376 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



Accordingly, the three American ministers met in confer- 

 ence at Ostend, October 9, 1854, and adjourning to Aix la 

 Chapelle, there signed a report on the 18th of the same 

 month. This series of resolutions is known as the " Ostend 

 Manifesto." 



After a lengthy argument in favor of the acquisition of 

 Cuba, and an enumeration of the many advantages which 

 would accrue to both Spain and the United States by virtue 

 of a transfer of sovereignty in Cuba, the report advises the 

 offer to Spain of #120,000,000 for the island. Should Spain 

 decline the offer, the use of force is proposed to accomplish 

 the same end. The advisability of such radical measures 

 was based on the broad principles of self-preservation, the 

 Monroe Doctrine. "Our past history forbids," it reads r 

 "that we should acquire the island of Cuba without the con- 

 sent of Spain, unless justified by the great law of self-pres- 

 ervation, but," the authors hasten to add with a flourish of 

 virtue, " we must, in any event, preserve our own conscious 

 rectitude, and our own self-respect." It became a ques- 

 tion, they asserted, whether or not the continued possession 

 of Cuba by Spain amounted to a menace "to our internal 

 peace, and the existence of our cherished Union." If such 

 be the case, as they believed it was, then we would be justi- 

 fied by " every law, human and divine," in wresting it from 

 Spain. 



The position taken by Messrs. Buchanan, Soule and Mason 

 was certainly many degrees beyond the farthest limits of the 

 Monroe Doctrine. The latter called for opposition to for- 

 eign aggression in the Western continent, and expressly stated 

 that no action would be taken against those European powers 

 already holding territory in the New World unless they 

 sought to expand their holdings. The true motives of the 

 Ostend Manifesto were, after all, too thinly veiled. The 

 words of Mr. Monroe had been obviously tortured into the 

 furtherance of a scheme to extend the slave-holding area of 

 the United States. The administration promptly condemned 

 the manifesto. 



The policy of forcible acquisition, in case amicable nego- 



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