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The Play of President Pierce for Cuba: Louisiana

Not in this spirit, perhaps, but to this effect--in diplomatic phraseology--possibly Great Britain may reappear in the affairs of Cuba. This English writer gives uncommon force to the Cuban annexation movement in the time of Jefferson, who though censured for French affiliations, did well in the transaction of the Louisiana Purchase, and as Senator Hoar says, he comes down to us with the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the Louisiana Purchase, in the other; and we might as well give him our distinguished consideration without disputation. It was not certain he had the chance to gain Cuba without costly complications. It should be remembered, too, that Jackson's victory at New Orleans confirmed our title to the lands sold by Napoleon; and the English contention, if they had won at New Orleans, would have been that Napoleon had no right to sell the mouth of the Mississippi. They gave that up, however, when they returned shattered from New Orleans, where they suffered an astounding disaster, to recuperate on the way home at Havana, which their country once gained in "the game of the iron dice," and their king passed it along like a snuff box. If they had held that prize instead of fooling it away in alleged diplomacy, very many things would have been changed. If it had been ours in 1815, the British New Orleans fleet and army would not have landed on the continent.

It is most interesting to trace the shifting currents of influence by which Louisiana and Florida became ours without excessive offense to Spain. We never took advantage of her to the provocation of war, while Cuba, whose surpassing fertility made her the prize beyond comparison to be desired, incessantly attracted to us in peace and war, was always repelled through partizan timidity if not by rude blundering. That which on the Island was alluring to one class of our statesmen was repulsive to another. We refer to the existence in our Southern States, and in Cuba, until abolished by the sword, of the institution of slavery.