Manifesto Content
- When
- October 1854
- Where
- Document sent to Washington; drafted in Ostend, Belgium, and prepared at Aachen, Prussia
- Part of
- Ostend Manifesto drafted
The document described the rationale for purchasing Cuba from Spain and declared the U.S. justified in wresting the island if Spain refused to sell.
The Ostend Manifesto, also known as the Ostend Circular, described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain. It declared that the U.S. would be "justified in wresting" the island from Spanish hands if Spain refused to sell, a stance adopted against Buchanan's recommendation, which held that such wresting would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The document was sent to Washington in October 1854.
Sources
- Ostend Manifesto Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
- James Buchanan Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.