rities. The American government offered to purchase Cuba of Spain,
but that country indignantly replied that the mints of the world had not
coined enough gold to buy it. Could she have foreseen the events of
1898, no doubt she would have sold out for a moderate price.

In August, 1854, President Pierce directed Mr. Buchanan, minister to
England, Mr. Mason, minister to France, and Mr. Soule, envoy to Spain,
to meet at some convenient place and discuss the question of obtaining
possession of Cuba. These distinguished gentlemen met at Ostend on the
9th of October, and adjourned to Aix-la-Chapelle, from which place they
issued, on the 18th of October, what is known as the "Ostend Manifesto
or Circular," in which they recommended the purchase of Cuba, declaring
that, if Spain refused to sell, the United States would be justified "by
every law, human and divine," in wresting it from her. This declaration,
for which there was no justification whatever, caused angry protest in
Europe and in the free States of our country, but was ardently applauded
in the South. Nothing came of it, and the country soon became so
absorbed in the slavery agitation that it was forgotten.

THE "KNOW NOTHINGS."

Patriotic men, who feared what was coming, did all in their power to
avert it. One of these attempts was the formation of the "Know Nothing"
party, which grew up like a mushroom and speedily acquired a power that
enabled it to carry many local elections in the various States. It was a
secret organization, the members of which were bound by oath to oppose
the election of foreign-born citizens to office. The salutation, when
one member met another, was, "Have you seen Sam?" If one of them was
questioned about the order, his reply was that he knew nothing, from
which the name was given to what was really the Native American party.
It soon ran its course, but has been succeeded in its cardinal
principles by the American Protective Association of the present day.

Meanwhile, the slavery question was busy at its work of disintegration.
The Democratic party was held together for a time by the Compromise of
1850, to the effect that the inhabitants of the new Territories of New
Mexico and Utah should be left to decide for themselves the question of
slavery. In a few years the settlements in Nebraska and Kansas made it
necessary to erect territorial governments there, and the question of
slavery was thus brought before Congress again. The Missouri