In my last post, (click here to read) I laid out the values of Manifest Destiny. Hopefully, I made the case that it was among the most influential doctrines put forward in US history. Today, I’d like to show how the values of Manifest Destiny interacted with some other events in American history.
I’ve already discussed how Manifest Destiny influenced treatment of Native Americans and the Mexican-American War in my last post. Most readers, I think, at least know that those things took place, even if you learned about them long ago and forgot the details. So, now I’d like to discuss the Ostend Manifesto and how it reflected the values of Manifest Destiny.
Efforts at Expansion in 1853-54
More territorial acquisition from Mexico was on the docket in 1853. This was the year of the Gadsden Purchase, another land purchase from Mexico for the purpose of a southern railroad route. But this, major as it was, was a pale shadow of some events and near-events of 1854.
1854 was, recall, the year that Matthew Perry steamed into Japanese waters and demanded at gunpoint that Japan allow American trade. He also recommended to President Franklin Pierce that Pierce annex the Ryukyu Islands. Likewise, the US Special Agent to the Dominican Republic, William Cazneau (husband of Jane Cazneau mentioned in my previous post) encouraged Pierce to annex the Dominican Republic as a US possession. Not yet content, Pierce also drew up an annexation treaty with the Hawai’ian islands. Only the hostility of the Hawai’ian people thwarted this effort.
All this paled, however, to the Ostend Manifesto of 1854. It was the work of Pierre Soulé, US minister to Spain, John Mason, US minister to France, and future president James Buchanan, US minister to Great Britain. It said, in brief, that the US should take Cuba from Spain if Spain refused to sell it. Yes. Sell Cuba, or else war. For once, expansionists had gone too far. President Franklin Pierce repudiated the manifesto, but not without criticism.
Pierce’s failure to back the Ostend Manifesto did not daunt Buchanan, however. When he became the Democratic Party nominee for president in 1856, he stated, “Expansion is in future the policy of our country, and only cowards fear and oppose it.” Lewis Cass, the senator from Michigan, had Buchanan’s back. He said that the US “requires more land, more territory upon which to settle, and just as fast as our interests and our destiny require additional territory in the North, or in the South, or on the Islands of the Ocean, I am for it.” Buchanan made Cass his Secretary of State. Cass, apparently not bluffing, immediately offered Mexico $15 million for Baja California plus parts of Sonora and Chihuahua.
Please Click Here to Subscribe to My History Blog!
Manifest Destiny and Filibustering
All the things mentioned so far represent only the official actions of the US in the 1850s. Unofficially, they only scratch the surface. Most of my readers have probably never heard of filibustering, but it was a centerpiece of American policy in the 1850s. (Note that this does not refer to the political practice of stalling legislation through lengthy speeches. A filibuster was a private, armed expedition seeking to ignite revolution.)
Before the ink dried on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Texans crossed the Rio Grande, seeking to detach Tamaulipas and Coahuila from Mexico. When the Mexican province of Yucatán declared independence from Mexico in 1847, some Americans journeyed there to fight.
Filibustering in Cuba was nearly nonstop. Most prominent here was Narciso López, who led numerous armed expeditions to Cuba in the 1840s and 1850s funded by Americans such as John O’Sullivan (see previous post). Most of his soldiers were American as well. Finally, the Cubans captured him and fifty-one other Americans in 1851 and put them to death.
No one denied the role of Manifest Destiny in all these foreign invasions. Regarding Cuba, consider the words of Edward Everett, a Whig. (Everett, incidentally, was the man who spoke for two hours at Gettysburg right before Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address.) Although no great fan of slavery, Everett stated that Cuba “might be almost essential to our safety.” In other words, destiny.
The Gray-Eyed Man of (Manifest) Destiny
These actions were only a warm-up for the career of William Walker, the Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny. He was editing a newspaper in San Francisco in 1853 when he heard destiny calling him to invade Mexico on his own authority. His goal was to detach Sonora and Baja California for the US.
Failing at this, Walker set his sights on larger game. In 1855 he invaded Nicaragua and became Commander in Chief of the Nicaraguan Army. Franklin Pierce officially recognized his military coup and the US established diplomacy. By 1856, Walker declared himself president. But this caused Pierce to withdraw recognition. Walker’s response? He declared slavery once again legal in Nicaragua (which had banned it thirty years prior) hoping that Southern politicians would pressure Pierce to change his mind. In a rare show of good judgment, he didn’t.
Finally, a combined force of Central Americans and British soldiers evicted Walker from Nicaragua’s presidency in 1857. He returned to the US to gather money and men for another try. By November of 1857 he headed south again, but Nicaragua arrested him and sent him back to the US.
But Walker wasn’t done. He next set his sights on creating revolution in Honduras. The Hondurans, however, showing less leniency than Nicaragua, executed Walker by firing squad in 1860, bringing his infamous career to an end.
Has Manifest Destiny Ever Truly Ended?
It died down during the Civil War, of course. But I’ve already written in previous posts about American efforts to claim the Prairie Provinces of Canada in the 1860s and 1870s. Multiple times, Irish Fenians in the US crossed the border, hoping to conquer parts of Canada and then trade those conquests for Irish independence. The US also bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. Then, there was the expansionistic efforts of the 1890s after the Spanish-American War, most notably in the Philippines.
I’m also firmly of the belief that the values of Manifest Destiny and the values of American Exceptionalism are the same thing. Updated by a few decades, perhaps, but nearly the same. The values of Manifest Destiny should come to mind whenever one hears a political leader espouse their belief that the US has a special destiny to play in the world.
Please Subscribe!
If you enjoyed this blog, please sign up to follow it by scrolling down or clicking here, and recommending it to your friends. I’d love to have you aboard! You can also follow me on Facebook by clicking here.
As always, I welcome constructive and polite discussion in the comments section. Thank you!