 1873-1917'' (1966) pp 158–78 on "Grover Cleveland, Richard only, and the Venezuelan crisis" * Young, George B. "Intervention Under the Monroe Doctrine: The Olney Corollary," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' 57#2 (1942), pp. 247–28
in JSTOR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olney, Richard 1835 births 1917 deaths Brown University alumni Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Harvard Law School alumni Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Oxford, Massachusetts United States Attorneys General Candidates in the 1904 United States presidential election 20th-century American politicians United States Secretaries of State Cleveland administration cabinet members 19th-century American politicians