WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Pig War 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:06.320 Happy Saturday. In our episode on Henry Martin Robert, we 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.920 talked about his building a redoubt that's a sort of 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:14.280 temporary usually fortification for the US Army during the Pig War. 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.520 So today's classic is our episode on the Pig War, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.960 which came out all the way back almost ten years 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.520 ago on April ninth, twenty fourteen. We have a couple 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.560 of corrections for this one. San Juan Island is not 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.360 the largest island in the San Juan Islands, it is 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.640 the second largest. Also, nobody went through the Panama Canal 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.239 in this episode, since that was not Billy yet they 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.879 crossed Panama over land. Those are the only mistakes I 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.919 remember from ten years ago. One can hope there were 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:50.400 not others. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:01:00.840 a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.639 I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye, and so 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.880 you it's funny to be. I wrote this little outline 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:08.960 with an introduction that begins. If you grew up in 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:13.120 the Pacific Northwest, or maybe in Vancouver, or especially in 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.759 the islands between them, you may have already heard about 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.000 the story we're going to talk about today, which is 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.120 the pig warm If you have tuned in thinking this 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.800 is about the Bay of Pigs invasion, I'm sorry, We're 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.000 talking about something else. However, you did grow up in 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:31.880 that area and it was a new story to you. Yeah, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.160 I mean I didn't do all of my growing up there. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.199 I moved from there when I was a little over nine, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.319 but I still have siblings there and have gone back 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.000 there several times. And I had never heard of it. Yeah, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:49.440 and right in that area like Tacoma and pwoll Up, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.640 which is right outside Seattle, so I should have heard 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:55.680 of it, but I never had. Well, I may have 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.040 been too young when I left. I missed that chunk. Well. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.640 This was recommended as a subject listener, Katie, and it 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.080 is basically a story of how in eighteen fifty nine 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.680 the United States and Britain very nearly went to war 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.480 over an issue that seems more likely to start a 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.880 feud between Hatfield's and McCoy's, which is that an American 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.160 settler shot a Canadian pig that was rooting around in 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.959 his garden. Doesn't that sound silly? Yes? And I can 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:28.720 also see how that would escalate in a hatfield in McCoy. Yeah. Yes, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.040 so that is what we are going to talk about today. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.360 Of course, people had been living on what is now 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.880 known as San Juan Island between the mainland of Washington 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.080 and the island of Vancouver for thousands of years before 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:49.080 European explorers started pushing into the Pacific Northwest. So during 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:54.040 this sort of European exploration phase, Spain was the first 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.919 country to claim and rename this island, when Francisco Eliza 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:03.880 dubbed it Ela the Archipelago de San Juan. Its location 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.400 in fertile soil made it a really attractive spot for 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.160 the Spanish as well as the British and the Americans, 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:13.480 although Spain eventually withdrew from the area. In eighteen eighteen, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.240 the United States and Britain signed the Anglo American Convention, 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.480 which reinforced England's control over the eastern half of Canada 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.040 while allowing both nations to operate what was then called 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.000 Oregon Country jointly. Citizens of both nations would be allowed 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.240 to live in this area, and the agreement would be 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.360 renewed every decade unless one nation or the other could 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.160 conclude that it had settled the region. Yeah, so it 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.120 was basically if some person or country eventually had the 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.360 most guys in there. It reminds me of like a 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.800 board gate where I I have thirty miniatures in here, 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:55.280 so it's mine now. So for the first several decades, 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.040 both sides were kind of thinking that it was unlikely 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.920 that this thing was going to be renewed. American settlers 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.720 and prospectors thought they clearly had the advantage, and at 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.160 the same time, so did English merchants and trappers. Just 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.360 probably an indication that it was pretty evenly divided for 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.240 a while, yes, But eventually the tide did start to 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.360 shift and the American population in Oregon Country skyrocketed between 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.840 eighteen forty and eighteen forty five. And around this same time, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.719 fur trading started to dwindle as the region suffered from overtrapping, 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.760 and this made it less attractive to England, and England 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.160 was less motivated to maintain its boundaries, whereas the US 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.440 was still quite eager for the land. So in eighteen 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.600 forty six, the US and Great Britain signed the Treaty 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.719 of Oregon. This is the treaty that set the border 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.000 between the United States and Canada at the forty ninth parallel, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.159 So that really long straight portion it looked straight on 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.640 a map, you're actually trying to walk down it. It 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.880 is not remotely straight because it was delineated by people 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.400 on the ground with kind of primitive instruments. But this 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.800 long stretch of border that is north of what's now 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.760 North Dakota, Montana and Washington, and south of Alberta, Saskatchewan 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:11.159 and Manitoba, and it seems pretty self explanatory until you 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.839 get to the western end of the border. The treaty 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.279 went on to say, it quote shall be continued westward 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.599 along the forty ninth parallel of north Latitude to the 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.320 middle of the Channel, which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.760 and then southerly through the middle of the said channel 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.920 and of Fucus Straits to the Pacific Ocean. The problem 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.320 was that this channel was really two large straits and 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.080 a lot of other smaller waterways. The Harrow Strait lay 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.480 next to Vancouver Island and the Rosario Strait lay next 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.000 to the mainland in what is now Washington, and in 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:49.120 between were the San Juan Islands, which became disputed territory 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.479 with both the United States and Canada. Basically saying that 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.400 is mine. The largest island, the one known as San 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:58.760 Juan Island, was the one that was in most demand. 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.240 Made an official claim to the islands in eighteen fifty 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.560 three by including it with the creation of Washington Territory. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.800 The Hudson's Bay Company, which had been operating on the 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.800 island since at least eighteen forty five, responded by building 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.000 a sheep farm on the southern shore that September, which 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.560 quickly started to flourish. A man named Charles Griffin was 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.680 sent to run it, and he named it Bellevue. For 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.040 a while, it was just Griffin and his staff and 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.240 their sheep that were all living on this fifty five 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.400 square mile island. This doesn't sound like a huge population, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.400 but it was a pretty large sheep farm. There were 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.039 like almost five thousand sheep. But the sheep did not 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:42.160 count as humans. Now they did not, there's no equivalency. 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.240 So the land on San Juan Island was very rich 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.760 and productive, and it became a prime location for American settlers, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.240 especially after gold rushes in the area kind of drew 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.359 people out there, and then you know, they would fail 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.560 and people would live for something else to do, like 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.480 starting a farm. So soon Americans coming into the region 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.760 were staking claims in what had been the Hudson's Bay 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.320 Company's grazing land. So the British government viewed all these 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.400 American incomers as squatters, and tensions between the British and 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.480 the Americans actually living there ran pretty high, so case 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.280 in point, in eighteen fifty four, a US customs collector 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.320 showed up on the island and tried to collect duties 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.880 from Griffin's farm manager, and the farm manager swore out 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.800 a warrant for the custom collector's arrest for trespassing on 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.160 British soil. Then, in March of eighteen fifty five, a 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.280 sheriff from the Washington Mainland brought his posse over the 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.600 channel in the middle of the night and confiscated thirty 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.040 five of Griffin's sheep, claiming that they were going to 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.200 be sold to pay back taxes. Hudson's Bay Company later 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:54.320 demanded fifteen thousand dollars in damages. This also led Vancouver's governor, 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.560 James Douglas to write to Isaac L. Stevens, who was 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:02.040 his counterpartner of Washington, to complain about it. The name 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.520 Isaac L. Stevens may ring a bell. If you remember 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.280 our Chief Seattle episode, he plays a role in that also. 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.160 And this whole thing was raising enough eyebrows in Washington, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.640 d C. That Secretary of State William L. Macy also 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.920 wrote to Governor Stevens basically saying, hey, please play nice, guys. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:21.680 He also asked for the British government to do the 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:26.320 same with Governor Douglas, and they did. Sadly, this did 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.800 not really help diffuse anything. And before we go into 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.079 detail on why, let's take a moment and talk about 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:44.120 a word from our sponsor. So let's get back to 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:49.760 where things got simultaneously escalated and a little silly American 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.280 Lyman Cutler was part of the American influx of settlers 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.920 onto San Juan Island. He was a failed gold prospector 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.480 who built a little cabin and planted a potato patch 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.920 right by the Hudson's Bay Company's sheep run. He later 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.319 claimed that Governor Stevens himself had told him that the 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.160 land belonged to America, and so Cutler was claiming one 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.400 hundred and sixty acres under the Donation Land Claim Act 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.800 of eighteen fifty. So like the Homestead Act later did 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.560 in the Midwest. The Donation Land Claim Act allowed citizens 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.560 over the age of twenty one to claim a bunch 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.040 of land for free if they met certain residency and 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:35.400 improvement conditions. Number one, disputed land was not up for 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.839 grabs under this act, and number two the Land Claim 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.520 Act expired in eighteen fifty five before Cutler even got there. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.800 And then number three possibly a lesser but definitely a 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.520 critical point. His improvements were really not so great. His 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.880 potato patch was only fenced on three sides, and that 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.880 allowed animals to trot right in and plunder his crop. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.960 One of these invading animals was a bore belonging to 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.400 Charles Griffin of Bellevue Sheep Farm fame. Cutler claimed that 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.600 he woke up one morning to the sound of laughter 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.480 outside of his window. This was on June fifteenth, eighteen 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.680 fifty nine. He looked outside to see one of Griffin's 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.839 men laughing at a pig rooting through his potato patch, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.400 so Cutler went outside and shot it. This would not 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.480 have been newsworthy if Cutler had not been American, and 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.600 if the pig had not effectively been the property of 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.160 the Hudson's Bay Company. Which was a trading company that 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.120 ran much of the show in Canada. At first, the 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.079 two men did try to work it out between themselves. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.520 Cutler offered to replace the pig, or to get estimates 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.600 from three men about how much the pig was worth, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.520 and then used that information to figure out how much 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.480 money to repay Griffin for it. Griffin, on the other hand, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.400 demanded one hundred dollars, saying that the pig was a 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.679 prized breeder, and Cutler said, quote, better chance for lightning 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:01.800 to strike you then for you to get one hundred 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.760 dollars for that hog, And then he stormed away in 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:10.600 a huff. Yeah, all was fun. When things escalate, oh 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.040 and become insulting, it's gonna be so much more escalation. 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.720 Griffin took this matter to his bosses at the Hudson's 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.480 Bay Company, who went to Cutler's cabin to try to 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.120 get restitution, and of course Cutler refused to pay. It 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.080 is possible that the Hudson's Bay Company men also tried 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.600 to have Cutler arrested, but if they did, it never 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.320 came to fruition because he refused to go with the 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.200 people who came to arrest it. Yeah, the records are 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.960 a little unclear on that. Some sources say one thing, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.880 and some sources it may have been attempted, maybe said 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:45.720 it never actually happened. So that July, Brigadier General William S. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.319 Harney toured the area and he noticed an American flag 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.640 that Cutler and his friends had started flying for the 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.679 Fourth of July holiday. He asked them about it, and 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.439 they launched into this list of complaints about how vulnerable 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.280 they were both to attack by Native Americans and to 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.560 mistreatment by the British, and they cited the pig incident 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:11.000 in this process. Harney was staunchly anti British. He had 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:12.520 a little bit of a temper, He was very quick 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.920 to anger, and he had a very foul mouth. By 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.520 the end of his military career, he had been court 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:22.040 martialed four times. And even though he had just been 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.600 to Vancouver to thank Governor Douglas for what a good 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.560 job he'd been doing protecting the Americans from Native American attacks, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.040 he decided now would be a good time to show 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:36.839 some force. He characterized the Hudson's Bay Company's behavior as 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:42.600 quote oppressive interference, and without consulting his command or the 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.480 War Department, he sent in Company d ninth US Infantry 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.760 under Captain George E. Pickett. The sixty six men arrived 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.520 on the USS Massachusetts and they camped right by the 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.120 Hudson's Bay Company's wharf and the sheep farm, which you know, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.640 doesn't seem like they're provoking things at all. Harning did 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.960 eventually tell the War Department what he was doing, but 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.680 he didn't send this letter until the July until July 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.400 the nineteenth, and it didn't actually get there until September. 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:13.600 So for a long time he was just doing what 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.360 he wanted, with no en being posturing, yeah taunting people. 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.840 Although Pickett's orders were to protect against Native Americans and 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:26.280 the British, he posted a notice claiming that the camp 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.720 was American property and subject only to US laws and courts, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.000 and that he, in fact was in command of it. 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.840 Governor Douglas, having none of that and believing that Britain 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.600 had lost Oregon by just being too welcoming, responded by 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.480 sending in the twenty one gun HMS Satellite, which was 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.520 joined by the thirty one gun Frigate HMS Tribune under 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.200 the command of Captain Jeffrey Phipps Hornby of the Royal Navy, 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.360 and another warship also came to anchor, so there were 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.880 three warships now off the coast of this island. He 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.280 also appointed a Justice of the Peace to enforce British law, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.920 which he claimed was the only law and effect on 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:08.680 the island. So, in spite of now facing down three warships, 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.240 one of which carried forty six Royal Marines, Pickett refused 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.679 to withdraw or stand down. He was publicly boastful, allegedly 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.200 saying things like he would make a bunker hill of 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.200 it if pressed. Although at the time he sent worried 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:26.760 sounding dispatches asking for more reinforcements and he appointed his 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.640 own Justice of the Peace, Harney kept funneling more troops 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.520 into the area. Pickett was eventually reinforced by one hundred 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.400 and seventy one men under Lieutenant Colonel Silas Casey, and 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.359 together they all went to Victoria to try to negotiate 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.200 with Rear Admiral R. Lambert Baines, who was commanding the 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.600 British forces in the East Pacific. Baines, on the other hand, 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.600 was aboard the eighty four gun HMS Ganges, which he 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.520 refused to leave for negotiations. Believing this entire thing to 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.000 be ridiculous and beneath the involvement of quote two great names, 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.320 Casey realized it was going to be pretty fruitless to 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.080 go up against that kind of firepower, so he and 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.080 everyone else went back to San Juan Island to ask 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.200 for more reinforcements. By the end of August, so keep 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.760 in mind, there's a letter out there somewhere floating around 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:20.040 that hasn't reached the appropriate people yet. Yep, the American 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.760 forces on San Juan Island had swelled to about four 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.200 hundred and fifty men who had armed themselves with fourteen 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.000 field cannons in an additional eight thirty two pound guns 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.760 collected from the USS Massachusetts. The US troops reinforced their 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.920 fortifications while the British Navy carried out drills along the 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.400 coast with about two thousand fighting men ready for action. 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.320 And at this point it was basically an arms race 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.240 over a dead pig. And from my own perspective, if 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.920 you knew how tiny this piece of land was, it 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.280 makes it extra hilarious and slash. Where did they put 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.960 all those boats? Well, and some of the boats they 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.240 would go out on maneuvers and were they would just 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.960 fire their cans at the bluffs or at like big 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.120 rocks that were on the land, which was vastly entertaining 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.440 to some of the people who were around. It turned 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.480 into this source of excitement of Okay, now, now we're 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.560 gonna do drills by firing our cannons at the at 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:23.320 the bluffs here. Yeah. So in September, almost three months 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.640 after Cutler shot, the pig word finally reached Washington, d C. 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.440 Which was then approximately a six week trip away, about 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.120 what was going on. It was not through this letter 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.280 sent to the War Department, though, it was when President 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.600 James Buchanan read about it in the newspaper on September third. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.600 Both the US government and the British officials who were 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.400 in Washington, d C. Were astonished that an international incident 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:54.640 was brewing between Vancouver and Washington over a pig. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.120 I can only imagine how startling that must be to 0:16:58.160 --> 0:16:59.720 be like, oh, did you know, by the way, there's 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.600 about to be a war? Wait, what we're involved in? What? Yeah? 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.480 So you and I both did a lot of growing 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.720 up during the eighties, and a lot of like the 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.640 nuclear war fear is somebody going to push the red button. Yeah, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.760 the constant Cold War discussion. Yeah. And for a long 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.560 time I felt like a lot of this was just 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.119 ridiculous paranoia and made up things. And then when I 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.600 get to this part about how really there was almost 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.520 a shooting war between the United States and Britain over 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.119 a pig, I kind of go, oh, maybe that was 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.960 not so completely far fetched, right, that somebody might just 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:35.520 accidentally one day be like, you know what I'm gonna do, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:40.360 I'm gonna push the button. Yeah. Unfortunately, all of our 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:47.360 civilization is still filled with humans who are fallible and 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.720 will have lapses in judgments. And fortunately we now have 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.919 video conferencing, which would have resolved a lot of the 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.360 problems we're talking about in this episode. President Buchanan, who 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.359 had helped me to go the Treaty of Oregon in 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.160 the first place when he was Secretary of State, sent 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.000 General Winfield Scott to try to restore calm. And General 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.920 Scott was a battlefield general and a diplomat who had 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.760 experience in border disputes, so he was really the perfect 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.320 man for the job. But on top of this experience, 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.760 General Scott also had firsthand knowledge of Harney's hot headedness. 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.000 He had been involved in half of Harney's courts martial, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.199 so Scott's trip out to this part of the world, 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.640 which was a sea voyage through the Panama Canal, took 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.440 another six additional weeks, but once he got there in October, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.160 he immediately set to work and stayed for about a month. 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:43.639 Governor Douglas of Vancouver finally became an active participant in negotiations, 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.159 now that he had someone actually interested in negotiating to 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.840 talk to. During that time that he was set up, 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.320 Scott ordered all but one company of US soldiers off 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.920 the island and convinced Governor Douglas to withdraw the British 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.120 ships as well, leaving just one another anchor in Griffin Bay. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.359 All of these removals were to stay in place until 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.040 a complete survey of the island was complete. He also 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.280 recommended that Harney be relieved of his command. Harney at 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.680 this point was just being willfully insubordinate and had even 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.280 tried to dismiss the troops that Scott had ordered to 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.800 be left behind with troops of his own, and ultimately 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.000 he was indeed relieved of that command to the betterment 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.520 of everyone, which was like the wisest course of action. 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.240 Before we get into how this all resolved, let's take 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:45.720 another moment. So, the United States and Britain finally negotiated 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.000 a joint military occupation of the island, and that stayed 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.200 in place for twelve years. Essentially a few months after 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.080 Scott's departure, Britain and the United States each sent about 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.560 one hundred troops to establish a presence on opposite ends 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.600 of the Eye Island. So it was like, you can 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:07.320 have the same amount of guys there. It's like when 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.399 parents of multiple children are trying to divide the exact 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.560 right number of French fries, or like tay Betty has 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.840 equals taping a line down the center of the bedroom. 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:24.119 This is your side, this is your brother's side. Yeah. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.880 The American effort was soon derailed by the impending Civil War, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.240 though the soldiers were at that point all going without 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.640 pay and the camp was really falling into disrepair. When 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.120 Virginia succeeded on April seventeenth of eighteen sixty one, Pickett 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.200 gave up his command and he went home to join 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.320 the Confederacy. He would later make a much bigger name 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.200 for himself at the Battle of Gettysburg. In eighteen seventy one, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.800 Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Washington, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.800 and the question of who San Juan Island belonged to 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.240 was turned over to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and he 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.840 sent it on to a three man arb tration panel. 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.359 This arbitration commission went on in Geneva for almost a 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.359 year before finally ruling that the island belonged to the 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.840 United States, and this officially put the boundary between the 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:15.399 United States and Canada through the Harrow Strait. British troops 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.240 withdrew from the island on November twenty fifth of eighteen 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.080 seventy two, and the last of the US troops had 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.719 also left by July of eighteen seventy four. In nineteen 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.320 sixty six, the US government created San Juan Island National 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:33.480 Historical Park to commemorate the event and its nonviolent resolution. 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.280 I have read several pieces that discussed this whole event 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:43.160 as like a great example of how two nations can 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:50.399 resolve something peacefully, which, okay, that part happened, yes, but 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:52.840 they should never have had the end to that point. 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:59.760 I mean, it seems from the outside, yeah, it it definitely. 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:05.399 There was definitely a lot of people, especially you know, 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:12.400 especially one particular person that harn problem. And I don't 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.119 know why I had such trouble with his name. I 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:18.600 kept We've got all this out, I think, but I 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:20.800 managed to type his name three different ways in my 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:25.160 notes for some reason. But yeah, he just kept wanting 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.359 to take matters into his own hands and operate without 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.400 going through the chain of command and basically be kind 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.560 of a jerk. Yeah, and put more and more guys 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.760 on this tiny island full of cheap and put more 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.880 and more people at risk to kind of prove his 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:45.439 points slash support his ego. Yeah. Yeah. When I was 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:47.480 wrapping up the research on this podcast, I kind of 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:49.639 did a second review to try to make sure that 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:53.040 I had not just gotten the American point of view, 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.960 because a lot of like a lot of the major 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.120 actors and this story, as we have told it, are 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:01.600 the American people, right. So I went in and looked 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:05.840 up some Canadian sources to just make sure because most 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:07.800 of the most of my original results happened to have 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:10.920 been from American sources and they were basically the same. 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.840 Because it's a lot of the instigation really was coming 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:18.280 from the American side, which totally makes sense that then 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.280 a lot of the resolution also needed to be started 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.600 by the American side. It was only fair. I'm sure 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.680 that when General Scott went out there was probably a 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.399 certain degree of embarrassment about the whole thing having gotten 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:33.600 to this point in the first place. Yeah, he was 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:35.320 not really happy about having to go all the way 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.439 out there. He was not in great health. Then it 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:40.560 was all kind to go clean up a mess. Yeah, 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:42.679 I'm gonna have to travel for six weeks to go 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:45.520 clean up the stupid mess. I would be quite put out. 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:53.320 I would too. Thanks so much for joining us on 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:56.240 this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:58.600 if you heard an email address or a Facebook RL 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:01.440 or something similar over the court the show that could 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.960 be obsolete now. Our current email address is History Podcast 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:10.080