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The Play of President Pierce for Cuba: Wilson

Vice-President Wilson, in his "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," introducing the episode of the Ostend Manifesto, a momentous paper, says : When the Spanish colonies in America became independent they abolished slavery. Apprehensive that the republics of Mexico and Colombia would be anxious to wrest Cuba and Porto Rico from Spain, secure their independence, and introduce into those islands the idea, if they did not establish the fact, of freedom, the slave--masters (of the United States) at once sought to guard against what they deemed so calamitous an event . . . . But after the annexation of Texas there was a change of feeling and purpose, and Cuba, from being an object of dread, became an object of vehement desire. The propagandists, strengthened and emboldened by that signal triumph, now turned their eyes toward this beautiful "isle of the sea," as the theatre of new exploits; and they determined to secure the "gem of the Antilles" for the coronet of their great and growing power. During Mr. Polk's administration an attempt was made to purchase it, and the sum of $100,000,000 was offered therefore. But the offer was promptly declined. What, however, could not be bought, it was determined to steal, and filibustering movements and expeditions became the order of the day. For no sooner was President Taylor inaugurated than he found movements on foot in that direction; and in August, 1849, he issued a proclamation, affirming his belief that an "armed expedition" was being fitted out "against Cuba, or some of the provinces of Mexico," and calling upon all good citizens "to discountenance and prevent any such enterprise."