CHAPTER XXXIX 



AS MEMBER OF THE VENEZUELA COMMISSION 1895-1896 



EARLY one morning, just at the end of 1895, as I was 

 at work before the blazing fire in my library at the 

 university, the winter storms howling outside, a card was 

 brought in bearing the name of Mr. Hamlin, assistant 

 secretary of the treasury of the United States. While I 

 was wondering what, at that time of the year, could have 

 brought a man from such important duties in Washington 

 to the bleak hills of central New York, he entered, and 

 soon made known his business, which was to tender me, 

 on the part of President Cleveland, a position upon the 

 commission which had been authorized by Congress to 

 settle the boundary between the republic of Venezuela and 

 British Guiana, 



The whole matter had attracted great attention, not only 

 in the United States, but throughout the world. The ap 

 pointment of the commission was the result of a chain of 

 circumstances very honorable to the President, to his Sec 

 retary of State, Mr. Olney, and to Congress. For years 

 the Venezuelan government had been endeavoring to es 

 tablish a frontier between its territory and that of its pow 

 erful neighbor, but without result; and meantime the 

 British boundary seemed to be pushed more and more into 

 the territory of the little Spanish-American republic. 

 For years, too, Venezuela had appealed to the United 

 States, and the United States had appealed to Great Brit 

 ain. American secretaries of state and ambassadors at 

 the Court of St. James had &quot; trusted, &quot; and &quot;regretted,&quot; 



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