PIERCE 



1668 



PIERCE 



1853 PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION 1857 



Ostend 

 Manifesto, 185311 



Charles^ Sumner. 

 I Leader in Congress 



EXICO 



Gadsden Purchase. 

 1853 



Filibustering 



Expeditions 

 1853-1860 



Pacific Railroad 

 Survey Ordered 



Perry's 

 Treaty with 

 Japan, 



NEBRASKA 



KANSAS 



Squatter Sovereignty Adv 



port, but Captain Ingraham of the U. S. S. 

 Saint Louis forced the Austrians to release 

 Koszta, and the United States government 

 gave Ingraham its approval. A most impor- 

 tant matter was Perry's expedition to Japan, 

 which resulted in opening Japanese ports to 

 American commerce and introducing western 

 civilization into that country (see PERRY, MAT- 

 THEW CALBRAITH). Nearer home was Hawaii, 

 \\hic-h Marcy attempted to annex in 1854; the 

 plan failed only because the Hawaiian king 

 <lil before arrangements were completed. The 

 boundary question with Mexico was settled by 

 the Gadsden Purchase (which see) of 1853. In 

 similar fashion the long-standing dispute with 

 Canada over the Atlantic fisheries was settled 

 by treaty in 1854. Marcy, negotiating with the 

 Earl of Elgin (which see), obtained equal fish- 

 ing rights for American fishermen in exchange 

 for certain concessions which were included in :i 

 commercial reciprocity treaty. 



The Ostend Manifesto. The most serious 

 problems in foreign relations concerned expan- 

 sion southward, first to Cuba, and secondly to 

 the Isthmus of Panama. The leaders of the 

 South were eager to annex Cuba, and without 

 question expected vigorous action from Pierce. 



Marcy, however, was cautious, although not op- 

 posed to annexation, and in 1854, after Pierre 

 Soule, the American minister at Madrid, had 

 nearly embroiled the United States in a war 

 with Spain, instructed him to meet Buchanan, 

 minister to England, and John Y. Mason, min- 

 ister to France, to confer on a policy to be fol- 

 lowed by the United States towards Cuba. The 

 result of his conference was the famous Ostend 

 Manifesto (which see). 



Central American Problems. With Great 

 Britain the United States argued certain ques- 

 tions involving a shadowy British protectorate 

 over a large section of Central America. This 

 Mosquito protectorate, Marcy instructed Bu- 

 chanan, must be renounced, but the matter was 

 finally allowed to dwindle to a diplomatic spar- 

 ring. Marcy was more vigorous, however, in 

 treating another problem at home in 1856, when 

 the British minister at Washington seemed t<> 

 lend his suppoVt to an attempt to secure n - 

 emits for the British army to serve in tin- 

 Crimean War. Marcy thereupon refused to 

 hold any further diplomatic intercourse with 

 Crampton, the British minister a step which 

 might easily have led to war. Also, in 1856, the 

 United States forced Denmark to abandon the 



