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William Lindsay Scruggs (1836 - 1912) was an American author, lawyer, and diplomat. He was a scholar of South American foreign policy and U.S. ambassador to Colombia and Venezuela.

Early life and ambassadorships
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.

Venezuela lobbyist
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. 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 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.

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 (now openly championed by the United States). Almost immediately after Cleveland's statement to the United States Congress, the US military were put on combat alert for a potential war with Great Britain. During economic times which the United States were in the depths of the Long Depression with double digit unemployment, panic reignited on Wall Street (still reeling from the panic of 1893) over fear of a war with the British Empire.

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. The Boundary Commission consisted of:
 * 1) David J. Brewer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States;
 * 2) Richard H. Alvey, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, skilled Spanish scholar;
 * 3) F.R. Coudert, Founder of Coudert Brothers, polyglot, president of New York bar (1890–91), United States liason during the Bering Sea Dispute in 1892;
 * 4) Dr. D.C. Gilman, Noted Geographer, President of the John Hopkins University;
 * 5) Andrew D. White, Historian, diplomat, founder of Cornell University

The Commission selected Judge Brewer as Chairman, and appointed as secretary Severo Mallet-Prevost, trained lawyer and scholar.

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." Concurrently in Britain, Lord Salisbury the British Prime Minister made a speech to Parliament indicating Britain's inclination toward appeasement.

On February 2, 1897, the Treaty of Washington between Venezuela and Great Britain was signed. The Boundary Commission presented a Report to the President. The report was three volumes. Reviewing Dutch colonization in Essequibo and the geography of the area with a seventy-six map atlas, it was three volumes.

The Boundary Commission finalized their decision October 3, 1899. 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, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, 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.

Later life
Scruggs retired to Atlanta, Georgia, where he died July 18, 1912.