Pierre Soulé was a Franco-American attorney, politician, and diplomat during the mid-19th century. Serving as a United States Senator from Louisiana from 1849 to 1853, he was nominated that year as U.S. Minister to Spain, a post he held until 1855. He is likely best known for his role in writing the 1854 Ostend Manifesto, part of an attempt by Southern slaveholders to gain support for the US to annex Cuba to the United States. Some Southern planters wanted to expand their territory to the Caribbean and into Central America. The Manifesto was roundly denounced, especially by anti-slavery elements, and Soulé was personally criticized for violating his diplomatic role. Born and raised in southwest France, Soulé was exiled for revolutionary activities. He moved to Great Britain and then the United States, where he settled in New Orleans and became an attorney, later entering politics.
Early life and education
Pierre Soulé was born in 1801 Castillon-en-Couserans, a village in the French Pyrénées. His father was a prominent justice of the peace, and he was born into an educated family. He studied at a Jesuit college in Toulouse, and at a Bordeaux academy. An anti-Royalist in favor of freedom of conscience and secularism, he was exiled as a youth in 1816 to Navarre. Soulé was later able to go to Paris to study law. After completing his studies, he passed the bar and began to practice law in the capital. He became involved in some secret societies working on civil rights. He published a newspaper, Le Nouveau nain jaune. Convicted of opposition to the government, he was sentenced to three years in prison, but managed to escape.
Emigration to the US
In 1825 Soulé fled France, going first to Great Britain, then briefly to Haiti. He was impressed by the new republic but had learned of the widespread massacres during the Haitian Revolution. Soulé reached the U.S. at about age 25 and settled in New Orleans, Louisiana, the center of another former French colony. It still had a large ethnic French population, who commonly used the French language. There he became a lawyer, married and had at least one son. After getting established, he became a naturalized citizen and founded a bank. But there was a financial panic that disrupted the bank, so he returned to work about 1839 as an attorney for cotton planters and brokers.
Political career
Soulé joined the Democratic Party and began to become active in politics. In 1844 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, and in 1846 he won election to the Louisiana State Senate. In 1847, Soulé served briefly in the United States Senate as a Democrat elected by the state legislature to fill a vacancy in a special election. He was returned to the Senate for a full term, serving from 1849 to 1853. He resigned to take an appointment as U.S. Minister to Spain, a post he held until 1855. During this period, Soulé became known for writing the 1854 Ostend Manifesto, part of an attempt by Southern slaveholders of the planter class to gain support to annex Cuba to the United States. Worried about being bounded by free states to the north and west, some prominent Southerners wanted to expand their territory to the Caribbean and into Central America. Cuba still had legal slavery at the time. The Manifesto was roundly denounced in the U.S., especially by anti-slavery elements. Soulé was personally criticized for violating his role as a diplomat and Minister to Spain, which still controlled Cuba. In late 1852, while in Washington, D.C., Soulé had provided some support and assistance to the agent responsible for rescuing Solomon Northup, a free black from Saratoga Springs, New York, who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup was held as a slave for twelve years by planters in the Red River region in Louisiana. Soulé opposed Southern secession before the American Civil War. At the 1860 Democratic National Conventions he supported Stephen A. Douglas and the Unionist wing of the party against secessionist delegates, and in the subsequent 1860 Presidential election he was one of the few prominent politicians from the Deep South to campaign for Douglas. However, once the war began, he supported his state of Louisiana within the Confederacy. In 1861, he supported organizing the Allen Rifles and gave an impassioned speech at a big barbecue in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish. On May 18, 1861, Soulé was captured by federal troops, charged with "plotting treason against the United States government," and imprisoned in Fort Warren, Massachusetts. Soulé escaped from the prison and was able to return to Confederate territory. After the war ended in 1865, he went into exile in Havana, Cuba. Soulé later returned, and he died in New Orleans.
