VENEZUELA AND AFTER 305 



into demonstrations of aggressiveness in foreign 

 policy, were adjusted without excitement or 

 display; and this again was used to strengthen 

 the idea that nothing worthy of a great nation 

 was to be expected of Cleveland. Reference 

 to the Venezuelan dispute with Great Britain 

 was made in the President s annual message 

 to Congress in December, 1894, and Congress 

 later responded by a resolution urging that the 

 question be settled by arbitration; but the 

 general feeling in America was that, however 

 desirable such procedure was, no action by the 

 administration was to be expected. 



Mr. Cleveland, meanwhile, reached the con 

 clusion that peril to peace would result if the 

 boundary dispute remained longer unsettled. 

 Venezuelan complaints continued frequent and 

 shrill; reports of further encroachments by 

 the British in the gold-mining regions were 

 diligently circulated; and ominous indications 

 appeared in the American press of nervousness 

 lest the Monroe Doctrine were threatened with 

 infringement. It was resolved to bring the 

 affair to a head at once, and Secretary Olney s 

 despatch above referred to was the means 

 adopted. That the despatch was well calcu 

 lated to effect the immediate end in view, could 



