James Buchanan dispatch letter to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, 1854
Permanent ID:
4502Dates:
October 23 1854October 18 1854
Image Description:
A dispatch from James Buchanan, Pierre Soule, and John Y. Mason to Secretary of State William L. Marcy concerning the Ostend Manifesto.During the administration of President Franklin Pierce, a pro-Southern Democrat, Southern expansionists called for acquiring Cuba as a slave state, but the breakout of violence following the Kansas–Nebraska Act left the administration unsure of how to proceed. At the suggestion of Secretary of State William L. Marcy, American ministers in Europe — Pierre Soulé for Spain, James Buchanan for Great Britain, and John Y. Mason for France — met to discuss strategy related to an acquisition of Cuba. They met secretly at Ostend, Belgium, and drafted a dispatch at Aix-la-Chapelle. The document was sent to Washington in October 1854, outlining why a purchase of Cuba would be beneficial to each of the nations and declaring that the U.S. would be "justified in wresting" the island from Spanish hands if Spain refused to sell. To Marcy's chagrin, Soulé made no secret of the meetings, causing unwanted publicity in both Europe and the U.S. The administration was finally forced to publish the contents of the dispatch, which caused it irreparable damage."wikipedia
Address:
LondonAix-La-Chapelle [Aachen]