History Day award winner -- San Juan Island Pig War by Rebecca Smith

By Rebecca Smith, Canyon Park Junior High School, Bothell
Posted 5/17/2006
HistoryLink.org Essay 9966

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Rebecca Smith, a 9th Grader at Canyon Park Junior High School, won First Prize in the 2006 Washington State History Day competition for Senior Historical Papers with this discussion of the San Juan Island Pig War. The "Pig War" was a standoff between the U.S. Army and the British Royal Navy that began in the summer of 1859. A marauding pig could easily have sparked war between the U.S. and Great Britain as both nations sought to occupy North America. Diplomacy prevailed and Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm I helped resolve the dispute. At HistoryLink.org, we are proud to sponsor History Day and to offer a special prize of $100 each for winning junior and senior division state final essays if they choose subjects in Washington state history. We will renew this award in the 2007 state History Day program.

Taking a Stand for Peace: How Diplomacy Stopped the San Juan Pig War

The 1859 Pig War of San Juan Island is remembered today as an ironic scuffle over a dead boar, but its roots ran deep and its implications extended far beyond the Pacific Northwest. When Lyman Cutler, a failed miner growing potatoes on San Juan, shot a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company farm, he could not have envisioned that the ensuing conflict would last 12 years, nor that the German Kaiser would determine its final resolution. Though the rash actions of local officials almost brought the United States and Great Britain into a devastating war, the two powerful governments realized the importance of amity and stood for peace, marking a new era in Anglo-American relations.

The Pig War actually originated in the 1840s. Electrified by the ideal of Manifest Destiny, Americans looked west toward land brimming with potential. Presidential candidate James Knox Polk led them with his 1844 campaign slogan, "54-40' or fight," referring to the latitude line at the southern tip of Russian-controlled Alaska. Polk wanted all of Oregon Territory west of the Louisiana Purchase from the 42nd parallel (California's northern border) to the 54-40' line. His unrealistic claim did not survive, and in 1846 the Treaty of Oregon gave the northern area to Great Britain and the southern to the United States. The treaty stated that the line would run "westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca's Straits, to the Pacific Ocean."

However, the authors of the treaty did not possess "a sufficiently accurate knowledge of the geography & hydrography of the Region" and failed to specify through which channel the border was intended to run. What seemed a minor detail was essential -- if the border ran through the Haro Strait, the San Juan islands would be part of the United States, while if it ran through the Rosario Strait, they would belong to Britain. San Juan was strategically the "most important island in the Haro group" but despite multiple warnings, neither government chose to correct the treaty's ambiguity. The San Juan islands, a "remote frontier," seemed perhaps too small and far away to merit notice.

Though Anglo-American trade flourished, the two nations showed a propensity for political conflict. In addition to hard feelings from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, the two nations vied for control in Central America, Texas, California, and the Queen Charlotte Islands. However, the 1850s saw a lull in Anglo-American conflict, owing to Britain's peaceful American policy. "Our foreign relations seem quite satisfactory," stated The New York Times. "Britain will not call to settle about the San Juan affair. ... There is not the slightest chance for a row for some years to come."

In the Northwest, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) dominated British Columbia both politically and economically, occupying "the very best situations in the whole country for offensive and defensive operations, towns and villages." Its Fort Victoria, on Vancouver's Island, functioned as the social and economic center for British and Americans alike. Furthermore, James Douglas, governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, was formerly the company's chief factor. To the south, Washington Territory was established in 1853.

The first stand for San Juan and the beginning of tensions came in 1854, when James Douglas, eager to secure the islands as an extension of Vancouver, placed an HBC sheep farm, Belle Vue, on San Juan with Charles Griffin in charge. American officials, however, refused to let Douglas take San Juan without a fight. They included it in the new Whatcom County, attempting to collect taxes from the HBC farm and eventually kidnapping 34 rams as payment. Governor Douglas was uneasy, calling it "an exceedingly annoying affair."

Instead of pushing for a resolution, the two local governments contested for San Juan, trying to control it by acting as if there were no dispute. Douglas himself wrote that "any assumption on either side, of exclusive right to the disputed territory, would simply be a fruitless and mischievous waste of energy," but it appears that neither he nor Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens realized that they were guilty of precisely that. Their inability to even consider opposing claims destroyed trust and set the stage for conflict.

By 1855, heightened tensions forced the federal government to notice San Juan. Knowing the disastrous consequences a war would bring but unwilling to cede the island, the governments sent orders to their officers to "abstain from all acts on the disputed grounds which are calculated to provoke any conflict, so far as it can be done without implying the concession to the authority ... of any exclusive right over the premises."

In 1858 the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush brought 30,000 American miners to British Columbia. Many of them abandoned their gold claims and settled in Victoria, blaming their failure on restrictions imposed by Douglas and the HBC. By 1859 several miners, still upset with the British, left Victoria and settled alongside Belle Vue Farm on San Juan.

The infamous event that would push both nations to the brink of war occurred on June 15, 1859, when Lyman Cutler, American farmer and former Fraser miner, found a Hudson's Bay boar rooting in his potato patch. He shot the pig. Later, Cutler went to Belle Vue farm manager Charles Griffin to apologize, but tempers flared. Griffin's view of the American squatters as "a pack of intruders" and Cutler's bitterness from the Fraser Gold Rush ensured that there could be no compromise. Both the American settlers and Belle Vue farm raised their flags in defiance.

The pig incident would not have escalated to an international conflict without the rash actions of American General William Selby Harney, Department of Oregon Commander. Harney, an arrogant and reckless leader who harbored a strong hatred of the British, heard of "the hog crap" on a routine inspection of the Puget Sound. "His patriotism was aroused" at what he saw as an "insult to [his] flag and ... an outrage upon the rights of [his] people."

In the first military stand for the island, Harney, eager for praise, ordered George E. Pickett to "directly ... establish [his] company ... on San Juan Island" on July 18. But even more disastrous than putting soldiers on a disputed island was putting Pickett in charge. Like Harney, Pickett was anxious for fame and overeager for action. Harney ensured trouble when he instructed Pickett to "resist all attempts at interference by the British ... by intimidation or force." Pickett boldly proclaimed the island American, threatening to "make a Bunker Hill of it" if the British tried to stop him.

Governor Douglas was equally to blame. Said by Americans "to be as ugly, nasty and mad as [Harney]," he regarded the general's actions as "a marked discourtesy" and clearly disrespected him: "What more could be expected of a man who has spent his lifetime warring with Indians?" Besides, Douglas was "dedicated to the idea that the British were the great civilizing influence in the world." In his ambition to protect British rights to San Juan, he disregarded his orders to appease the Americans and sent three war steamers to Griffin Bay, near the American camp.

By late July the situation was dangerous. Not only were there 50 American soldiers on San Juan and three British vessels turned broadside to the island, but citizens from both nations were restless. The British Colonist of Victoria as well as the British Columbia Legislature urged action against the Americans, while there were "1,000 American miners redy to tak Victoria when thay heard the first gun fired." Any bloodshed would undoubtedly result in war.

Harney especially needed a peaceful way out. In 1859 Pickett's company was ill-supplied and underpaid, and the frontier army as a whole was ragged after the Mexican War. Most importantly, tensions between the North and South were rising. In light of a potential civil war, America could not afford a conflict with the British.

That conflict almost became a reality when Douglas, aware of Harney's plans to reinforce Pickett on San Juan, ordered Captain Geoffrey Hornby to land on the island. Knowing that this would surely lead to a collision, Hornby disobeyed orders and refused to land. His stand for peace prevented an outbreak of battle.

On August 5 British Rear Admiral Lambert Baynes, who outranked Governor Douglas, arrived just in time to prevent a disaster. When told of the San Juan situation, he said to himself, "Tut, tut, no, no, the damn fools." He then reversed Douglas's orders to land on the island, saying "I wood rather shed tears then to shed one drop of blood."

General Harney, however, was still intent on forcing possession of San Juan. He sent Lieutenant Colonel Silas Casey with 450 more men to aid Pickett, further heightening tensions.

When President James Buchanan finally received word of the events on San Juan in September, he was shocked. He "had not anticipated that so decided a step would have been resorted to without instructions." Though preoccupied with conflicts in the South, he endeavored to preserve cordial relations with Britain, whose ministers requested that American citizens "be restrained ... from attempts to settle [the issue] by unauthorized acts of violence."

In the meantime, the American government sent General Winfield Scott to San Juan. A respected, "gallant old hero" famous for bringing peace to dangerous territorial conflicts, Scott "enjoy[ed] ... the greatest popularity with his countrymen." He worked diligently to win Governor Douglas' trust, and in January 1860 they agreed upon a joint military occupation of the island, with equal forces and rights. Though both nations still desired the island, the joint occupation represented not only the end of dangerous tensions but also a stand for peace.

Nevertheless, the final resolution would not be forthcoming. As soldiers from both countries idled on the island, drinking and trying to out-feast one another, the Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The U.S. postponed all San Juan talks until 1867, when disputes over civil jurisdiction on the island revived the issue. However, tensions over Civil War claims would repeatedly delay San Juan negotiations until diplomats presented the Johnson-Clarendon Convention to the Senate in 1870. The convention covered several issues with Great Britain, including a procedure for arbitration of the San Juan question. The Senate, however, feared the possibility that the island would go to Britain, upsetting the political balance of power in the Northwest by giving the British command of the whole area. The Johnson-Clarendon Convention failed.

By 1871, the two nations agreed to try again. Britain's new prime minister, William Gladstone, advocated peace even at the expense of San Juan. Prussia's war with France, resulting in the formation of the powerful German Empire, had upset the balance of power in Europe and concerned Gladstone enough to make him want to settle all issues with America in order to concentrate on Europe.

On March 5, discussions began on still unsolved Civil War claims, Canadian fishing rights, and the San Juan boundary. With the former two easily settled, the commission finally agreed to outside arbitration. The internationally admired German Kaiser Wilhelm I was trusted with the arbitration, by virtue of Germany's political power and "the spirit of justice and impartiality which distinguishe[d] [him], the common friend of the two states." The Treaty of Washington included all three issues and was signed on May 8.

The Treaty of Washington was a turning point not only in the San Juan affair but also in international diplomacy. The new strategy of arbitration was "received with universal applause," with "all Germany and all Europe [as] witnesses." Furthermore, the treaty signaled "the restoration of friendship between the two powers." Accepting arbitration showed that both nations were willing to surrender their national honor and demonstrate to the world a stand for peace.

As early as June of 1871, British papers confessed that it was "thought that the San Juan case [would] probably go against England." Local officials complained that British diplomats had blundered in the arbitration process, and "Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues...[felt] the weight of public resentment." However, the general public received the decision with grace. Though one article depicted England as "looking round sulkily, with a strong desire to punch the head of any looker-on who laughs," Britain's colonial possessions dominated the globe, and San Juan likely seemed a small, albeit inconvenient, loss. There was no outright "expression of ill-feeling or resentment as to the United States."

On October 21, 1872, Wilhelm approved the arbitration commission's two-to-one decision in favor of the United States. The British camp on San Juan left quietly after a friendly farewell and the Americans raised their flag up a telegraph pole. British settlers on San Juan became American citizens to keep their land claims, and life continued as usual. The Pig War, as it would come to be known, had ended without ever beginning. U.S. Minister George Bancroft wrote that "the definitive, friendly settlement of the difference ... closed the long ... dangerous series of difficulties on the extent of their respective territories, and so for the first time in their histories open[ed] to the two countries the unobstructed way to agreement, good understanding and peace." It was "the last real, serious issue to arise between our two nations."

The Pig War's resolution set an international standard. Arbitration became an immediate trend in international diplomacy, and in 1903 Great Britain and America used the Pig War as a model for deciding the Alaska-British Columbia border. Anglo-American relations remained generally halcyon through the twentieth century, when Britain relied heavily on American funds and supplies during both world wars. The two nations remain close allies even today.

The Pig War is an essential part of history on three levels. First, it finally resolved the confusion over the San Juan boundary, giving the United States a strategic group of islands and preventing the British from becoming too powerful in the Puget Sound. Second, it could easily have become the third Anglo-American war in 100 years -- a war that would have devastated the economies of both countries and severed social and political ties. Most importantly, though, the Pig War and its amicable resolution proved to the world that two nations could solve even the most difficult issues through diplomacy and ushered in a new era of peaceful Anglo-American relations. What began as a nearly violent stand for a tiny island became a pivotal stand for peace.

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