The New International Encyclopædia/Ostend Manifesto
OSTEND MANIFESTO. A dispatch drawn
up at Ostend, October 9, 1854, and signed by
James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre
Soulé, at that time the United States Ministers
to Great Britain, France, and Spain respectively,
declaring that the sale of Cuba would be as
advantageous and honorable to Spain as its
purchase would be to the United States, but if Spain
refused to sell, self-preservation required that it
be wrested from her by force. Encouraged by the
acquisition of Texas, the pro-slavery leaders had
been affording ready assistance to filibustering
expeditions directed against the islands of the
Spanish West Indies, and especially Cuba. These
expeditions and the probable future action of the
Federal Government in regard to the island created
anxiety in Europe, and in 1852 Great Britain and
France addressed a joint note to the United
States proposing a tripartite convention by which
the three Powers should disclaim all intention to
obtain possession of Cuba and should discountenance
such attempts by any Power. Everett, then
Secretary of State, replied, refusing to accede to
such an arrangement, while declaring that this
country would never question Spain's title to the
island. President Pierce in August, 1854,
directed the American ministers resident at London,
Paris, and Madrid to meet at some convenient
point for discussion of the Cuban question.

They met at Ostend, October 9th, and subsequently
at Aix-la-Chapelle, though it was at the
former place that the memorandum known as the
Ostend Manifesto was prepared.

The declaration was not approved in the
United States in the platforms of either party,
and it was strongly condemned in Europe.
Consult: Cluskey, Political Text-book (Philadelphia,
1860); also Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave
Power (Boston, 1872-77).