The Ostend Manifesto was a document written in 1854. It called for the U.S. to purchase Cuba from Spain. The document was a rallying cry for anti-slavery Northerners. It resulted from debates over slavery in the United States, manifest destiny, and the Monroe Doctrine.
About Ostend Manifesto in brief
The Ostend Manifesto was a document written in 1854. It called for the U.S. to purchase Cuba from Spain. The document was a rallying cry for anti-slavery Northerners. It was immediately denounced in both the Northern states and Europe. It resulted from debates over slavery in the United States, manifest destiny, and the Monroe Doctrine, as slaveholders sought new territory for the expansion of slavery. The question of Cuba’s annexation was effectively set aside until the late 19th century, when support grew for Cuban independence. The U. S. simply wanted to ensure that control did not pass to a stronger power such as Britain or France. The existence of slavery in Cuba, the island’s plantation economy based on sugar, and its geographical location predisposed it to Southern influence; its admission would greatly strengthen the position of Southern slaveholders, whose way of life was under fire from Northern abolitionists. If Cuba were admitted to the Union as a single state, it would have sent two senators and up to nine representatives to Washington. In light of a Cuban uprising, President James K. Polk refused an offer of 100 million USD from James Buchanan, Secretary of State of the State. In 1848, Radical expansionists and the Young America movement were quickly gaining traction about whether to annex the Yucatán portion of Mexico. Even John C. Calhoun, who disagreed with the intervention on the basis of the Monroe doctrine, described Cuba as a ‘natural appendage’ to the North American continent. The annexation of Cuba and Puerto Rico was described as ‘indispensable to the continuance and integrity of the Union itself’ and ‘a matter of national security’ by President John Quincy Adams in 1852.
The United States refused to annex Puerto Rico in 1853, and in 1855, President Thomas Jefferson refused to offer to purchase the island from Britain in exchange for the right to keep Puerto Rico as a separate state. The acquisition of Cuba was discussed in several presidential administrations, including those of Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Buchanan. The Cuban independence movement began in the late 1800s and led to the annexation of the island in the early 1900s, but the issue was not discussed until after President James Polk’s death in 1856. The island was of special importance to Southern Democrats, who believed their economic and political interests would be best served by the admission of another slave state to the union. President Franklin Pierce, a pro-Southern Democrat, called for acquiring Cuba as the next slave state, but was unsure of how to proceed. The administration was forced to publish the contents of the dispatch, which caused it irreparable damage. The dispatch was published as demanded by the House of Representatives. It was a significant setback for the Pierce administration and the anti-Slavery Northern states, and it became a rallying call for anti. Northern politicians sought to maintain the fragile balance of power in the Senate, where each state received equal representation.
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This page is based on the article Ostend Manifesto published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
