The Almost Pig War of 1859… No, Seriously
There are a lot of different reasons countries go to war, a monarch dies without a successor, there’s a high-ranking official assassinated, or someone says Coke is better than Pepsi.
That last one didn’t happen… yet.
But after hearing today’s story, that's not going to sound like a far-fetched scenario because we’re going back to 1859 when a hungry pig almost caused a war between the United States and Great Britain.
Don’t trust them, they’re plotting to end the world!
The Oregon Treaty Problem
Since the “discovery” of the Americas, several nations laid claim to various different parts of it. Spain, France, Britain, and Russia all had land and, at times, fought to gain more of it or sold it off to each other.
At some point, several different colonies banded together and took part of North America away from Great Britain in order to create the United States, we’ve all seen Hamilton.
The colonies, now the United States began expanding west during the 1800s, and with expansion came deciding borders especially since Britain had territory in what is today, Canada. This leads us to 1846 when the U.S. and Britain have been negotiating on where the divide was in the Strait of Georgia.
The two countries had previously agreed on the Oregon Treaty which stated the divide would be along the 49th parallel. That is latitude 49 degrees north of the equator and it seemed like a good compromise. The problem was three small islands huddled up on the strait, Orcas was the island to the north, San Juan to the west, and Lopez to the south.
All three were off the coast of Washington and Vancouver Island and had pieces of each right on the parallel. You couldn't just draw a line straight through the three islands and have parts of the small islands belong to different countries, so they needed a solution.
Laying Claim
The U.S. claimed the border should be to the left of San Juan, making all the islands part of the U.S., while Britain claimed the divide should be to the right of Orcas and Lopez island, giving them all the islands. The islands weren’t even big and definitely not worth the trouble which is apparently why both sides decided to reconvene at a later date but both felt they had the right to it.
“We didn’t come to a solution… but it’s ours.”
In 1853 Britain leased San Juan island to the British Hudson’s Bay Company which transported several animals including pigs to start up a ranch.
The U.S. meanwhile had included San Juan island as part of the land it was giving away to its citizens in the “Donation Land Claim Act of 1850” in order to encourage people to expand throughout its territories. One of the men given land in San Juan island was Lyman Cutlar and as part of the deal for the land, he had to start a farm.
Who Let The Pigs Out?
For a few years, it was going pretty well for both U.S. citizens and the British Hudson’s Bay Company employees. That is, until June 15th, 1859 when Charles Griffin, an employee of the Bay Company let his pigs loose on his land.
According to reports, this was something he did on occasion, the pigs would wander off, have the time of their lives and come back whenever. They were of course on an island, so unless they learned how to swim, they weren’t going too far.
Oh… holy shit
But one pig did go a little too far into Lyman Cutlar’s property and apparently it wasn’t the first time. Lyman caught the pig eating his potatoes on his little farm for the last time and decided to shoot the pig dead because that’s an appropriate response apparently.
When Charles found out Lyman had shot and killed his pig he demanded to be compensated. Lyman offered $10 as compensation but Charles demanded $100. Maybe bacon wasn’t cheap back then, I don’t know. But Lyman refused and then changed his mind about even offering compensation claiming the pig was trespassing and now, Charles was too.
Ride of the Pigs
Charles went directly to British authorities and requested Lyman be arrested, since the British authorities believed the land belonged to Britain, they threatened to arrest Lyman. Lyman and other American citizens on the island, believing the land belonged to the U.S., requested military protection.
On July 27th, 1859 General William S. Harney commander of the Department of Oregon sent 66 men of the U.S. 9th infantry to the island of San Juan. Not to be outdone, James Douglas, Governor of British Columbia sent three warships with 2,100 men to San Juan.
Seeing the completely rational response of three warships, the Americans requested reinforcements and by the end of August, there were now almost 500 U.S. soldiers and 14 cannons. Luckily both sides were instructed to not fire first but if it came to it, they should defend themselves.
It’s at this point that I would like to remind all of you, that this started with a pig eating a potato and had now blown into a full-on international incident.
Cooler Heads
When word reached President James Buchanan, he sent General Winfield Scott to de-escalate the situation partly because no one wanted a war and partly because it was just dumb. General William S. Harney was reassigned, no longer in command, and blamed for letting the situation get out of control.
Buchanan’s “Are you kidding me” face?
General Scott and Governor Douglas agreed to withdraw most of their troops leaving only a few and San Juan was considered a joint military occupation until the two countries could decide on who owned the land.
Unfortunately, the U.S. was preoccupied with a little-known war, some call the Civil War during the 1860s so it wasn’t until 1871 that the Treaty of Washington was signed. This created an arbitration commission led by Kaiser Wilhelm the First of Germany to decide which of the two gets the island.
In the end, Wilhelm decided in favor of the United States and granted them the island. How did he decide? I don’t know, probably “eenie meenie miney mo” because that would be the appropriate response at this point. Also, it took the arbiters a full year to decide.
And that’s the story of how one pig and a bunch of irrational responses almost led to a full-scale war between the United States and Great Britain.
