Ostend Manifesto - Fallout

Fallout

When the document was published, it outraged Northerners who viewed it as a Southern attempt to extend slavery. American free-soilers, recently angered by the Fugitive Slave Law (passed as part of the Compromise of 1850), decried what Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune labeled "The Manifesto of the Brigands" as unconstitutional. During the period that would come to be known as Bleeding Kansas, it served as a rallying cry for the enemies of the Slave Power. The movement to annex Cuba wasn't effectively ended until after the American Civil War.

The Pierce Administration was irreparably damaged by the incident. Pierce had been highly sympathetic to the Southern cause, and the Ostend Manifesto contributed to the splintering of the Democratic Party. Internationally, it was seen as a threat to Spain and to imperial power across Europe. It was quickly denounced in Madrid, London, and Paris, and to preserve what favorable relations the administration had left, Soulé was ordered to cease discussion of Cuba, and he promptly resigned. The backlash from the Ostend Manifesto also caused Pierce to abandon further expansionist plans, and has been described as part of a series of "gratuitous conflicts... that cost more than they were worth" for Southern interests intent on maintaining the institution of slavery.

Buchanan was easily elected President in 1856. Although he remained committed to Cuban annexation, he was hindered by popular opposition and the growing sectional conflict; not until thirty years after the Civil War did the so-called Cuban Question again come to national prominence.