The Ostend Manifesto took place in 1854. President Pierce, along side the southerners, thought that the country would benefit from Cuba as slave territory. The Ostend Manifesto was supposed to be a confidential dispatch between ministers and Marcy, secretary of state. The American ministers assured that the possession of Cuba was essential to the United States' welfare. This idea that the U.S. had for Cuba wouldn't work if Spain wouldn't sell it to them, which they didn't. This made Marcy and Pierce advise the nation to take Cuba by force, and then they would turn around and deny having anything to do with the manifesto. Pierce was now labeled as a pro-slavery man and a warlike expansionist. The Ostend Manifesto now expanded slavery.