What is the significance of Ostend Manifesto?

The Ostend Manifesto was a
document intended to remain secret from the U.S. ministers, or ambassadors, to Great
Britain, Spain and France, James Buchanan, Pierre Soule, and J.Y. Mason, respectively,
to President Franklin Pierce laying out the rationale for a U.S. seizure of Cuba from
Spain in the event the latter refuses to sell its territory to the United States.  Named
for the Belgian town where the three diplomats, one a future president himself, met to
discuss the status of Cuba in the context of the ongoing debate about the future of
slavery in the United States, the manifesto was intended to secure that nearby island
nation as a potential bastion for the continued practice of slavery.  In its opening
paragraphs, it states the three authors’ intentions
clearly:

“We
have arrived at the conclusion, and are thoroughly convinced, that an immediate and
earnest effort ought to be made by the government of the United States to purchase Cuba
from Spain at any price for which it can be obtained, not exceeding the sum of $ (this
item was left blank).”

The
document is a carefully thought-out argument for the purchase of Cuba, presented in
geopolitical language emphasizing the island’s proximity to the main waterway servicing
the American South:

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“From its locality it commands the mouth of the
Mississippi and the immense and annually increasing trade which must seek this avenue to
the ocean.”

Additionally, the
manifesto presents the advantages to Spain of participating in such an exchange, before
seguing into a more threatening scenario involving an early-American example of covert
operations intended to foment an insurrection in Cuba against Spanish rule – an
insurrection into which the United States would then be thrust by the
circumstances:

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“It is certain that, should the Cubans
themselves organize an insurrection against the Spanish government, and should other
independent nations come to the aid of Spain in the contest, no human power could, in
our opinion, prevent the people and the government of the United States from taking part
in such a civil war, in support of their neighbors and
friends.”

The importance of
Cuba to the flow of commerce, including slaves, to the American South made the island’s
acquisition or seizure of paramount importance to these pro-slavery figures in American
history.  The significance of the Ostend Manifesto was in
its intricate articulation of the justification for imperialist expansion and of its
declaration of the South’s intention of continuing the practice of trafficking in slaves
for the economic benefit of that region.