The Ostend Manifesto was part of an attempt to add Cuba to the US. Southerners wanted an aggressive policy with Spanish-ruled Cuba, by having the island become a possible new slave state. In October 1854, three Americans "one of which was the American minister to Spain, Pierre Soule' of Louisiana" composed a document on Cuba and called it the Ostend Manifesto, claiming the island belonged "naturally to the great family of the states...". Also stating that Spain's control of Cuba was unnatural. The United States offered to buy Cuba from Spain but if Spain refused to sell, the document warned, "by every law, human and Divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain". (in other words... give us Cuba or else) The opinion of making a war with Spain over this was a secret memorandum to US President Pierce from his envoys in Europe. The incident split the Democratic Party & embarrassed President Pierce, so he repudiated it, and thus it ended.
The Ostend Manifesto caused a great uproar and embarrassed President Franklin Pierce's administration, after it became public. Other nations denounced it and it had similar reactions in the US. Many in the North was angered that the South was willing to provoke war with Spain to extend more slave holding states. Cuba had legal slavery and US envoys had offered as much as $100 million for the purchase.
The Pierce administration's schemes to acquire Cuba
The Ostend Manifesto of 1854 is your answer. Buchanan helped to write it while he was serving as US Minister to Great Britain under President Pierce.
If slavery was not permitted in the Mexican cession, pro-slavery southerners ambitiously sought to expand their slave holding territories into Latin America. They created the Ostend Manifesto that called for the purchase and annexation of Cuba. If Spain refused to sell, they favored going to war with Spain.
How to write a manifesto to be the library
Cuba had been the object of US ambitions since the Jefferson administration. In 1854 US diplomats in Europe had written the so-called Ostend Manifesto. This was a proposal to purchase Cuba from Spain for $130 million. Also, if Spain seemed uninterested, Cuba would be seized by force. This plan seemed to fade away, however, Stephen A. Douglas had the annexation of Cuba in his 1860 platform.
Franklin Pierce was the President when the Ostend Manifesto surfaced.
1854
Spain
Americans condemed Bunchans Ostend Manifesto because it was against the system of slavery and was felt to be destroying Republican values. info from wikipedia
The Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto, written by the Americans, was controversial because it unnecessarily tried to provoke a war with Spain. The U.S. wanted Spain to cede Cuba and be admitted to the union as a slave state.
yes
The Pierce administration's schemes to acquire Cuba
The Ostend Manifesto failed because it proposed that the U.S. purchase Cuba from Spain, which was seen as aggressive and expansionist by many, including antislavery groups who feared it would lead to the spread of slavery. The public outcry and international opposition to the Manifesto led the U.S. government to abandon the idea.
When the people of the United States heard about the Ostend Manifesto they were angered. This hurt President Pierce's chances at presidency. This also helped splinter the Democratic Party.
The North opposed the Ostend Manifesto, viewing it as an attempt to expand slavery into new territories and potentially lead to war with Spain. They saw it as a Southern effort to gain more slave-holding states and increase their influence in Congress. The Manifesto was widely criticized and ultimately abandoned due to strong backlash and opposition.
Ostend Manifesto