The Ostend Manifesto was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase what island from Spain?
Ostend Manifesto Ostend Manifesto The Ostend Manifesto, also known as the Ostend Circular, was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionists, and was supported by a faction in Cuba itself. At the national level, American leaders had been satisfied to have the island remain in weak Spanish hands so long as it did not pass to a stronger power such as Britain or France. The Ostend Manifesto proposed a
Ostend Manifesto the Young America movement, who sought a realization of American influence in the Caribbean and Central America. He is credited as the primary architect of the policy expressed in the Ostend Manifesto. The experienced and cautious Buchanan is believed to have written the document and moderated Soulé's aggressive tone. Soulé highly favored expansion of Southern influence outside the current Union of States. His belief in Manifest Destiny led him to prophesy "absorption of the entire continent and its island appendages" by the U.S. Mason's Virginian roots predisposed him to the sentiments expressed in the document, but he later regretted his