accordance with the declarations of the inaugural Pierre Soule, who had openly advocated the annexation of Cuba by means other than purchase if necessary, was ap pointed minister to Spain. When the Spanish Government showed its unwillingness to sell the island, Soule, at the suggestion of secretary of State Marcy, held a conference with James Bu chanan, minister to Great Britain, and John Y. Mason, minister to France, at Ostend, Belgium, as a result of which they issued the famous Ostend Manifesto. This was to the effect that if the United States were unable to obtain Cuba peacefully, "by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain if we possess the power." In the storm of controversy which followed, the administration disclaimed responsibility for the document and recalled Soule. The following year William Walker conducted a notorious filibustering expedition into Cen tral America with the purpose of establishing a pro-slavery gov ernment to be brought under the control of the United States. He established himself as military dictator, then as president, of Nicaragua, and his regime was recognized by the Pierce adminis tration. More fruitful of permanent results was the expedition sent out under Commodore Perry to Japan (1853) to induce her to open her doors to American trade. Lured by Yankee ingenuity and frightened by Western guns, she responded, and the result was the opening up of Japan. In the Koszta affair (1853) the
government vigorously asserted the protection which it would offer those in the process of becoming its naturalized citizens. The administration also effected a reorganization of the diplomatic and consular service and the creation of the U.S. court of claims.
the domestic policies of the Pierce administration were preparations for a transcontinental railroad and the opening up of the Northwest for settlement. It was in order to open the way for a southerly route to California through the lowest mountain passes that the Gadsden Purchase of 50,00o sq.m. of territory was acquired from Mexico in 1853 at a cost of $10,000,000. It was mainly to stimulate migration to the North west and facilitate the project of a central route to the Pacific that the Kansas-Nebraska bill was enacted in 1854, receiving the President's sanction. This opened two new territories for settle ment with the slavery question to be settled in each by popular sovereignty. Thus the dread conflict was reawakened with the venom of incipient civil war. Pierce's administrative policies with reference to "bleeding Kansas" were pro-Southern. He thus lost much of his former support at the North and made himself unavailable as a candidate for a second term.
Save for a three years' tour in Europe, he lived at Concord, N.H., where he died on Oct. 8, 1869.