Take the Land, Not the People · Episode 7 of 8 · 46 min
Why America Disowned Its Filibusters
The filibusters thought they were Manifest Destiny, so why did their own government prosecute them, and why did Southern juries keep letting them go? The episode traces the Ostend Manifesto, Neutrality Act prosecutions that almost never convicted, and the North-South split that came to see filibustering as a Slave Power conspiracy. It ends with William Walker's capture and execution by firing squad at Trujillo, Honduras, in 1860.
Who's who
- James Buchanan+1 more episodeMinister to Great Britain who helped draft the Ostend dispatch; later president
- John Y. MasonMinister to France and Ostend co-author
- Pierre SouleLouisiana expansionist and minister to Spain
- Hiram PauldingNavy commodore whose squadron seized Walker in 1857
- William Walker+2 more episodesFamous filibuster tried, captured and executed
- Horace Greeley+2 more episodesEditor who branded the Ostend dispatch a manifesto of brigands
- Franklin Pierce+2 more episodesPresident whose administration disavowed the Ostend dispatch
Where it happens
- Ostend, BelgiumWhere the three diplomats conferred in October 1854
- Trujillo, HondurasWhere Walker was executed in 1860
Timeline
- 1794 / 1818Neutrality Acts passed and strengthened.
- October 1854Buchanan, Mason and Soule confer at Ostend and Aachen.
- Early 1855The Ostend dispatch leaks and the Pierce administration disavows it.
- 1856A San Francisco jury acquits Walker in roughly eight minutes.
- 1860Walker is captured and executed by firing squad at Trujillo.
Still debated
The core debate is whether the government genuinely upheld neutrality law or whether enforcement tracked sectional interest so closely that principle was just the language of a sectional quarrel. Both readings have evidence.
← PreviousPresident Walker: Nicaragua and the Empire of SlaveryNext →The Long Shadow: Race, Empire, and Two Hundred Years
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