The Ostend Manifesto

The Ostend Manifesto was a secret document that was written on October 18, 1854 by three proslavery Democratic United States diplomats (from the South), Pierre Soulé, James Mason, and James Buchanon, shortly after a secret meeting that took place in Ostend, Belgium. The meeting, which took place from October 9-11 in the same year of 1854, was organized by the president of the United States at the time, Franklin Pierce. Originally, the diplomats were instructed to attempt to purchase the slave state of Cuba for $130 million from Spain, as was instructed by William L. Marcy, the Secretary of State under President Pierce. However, Soulé, angered by the actions of the Spanish (such as their taking of a U.S. Black Warrior ship), decided to be more upfront to the Spanish. As a result, Soulé secretly wrote the Ostend Manifesto, which threatened Spain, stating that if they decided to not accept the United State's offer to purchase Cuba, the United States would go to war with Spain. When this document was finally discovered, it was immediately repudiated by Marcy as an attempt to expand slavery in the South and give the South more power in the Senate and House of Representatives.