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The secret [[Ostend Manifesto]], written in 1854 by the U.S. ambassadors to Spain, France, and Britain was essentially a plan for the United States to purchase [[Cuba]] from Spain.<ref>http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0837014.html</ref> Southern Democrats hoped the acquired island would become another slave state, and that future acquisitions would negate northerners' efforts to prevent the spread of slavery.  

The secret [[Ostend Manifesto]], written in 1854 by the U.S. ambassadors to Spain, France, and Britain was essentially a plan for the United States to purchase [[Cuba]] from Spain.<ref>http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0837014.html</ref> Southern Democrats hoped the acquired island would become another slave state, and that future acquisitions would negate northerners' efforts to prevent the spread of slavery.  

When the Ostend manifesto became public, antislavery northerners, denounced the agreement and the plan never went into effect. In 1844 [[James K. Polk]], an expansionist Democrat defeated [[Henry Clay]], a Whig who rejected expansion. "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" became a catchphrase for the annexation of the entire Oregon Country, then co-owned with Britain. The slogan referred to the region's northern boundary of 54°40ʹ N latitude (that is, the southern boundary of Alaska). The U.S. and Britain reached a compromise, splitting the region in half along the 49th parallel, which forms to this day marks the US-Canada. Polk also added the new state of [[Texas]] to the Union, and after winning the [[Mexican-American War]], purchased New Mexico, Arizona and California as well.  Whigs vehemently opposed his war and his expansion plans.  

When the Ostend Manifesto became public, antislavery northerners, denounced the agreement and the plan never went into effect. In 1844 [[James K. Polk]], an expansionist Democrat defeated [[Henry Clay]], a Whig who rejected expansion. "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" became a catchphrase for the annexation of the entire Oregon Country, then co-owned with Britain. The slogan referred to the region's northern boundary of 54°40ʹ N latitude (that is, the southern boundary of Alaska). The U.S. and Britain reached a compromise, splitting the region in half along the 49th parallel, which forms to this day marks the US-Canada. Polk also added the new state of [[Texas]] to the Union, and after winning the [[Mexican-American War]], purchased New Mexico, Arizona and California as well.  Whigs vehemently opposed his war and his expansion plans.

 

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

* Belohlavek, John M. et al. ''Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansionism'' (1998) [https://www.amazon.com/Manifest-Destiny-Empire-Antebellum-Expansionism/dp/0890967563/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228611908&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]

* Belohlavek, John M. et al. ''Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansionism'' (1998) [https://www.amazon.com/Manifest-Destiny-Empire-Antebellum-Expansionism/dp/0890967563/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228611908&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]