The most flagrant case was that of the Black Warrior, a large steamer in coasting trade between New York and Mobile.  In February, 1850, while in the harbor of Havana, she was stopped, her cargo confiscated, and a fine of twice its value declared.  Her captain hauled down the colors, and taking them with him, left the vessel as a Spanish capture.  After five years of “diplomacy,” Spain paid an indemnity of $300,000 for the outrage.

It was in 1852 that the governments of Great Britain and France tried to draw the United States into an agreement on the question of Cuba, which was happily refused on genuinely American grounds.  It was suggested that all the parties should be bound not to acquire Cuba themselves, nor to permit any other power to do so.  Our government gave the proposal respectful consideration, but declined to enter into any such arrangement, on the ground that we prefer to avoid entangling foreign alliances, that it would be unwise, if not unconstitutional, to tie our hands for the future regardless of what might happen, and that on geographical grounds, while England and France were making very slight concessions, we were asked to make a very important one.

The United States came as near to the purchase of Cuba in 1854 as it ever was, but Spain gave the plan little encouragement.  Three American ministers to European countries, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason and Soule, met at Ostend and formulated a plan for the purchase, signing and issuing what came to be known as the Ostend manifesto.  They recommended the purchase of the island for $120,000,000, and that in no event should it be allowed to come under the power of any other European government than the one by which it was held.  At this time, and afterward, while filibustering expeditions were frequent and disorder constantly threatening in Cuba, the subject of the acquisition of Cuba was discussed in Congress, but no headway was made in the matter.  At last, conditions in the island became intolerable to the patriots there, and the Ten Years’ war began.

It is necessary at this point to relate some of the causes of the frequent disorders and uprisings in the island of Cuba.  Some of the features of Spanish misgovernment in the colony have been named, but the catalogue is far from complete.

The most judicial writers, however bitterly they condemn Spain, admit that that peninsular kingdom has itself suffered and that the people have suffered almost beyond endurance themselves.  Cuba is not the only land with which we may share a little of our sympathy.  But sympathy for Spain must come from other things than oppression from without.  Her oppression is within her own borders, and her authorities have tried to shift the burden of it to the colonists across the sea.  The debt of Spain has reached enormous proportions, and having fallen from her high estate as a commercial nation, it has become impossible for the great interest charges on her floating debt to be paid by ordinary and correct methods.  Says one writer:  “To pay the interest necessitates the most grinding oppression.  The moving impulse is not malice, but the greed of the famishing; and oppressor and oppressed alike are the objects for sympathy.”