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Clashing over Cuba: The United States, Spain and Britain, 1853–55

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

PIERO GLEIJESES
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Abstract

Before 1898, the most sustained attempt by the United States to acquire Cuba occurred during the presidency of Franklin Pierce when the debate about slavery was roiling US domestic politics. Spain responded to the threat with a dramatic change of policy: in order to gain the favour and protection of Britain, it ordered that the slave trade to Cuba be ended. This article analyses Pierce's strategy and examines the complex jockeying it precipitated among Washington, London and Madrid. Mining US, British and Spanish archives, it is the first international history of the crisis that Washington's avarice provoked.

Spanish abstract

Antes de 1898, el intento más sostenido estadounidense para adquirir Cuba se dio durante la presidencia de Franklin Pierce, cuando el debate sobre la esclavitud estaba empañando la política doméstica. España respondió a la amenaza con un cambio dramático en su política: con el fin de ganar la buena voluntad y protección de Inglaterra, ordenó la finalización del comercio de esclavos hacia Cuba. Este artículo analiza la estrategia de Pierce y examina el complejo posicionamiento que se generó entre Washington, Londres y Madrid. Rastreando en archivos norteamericanos, británicos y españoles, ésta es la primera historia internacional de la crisis que provocó la avaricia de Washington.

Portuguese abstract

Antes de 1898, a tentativa estadunidense mais sustentada de adquirir Cuba ocorreu durante o mandato de Franklin Pierce, quando o debate acerca da escravidão sacudia a política interna dos Estados Unidos. A Espanha reagiu contra a ameaça com uma mudança profunda de sua política: visando ganhar a proteção e favores britânicos, o país ordenou que o comércio de escravos para Cuba fosse encerrado. Este artigo analisa a estratégia de Pierce e examina a complexa competição que a questão causou entre Washington, Londres e Madrid. Garimpando arquivos estadunidenses, britânicos e espanhóis, o artigo é a primeira história internacional da crise provocada pela cobiça de Washington.

Keywords

Franklin PierceBritainPezuelaCubaslave tradefilibusteringFranklin PierceInglaterraPezuelaCubaComercio de esclavosfilibusterismoFranklin PierceGrã-BretanhaPezuelaCubatráfico de escravosobstrução
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , May 2017 , pp. 215 - 241
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

1 Jefferson to Madison, 27 April 1809, in H. A. Washington (ed.), The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 5 (Washington, DC: Taylor and Maury, 1853), p. 444. On US relations with Cuba before 1853: Louis Pérez, Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1990), pp. 1–47; Herminio Portell Vilá, Historia de Cuba y sus relaciones con los Estados Unidos y España, vol. 1 (La Habana: Jesús Montero, 1938); Basil Rauch, American Interest in Cuba: 1848–1855 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), pp. 11–261.

2 New York Herald, 3 July 1850, p. 2 and 9 April, p. 2.

3 Journal of Commerce (New York), 23 Aug. 1851, p. 2.

4 Delta (New Orleans), 6 Nov. 1850, p. 2. For the population figures, Rolando Rodríguez, Cuba: la forja de una nación, vol. 1 (La Habana: Ciencias Sociales, 2005), pp. 108, 126–7.

5 Crescent (New Orleans), 27 July 1851, p. 2.

6 Gleijeses, Piero, ‘A Brush with Mexico’, Diplomatic History, 29: 2 (2005), pp. 223–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Rodríguez, Cuba, 1, pp. 4–88; Ada Ferrer, Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

8 Robert Paquette, Sugar Is Made with Blood: The Conspiracy of La Escalera and the Conflict between Empires over Slavery in Cuba (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988); Rodríguez, Cuba, 1, pp. 89–170; Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Empire and Antislavery: Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, 1833–1874 (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999), pp. 14–36; Luis Martínez-Fernández, Torn between Empires: Economy, Society, and Patterns of Political Thought in the Hispanic Caribbean, 1840–1878 (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994); Josef Opatrny, Antecedentes históricos de la formación de la de la nación cubana (Prague: Ibero-Americana Pragensia,1986).

9 ‘Extracto de la Nota de la Dirección de Ultramar sobre la política en la Isla de Cuba’, 1855, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter AHN), Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 55, no. 9.

10 Mariano Torrente, quoted by Martínez-Fernández, Torn, p. 27.

11 Rodríguez, Cuba, 1, p. 147.

12 Ibid ., pp. 89–162; Schmidt-Nowara, Empire, pp. 14–36; Martínez-Fernández, Torn; Opatrny, Antecedentes.

13 Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros to José Antonio Saco, 19 Oct. 1848, in Federico de Córdova (ed.), Cartas del Lugareño (La Habana: Ministerio de Educación, 1951), p. 308.

14 Clay to Crittenden, 5 Dec. 1843, in Robert Seager (ed.), The Papers of Henry Clay, vol. 9 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988), p. 898.

15 Tom Chaffin, Fatal Glory: Narciso López and the First Clandestine U. S. War against Cuba (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1996); Robert May, John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press,1985); Robert May, Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Jerónimo Becker, Historia de las relaciones exteriores de España durante el siglo XIX, vol. 2 (Madrid: Jaime Ratés, 1924), pp. 159–79, 217–27.

16 For overall figures, Chaffin, Glory, pp. 127, 200. For the Cubans, Ramiro Guerra, Manual de historia de Cuba (La Habana: Ciencias Sociales, 1980), p. 477; Vidal Morales y Morales, Iniciadores y primeros martires de la revolución cubana, vol. 2 (La Habana: Moderna Poesia, 1931), p. 132; Journal of Commerce (New York), 11 Sept. 1851, p. 2.

17 De Bow's Review (New Orleans), Aug. 1850, p. 169.

18 Times (London), 27 Sept. 1851, p. 5.

19 Louisville Journal, 28 Aug. 1851, p. 3.

20 Journal of Commerce, 11 Sept. 1851, p. 2.

21 ‘Inaugural Address’, in James Richardson (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897, vol. 5 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1897), pp. 198–9.

22 Peter Wallner, Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union (Concord, NH: Plaidswede, 2007), p. 133. The best studies of the Pierce administration are Wallner's sympathetic volume and Roy Nichols's Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills (rev. ed., Newton, CT: American Political Biography Press, 1998).

23 Soulé, 25 Jan. 1853, Congressional Globe, 32d Cong., 2d sess., Appendix, pp. 119–23, 123 quoted.

24 Howden to Clarendon, [3 May 1853,] enclosed in Clarendon to Crampton, 24 May 1853, The National Archives of the UK (hereafter TNA), FO 115/129.

25 Howden to Clarendon, 12 May 1853, ibid.

26 Marcy to Soulé, 23 July 1853, in William Manning (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States: Inter-American Affairs 1831–1860, vol. 11 (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, 1946), p. 163.

27 Wallner, Pierce, pp. 134–5; Rauch, Interest, p. 262.

28 May, Quitman, pp. 270–95; Urban, Stanley, ‘The Abortive Quitman Filibustering Expedition, 1853–1855’, Journal of Mississippi History, vol. 28 (1956): 175–96Google Scholar.

29 Nichols, Pierce, p. 267. Nichols and Wallner are Pierce's two leading biographers.

30 Rauch, Interest, p. 271 quoted; May, Quitman, p. 274.

31 Crampton to Clarendon, 20 Nov. 1853, Bodleian Library, Oxford (hereafter Bodl), Clarendon Papers, c. 11.

32 Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440–1870 (New York: Touchstone, 1999), p. 744.

33 Howden to Alcoy, 16 Feb. 1853, AHN, Estado, leg. 8046, exp. 3, no. 25.

34 Otway to Beltrán de Lis, 7 Nov. 1852, AHN, Estado, leg. 8046, exp. 3, no. 6. On the clash between London and Madrid over the slave trade: Arthur Corwin, Spain and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba, 1817–1886 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1967); David Murray, Odious Commerce: Britain, Spain, and the Abolition of the Cuban Slave Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

35 Times, 19 Jan. 1853, p. 4.

36 Russell to Howden, 31 Jan. 1853, TNA, FO 84/903.

37 Istúriz to Primer Secretario de Estado, 22 March 1853, AHN, Estado, leg. 8046, exp. 3, no. 27.

38 Primera Secretaría de Estado to Presidente del Consejo de Ministros, 9 April 1853, AHN, Estado, leg. 8048, exp. 2, no. 2.

39 Ministro de Estado to Presidente del Consejo de Ministros, 11 Feb. 1853, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 3548, exp. 4, no. 13.

40 Primera Secretaría de Estado to Presidente del Consejo de Ministros, 9 April 1853, AHN, Estado, leg. 8048, exp. 2, no. 2.

41 Miguel Estorch, Apuntes para la historia sobre la administración del marqués de la Pezuela en la isla de Cuba (Madrid: Manuel Galiano, 1856), p. 6.

42 Antonio Urbina, Cheste o todo un siglo (1809–1906): el Isabelino tradicionalista (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1935), pp. 175, 162.

43 Union (Washington, DC), 23 Aug. 1853, p. 2.

44 Barrington to Everett, 14 Dec. 1852, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 678.

45 Marcy to Buchanan, 2 July 1853, ibid., 7: 84–95.

46 Quoted in Howden to Calderón de la Barca, 17 May 1854, AHN, Estado, leg. 8047, exp. 9, no. 64.

47 New York Tribune, 3 Aug. 1854, p. 6.

48 Rodríguez, Cuba, 1, p. 153.

49 Clarendon to Howden, 1 and 28 April 1854, TNA, FO 84/933.

50 Clarendon to Otway, 28 June and 5 July 1854, ibid.

51 Decree of 24 May 1854 in Gaceta de la Habana, 25 May 1854, p. 1. For Pezuela's measures against the slave trade, José Cayuela Fernández, Bahía de ultramar: España y Cuba en el siglo XIX (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1993), pp. 227–30; Corwin, Spain, pp. 114–21.

52 Rodríguez, Cuba, 1, p. 154.

53 Union, 28 June, 1854, p. 2.

54 New York Tribune, 4 Aug. 1854, p. 5.

55 Courier (Charleston), 20 June 1854, p. 1.

56 Richmond Enquirer, 16 May 1854, p. 2.

57 Cueto to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, 13 June 1854, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 12, no. 43; Pezuela to Cueto, 10 July 1854, ibid., exp. 26, no. 3.

58 David Potter, The Impending Crisis 1848–1861 (New York: Harper, 1976), p. 165.

59 Richmond Whig, 20 March 1854, p. 2.

60 Potter, Crisis, p. 166.

61 Clarendon to Crampton, 7 April 1854, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (hereafter LOC), Manuscript Division, American Material in the Clarendon Papers 1853–1870, reel 9. On the Black Warrior incident: Amos Ettinger, The Mission of Pierre Soulé to Spain 1853–1855: A Study in the Cuban Diplomacy of the United States (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1932), pp. 250–90; Becker, Historia, 2, pp. 304–10, 327–36.

62 Claude Fuess, The Life of Caleb Cushing, vol. 2 (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1923), p. 163.

63 Crampton to Clarendon, 20 March 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 24.

64 Clayton, 22 May 1854, Congressional Globe, 33rd Cong., 1st sess., p. 1259.

65 Louisville Journal, 29 May 1854, p. 2; Richmond Whig, 29 May 1854, p. 2; Commercial Bulletin (New Orleans), 1 June 1854, p. 2.

66 Potter, Crisis, p. 181.

67 Nichols, Pierce, pp. 340–2, 352–4; Wallner, Pierce, pp. 136–7, 143–4; Congressional Globe, 33rd Cong., 1st sess., pp. 1021–5, 1257–61.

68 Richmond Enquirer, 16 May 1854, p. 2.

69 Delta, 23 May 1854, p. 1.

70 Wallner, Pierce, p. 148; Nichols, Pierce, p. 279.

71 Union, 24 March 1854, p. 3.

72 Union, 16 May 1854, p. 2.

73 Clarendon to Crampton, 22 Sept. 1854, LOC, Clarendon Papers, reel 9.

74 Robert May, Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the Tropics: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Future of Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 115.

75 Marcy to Davis, 15 March 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11, pp. 170–3; Davis to Marcy, 22 May 1854, ibid., p. 789 quoted.

76 Clayton to Marcy, no. 3, 5 Dec. 1853, National Archives, College Park, MD (hereafter NA), Department of State (hereafter DOS), Despatches from U. S. Consuls in Havana, M899, roll 26; Robertson to Marcy, no. 21, 27 Jan. 1854, ibid., roll 27; Robertson to Marcy, 20 March 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 748–9.

77 Soulé to Marcy, 23 Feb. 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 737–9, 738 quoted; Soulé to Marcy, no. 12, 8 March 1854, NA, DOS, Despatches from U. S. Ministers to Spain, 1792–1906, M31, roll 38.

78 Marcy to Soulé, 3 April 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 175–8, 177 quoted.

79 Philip Klein, President James Buchanan: A Biography (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1962), p. 238 quoted, emphasis in original; Nichols, Pierce, pp. 370–1.

80 For Soulé in Spain: Ettinger, Mission; Becker, Historia, 2, pp. 299–309.

81 Howden to Clarendon, 21 April 1854, TNA, FO 115/138.

82 Marcy to Mason, 25 May 1854, LOC, Manuscript Division, William L. Marcy Papers, 1806–1930, box 80, (hereafter Marcy Papers); Marcy to Buchanan, 26 May 1854, ibid.

83 ‘A Proclamation’, in Richardson, Compilation, 5: 272–3.

84 May, Quitman, p. 284.

85 Ibid ., pp. 285–7.

86 Cueto to Calderón de la Barca, 22 Aug. 1854, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 47, no. 3; Crampton to Clarendon, 8 June 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 24.

87 May, Quitman, p. 284.

88 Dudley Mann to Marcy, 31 Aug. 1854, Marcy Papers, box 52.

89 Union, 23 June 1854, p. 2.

90 Soulé to Marcy, no. 28, 18 July 1854, NA, DOS, Despatches from U. S. Ministers to Spain, M31, Roll 38.

91 Mason to Marcy, 5 July 1854, Marcy Papers, box 50; Mann to Marcy, 31 Aug., 4 Sept. 1854, ibid., box 52; Perry to Marcy, 6 Sept. 1854, ibid.

92 Aberdeen to Clarendon, 25 Sept. 1854, British Library, London, Western Manuscripts, Add MS 43189, Correspondence of the Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, with the Foreign Sec., Lord Clarendon: March 1854–November 1859, v. CLI; Crampton to Clarendon, 10 Sept. 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 25.

93 Clarendon's Notes on Letters to Crampton, 16 May 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 224.

94 Crampton to Clarendon, 29 May 1854, ibid., c. 24.

95 Clarendon to Crampton, 16 Dec. 1854, emphasis added, LOC, Clarendon Papers, reel 9.

96 Buchanan to Marcy, 11 July 1854, Marcy Papers, box 80.

97 Kenneth Bourne, Britain and the Balance of Power in North America, 1815–1908 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967), p. 179.

98 Times, 17 Aug. 1854, p. 6.

99 Palmerston, ‘Mem[orandum] on a Draft of Despatch from Ld. Clarendon to Mr. Crampton at Washington’, 2 Sept. 1854, Hartley Library, University of Southampton, MS 62 Palmerston Papers, PP/MM/US/11/1.

100 Marcy to Mason, 23 July 1854, Marcy Papers, box 80.

101 Marcy to Soulé, 16 Aug. 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 193.

102 Buchanan to Marcy, 18 Oct. 1854, in John Bassett Moore (ed.), The Works of James Buchanan (Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott, 1909), 9: 260–6. Also Ettinger, Mission, pp. 339–68.

103 Robert May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854–1861 (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1973), p. 68.

104 Nichols, Pierce, pp. 360–5; Wallner, Pierce, pp. 158–67.

105 New York Herald: 28 Oct. 1854, p. 2; 29 Oct., p. 4; 31 Oct., p. 2; 7 Nov., p. 4; 11 Nov., p. 4; 14 Nov., p. 2. On the leaking of the Manifesto, Nichols, Pierce, p. 366.

106 Marcy to Soulé, 13 Nov. 1854, in Manning, Diplomatic, 11: 196–201.

107 Potter, Crisis, p. 192.

108 José Cayuela Fernández, ‘Los capitanes generales ante la cuestión de la abolición’, in Francisco de Solano and Agustín Guimerá (eds.), Esclavitud y derechos humanos, la lucha por la libertad del negro en el siglo XIX (Madrid: CSIC, 1990), pp. 415–53.

109 ‘Extracto de la Nota de la Dirección de Ultramar sobre la política en la Isla de Cuba’, 1855, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 55, no. 9.

110 Portell Vilá, Historia, 2: 95.

111 Clarendon to Howden, 14 and 15 Aug. 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 215.

112 Fernando Portuondo, Historia de Cuba 1492–1898 (La Habana: Pueblo y Educación, 1965), p. 371.

113 Estorch, Apuntes, pp. 120–1.

114 Cayuela Fernández, Bahía, pp. 235–7.

115 Concha to the Spanish minister in Mexico, 25 Jan. 1855, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 55, no. 12.

116 Concha to Cueto, 28 Jan. 1855, ibid., exp. 55, no. 15 and no. 16.

117 ‘Second Annual Message’, in Richardson, Compilation, 5: 273–93.

118 Primera Secretaría de Estado to Presidente del Consejo de Ministros, 9 April 1853, AHN, Estado, leg. 8048, exp. 2, no. 2.

119 Calderón de la Barca to Presidente del Consejo, 12 Feb. 1853, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4645, exp. 25, no. 1.

120 Crampton to Clarendon, 26 March 1854, Bodl, Clarendon Papers, c. 24.