William L. Scruggs was born in Nashville in 1836. He was a lawyer and journalist in addition to being a diplomat. Scruggs was U.S. Minister to Colombia from July 24, 1873 to October 26, 1876 and again from July 19, 1882 to December 15, 1885. In 1884 he became known as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Colombia. Previously his title was simply Minister Resident, Colombia. Scruggs was U.S. Minister to Venezuela from May 30, 1889 to December 15, 1892. In 1889 he became known as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Venezuela. Scruggs appeared to resign his ambassadorship to Venezuela in December 1892, but in fact had been dismissed by the US for bribing the President of Venezuela.
In 1893 Scruggs was recruited by the Venezuelan Government to operate on its behalf in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist and legal attache. As a lobbyist, Scruggs published the pamphlet entitled British Aggressions in Venezuela: The Monroe Doctrine on Trial. In the pamphlet, he attacked "British aggression" claiming that Venezuela was anxious to arbitrate over the Venezuela/British Guiana border dispute of territory at west of Essequibo river limited by Schomburgk Line. Scruggs also claimed that British policies in the disputed territory violated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. It was this relationship that eventually led to his service as Special Counsel before the Boundary Commission, three years later. Scruggs collaborated with Georgian compatriot Congressman Leonidas Livingston to propose House Resolution 252 to the third session of the 53rd Congress of the United States of America. The bill — written by Scruggs — recommended Venezuela and Great Britain settle the dispute by arbitration. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on February 20, 1895, after passing both houses of the United States Congress. The vote had been unanimous. The president Cleveland adopted a broad interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine that did not just simply forbid new European colonies but declared an American interest in any matter within the hemisphere. British prime ministerLord Salisbury and British ambassador to the US Lord Pauncefote both misjudged the importance the American government placed on the dispute. The key issue in the crisis became Britain's refusal to include the territory east of the Schomburgk Line in the proposed international arbitration. By December 17, 1895, President Cleveland delivered an address to the United States Congress which was perceived as direct threat of war with Great Britain if the British did not comply with Venezuelan demands. Almost immediately after Cleveland's statement to the United States Congress, the US military was put on combat alert for a potential war with Great Britain. Ultimately Britain backed down and tacitly accepted the US right to intervene under the Monroe Doctrine. This US intervention forced Britain to accept arbitration of the entire disputed territory. On December 18, 1895, Congress approved $100,000 for the United States Commission on the Boundary Between Venezuela and British Guiana. It was formally established on January 1, 1896. Jose Andrade, the Venezuelan Minister to Washington, on February 26, 1896 announced that Scruggs had been appointed by the Venezuelan President as his "agent charged with submitting information" to the United States Venezuela Boundary Commission, and to present "reports relative to the titles and rights of Venezuela." An Arbitration Tribunal was agreed between the US and Britain in 1896, and this concluded in 1899 in Paris. The Schomburgk Line was re-established as the border between British Guiana and Venezuela, which had been set in 1835. The Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute asserted for the first time a more outward-looking American foreign policy that marking the United States as a world power. This is the earliest example of modern interventionism under the Monroe Doctrine in which the USA exercised its claimed prerogatives in the Western Hemisphere. By standing with a Latin American nation against European colonial powers, Cleveland improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors, but the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted also made for good relations with Britain. However, by backing down in the face of a strong US declaration of a strong interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, Britain tacitly accepted the Doctrine, and the crisis thus provided a basis for the expansion of US interventionism in the . Leading British historian Robert Arthur Humphreys later called the boundary crisis "one of the most momentous episodes in the history of Anglo-American relations in general and of Anglo-American rivalries in Latin America in particular."
Later life
Scruggs retired to Atlanta, Georgia, where he died July 18, 1912.
