Richard Olney served as U.S attorney general from 1893 to 1895 under President Grover Cleveland. Olney left the post to serve as Cleveland's secretary of state, but he is best remembered for breaking a 1894 nationwide railroad worker strike by prosecuting union leaders for violating a federal court injunction.

Olney was born on September 15, 1835 in Oxford, Massachusetts. He graduated from Brown University in 1856 and earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1858. Admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1859, Olney joined a prestigious Boston law firm and established a lucrative practice working with railroad companies. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1874 but served only one term. He appeared to be firmly established in the private sector until President Cleveland appointed him attorney general in 1893.

Cleveland's second presidential administration was mired in controversy and Olney was at the center of one of the greatest: the 1894 Pullman strike...