rs to the niggerless,
or land to the landless, etc. . . . When you come to niggers to
the niggerless, all other questions sink into perfect insignificance."(89)

Although a majority of the Senate seemed to favor the bill, Mr.
Slidell withdrew it after much discussion, declaring it was then
impracticable to press it to a final vote.

The once famous Ostend Manifesto, dated October 18, 1854, was a
remarkable document, prepared and signed by Pierre Soule, John Y.
Mason, and James Buchanan, then Ministers, respectively, to Spain,
France, and England, at a conference held at Ostend and Aix-la-
Chapelle, France. It assumed to offer $120,000,000 for Cuba, and,
if this were refused, it announced that it was the duty of the
United States to apply the "great law" of "self-preservation" and
take Cuba in "disregard of the censures of the world." The further
excuse stated in the Manifesto was that "Cuba was in danger of
being Africanized and become a second St. Domingo."

The real purpose, however, was to acquire it, and then admit it
into the Union as two or more slave States.

Buchanan, as Secretary of State under Polk, had offered $100,000,000
for Cuba. His efforts to obtain Cuba secured for him the support
of the South for President in 1856.

There was no special instance of acquiring or attempting to acquire
territory by the United States authorities to dedicate to freedom.

Cuba is still Spanish (though not slave) (90) and just now in the
throes of insurrection, and the Congress of the United States has
just voted (April, 1896) to grant the Cuban Provisional Government
belligerent rights.(91)

(84) From one election, held in 1857 at Oxford, Kansas, a roll
was returned on which 1624 persons' names appeared which had been
copied in alphabetical order from a Cincinnati directory. These
persons were reported as voting with the anti-slavery party.

(85) Keitt of South Carolina and Edmundson of Virginia stood by
during the assault, in a menacing manner, to protect Brooks from
assistance that might come to Sumner.

(86) _Life of Sumner_ (Lesten), pp. 250, etc.

(87) Appleton's _Cyclop. Am. Biography_, vol. vi., p. 311.

(88) _Manassas to Appotmattox_ (Longstreet), pp. 113, 161.

(89) In 1862 the first homestead bill became a law, under which,
by July 30, 1878, homesteads were granted to the number of 384,848;
in area, 61,575,680 acres, or 96,212 square miles; greater in extent
by 7000 square miles than Englan