Apr 08, 2014 - Sale 2344

Sale 2344 - Lot 292

Price Realized: $ 1,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CUBA.) Archive of 4 Spanish documents regarding a threatened American invasion of Cuba. 4 manuscript documents in a clerical hand, 23 pages, each 8 x 6 inches on the letterhead of the Cuban Secretaria de Gobierno; toned with some text bleeding through. Puerto Rico, 28 to 30 June 1854
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Numerous American presidents, from at least Jefferson to Kennedy, have made efforts to impose American sovereignty over nearby Cuba. This urge was at a peak in the early 1850s, as slave states looked to expand their influence; the United States supported a failed coup by Narcizo López in 1851, and the seizure in Havana of an American ship in March 1854 heightened tensions.
The original messages were sent from the office of the Primera Secretaria de Estado Ultramar to the Governor of Puerto Rico; these copies were made for the use of officials in Cuba. The first and longest document reports on a series of American provocations, including an article in the New York Times promoting revolution in Cuba, and militaristic rhetoric from several American congressmen. They suspect an imminent invasion under the pretext of freeing the Cuban slaves ("fundada en el rapido proyecto de emancipar a los negros, lo que si se verificaba, evitaria su compra ó conquista por los Estados Unidos"). The second document concerns documents published in Washington about a filibustering expedition ("proclama contra los filibusteros"), which is being disavowed by President Pierce. The third document concerns the long-running case of the American merchant ship North Carolina, seized in Puerto Rico in 1850. The final document delves further into New York newspaper reports, one of which suggests Puerto Rico as a useful staging ground for an invasion of Cuba. Taken as a group, these reports suggest that Spain had good reason to be concerned, a concern that would only grow that October with the publication of the aggressive Ostend Manifesto.