How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [105]
THE ALMOST STATES OF AMERICA
JOHN A. QUITMAN
Annexing Cuba: Liberty, Security, Slavery
I believe that the institution of slavery is not only right and proper, but the natural and normal condition of the superior and inferior races, when in contact.… That the preservation of the institution of slavery in Cuba … is essential to the safety of our own system.… That it is consistent with the designs of Providence, and our right and duty, not to restrain but to encourage the white Caucasian race to carry humanity, civilization and progress to the rich and fertile countries south of us, which, now in the occupation of inferior and mixed races, be undeveloped and useless.
—JOHN A. QUITMAN1
During the early 1850s Mississippi Governor John A. Quitman raised a private army for the purpose of invading Cuba and offering it to the United States. His primary reason was to preserve slavery on the island (ruled, at the time, by Spain) and thereby add an additional slave state to the Union.2
Quitman’s involvement commenced in 1850, when he was introduced to Narciso López, leader of a group of Cuban revolutionaries. López and his followers were wealthy landowners and merchants who turned against Spain when a key element of their wealth—slavery—was threatened by changes in colonial policy.
John A. Quitman (1798-1858) (photo credit 30.1)
Spain, greatly weakened by the loss of nearly its entire empire, was seeking to ally itself with the nation whose empire was most rapidly growing: England. England, for its part, was seeking to undermine the nation whose borders were most rapidly growing: the United States. By allying with Spain, England could establish a naval presence in Cuba, thereby dominating the intersection of commerce between the Gulf of Mexico and the sea.
The United States, needless to say, was well aware of these moves. Two years before Quitman met López, Senator Lewis Cass stated, “Doubts have been expressed here as to the designs of England upon Cuba.… It has been repeatedly said that she has demanded the island, either in absolute conveyance, or as a mortgage for the payment of the debts due to her people.” Cass avoided domestic controversy by not mentioning another aspect of England’s maneuver. If England could get Spain to end slavery in Cuba, the island would become a beacon to American slaves—if nothing else, as a haven of escape; possibly, as encouragement to revolt. No matter how it played out, emancipation in Cuba might well derail the American express.3
Governor Quitman knew the impact it would have on his and all other slave states if Cuba came under British domination. Still, when approached by López in 1850, he did not accept the offer of command. Having risen to the rank of major general in the Mexican War, the governor recognized both the political and the military risks. So too had Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, other distinguished veterans of the Mexican War, both of whom had already rejected López’s offer.
Narciso López (1797-1851) (photo credit 30.2)
While Quitman did not accept the offer, neither did he completely reject it. Rather, he cited his current commitments as governor. In addition he told López that he could only come to his aid after a revolution had commenced under Cuban leaders. This stipulation reflected Quitman’s concern about violating the Neutrality Act of 1818, which prohibited any person “within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States … to set on foot, or provide or prepare the means for any military expedition or enterprise to be carried on from then against the territory or dominions of any foreign prince or state or any other colony, district, or people with whom the United States are at peace.”
López was indeed on the verge of launching the revolution Quitman stipulated. Or something similar—because Cuban forces were hard to come by (nearly half the island’s young men being slaves, disinclined to fight for slavery), he had been recruiting