born Sept. 15, 1835, Oxford, Mass., U.S.
died April 8, 1917, Boston, Mass.
U.S. statesman.
As U.S. attorney general (1893–95) under Pres. Pullman Strike (1894). Appointed U.S. secretary of state in 1895, he was confronted with Venezuela's request for support in its border dispute with Britain over the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. Olney's aggressive note to Britain, known as the Olney Corollary, demanded that Britain submit the dispute to arbitration and reasserted U.S. sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine . The matter was in fact settled by arbitration two years after Olney's retirement in 1897.