Ostend Manifesto

Ostend Manifesto, document created in Ostend, Belgium, in 1854 by 3 proslavery U.S. diplomats, James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soulé. The manifesto implied that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, the United States would forcibly seize the island. The diplomats, who probably hoped to make Cuba a Union slave state, were denounced by the press and most politicians, and the manifesto was repudiated by the U.S. government.