Preventing the Flames

Franklin Pierce wins the 1852 election by a landslide as pro-expansionist candidate. In October, Pierce's ministers to Spain (Pierre Soule), France (J.Y. Mason) and England (James Buchanan) draw up the Ostend Manifesto recommending that the United States purchase Cuba. This manifesto warns against permitting "Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St.Domingo [referring to the Black republic created by the slave insurrection led by Toussaint], with all its attendant horrors tothe white race." If Spain refuses to sell, the ministers claim that"we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain... upon the very same principle that would justify an individual in tearing down the burning house of his neighbor if there were no other means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home."