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Pierre Soulé

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Pierre Soulé
United States Minister toSpain
In office
April 7, 1853 – February 1, 1855
PresidentFranklin Pierce
Preceded byRomulus M. Saunders
Succeeded byAugustus C. Dodge
United States Senator
fromLouisiana
In office
March 3, 1849 – April 11, 1853
Preceded byHenry Johnson
Succeeded byJohn Slidell
In office
January 21, 1847 – March 3, 1847
Preceded byAlexander Barrow
Succeeded bySolomon W. Downs
Personal details
Born(1801-08-31)August 31, 1801
Castillon-en-Couserans,France
DiedMarch 26, 1870(1870-03-26)(aged 68)
New Orleans,Louisiana,US
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseHenrietta Armantine Mercier
ProfessionPolitician, Lawyer
Signature

Pierre Soulé(August 31, 1801 – March 26, 1870) was a French-American slaveholder, attorney, politician, and diplomat in the mid-19th century.[1]Serving as aU.S. senatorfromLouisianafrom 1849 to 1853, he was nominated that year asU.S. Minister to Spain,a post that he held until 1855.

He is likely best known for his role in writing the 1854Ostend Manifesto,part of an attempt by Southern slaveholders to gain support for the US to annexCubato the United States. Some Southernplanterswanted to expand their territory to theCaribbeanand intoCentral 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 southwestFrance,Soulé was exiled for revolutionary activities. He moved toGreat Britainand then theUnited States,where he settled inNew Orleans,became an attorney, and entered politics.

Early life and education[edit]

Pierre Soulé was born in 1801 inCastillon-en-Couserans,a village in the FrenchPyrénées.His father was a prominent justice of the peace, and he was born into an educated family. He studied at a Jesuit college inToulouseand at aBordeauxacademy. An anti-royalist in favor of freedom of conscience and secularism, he was exiled as a youth in 1816 toNavarre.[2]

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, Paris. He became involved in some secret societies working on civil rights. He published a newspaper,Le Nouveau nain jaune(The New Yellow Dwarf), whose title referred to a French fairy tale. Convicted of opposition to the government, he was sentenced to three years in prison but managed to escape.[2]

Emigration to the U.S.[edit]

Pierre Soulé

In 1825 Soulé fled France by going first toGreat Britainand then briefly toHaiti(formerly the French colony of Saint-Domingue). He was impressed by the new republic but had learned of the widespread massacres during theHaitian Revolution.

Soulé reached the U.S. at about age 25 and settled inNew Orleans,Louisiana,the center of another formerFrench colony.It still had a large ethnic French population, which commonly used theFrench 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. However, there was a financial panic that disrupted the bank and so he returned to work about 1839 as an attorney for cotton planters and brokers.[2]

Political career[edit]

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 theLouisiana State Senate.

In 1847, Soulé served briefly in theUnited States Senateas aDemocratelected 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 asU.S. Minister to Spain,a post he held until 1855. Soulé contributed to the "tragicomic character of American diplomacy"[3]in Europe during this period in that "He wounded the French ambassador in a duel, handed down an unauthorized ultimatum, and tried to pick a war with Spain over theBlack Warrioraffair.One critic observed that he was more of a matador than an ambassador. "[4]During this period, Soulé became known for writing the 1854Ostend Manifesto,part of an attempt bySouthern slaveholdersof theplanter classto gain support to annexCubato the United States. Worried about being bounded byfree statesto the north and west, some prominent Southerners wanted to expand their territory to theCaribbeanand intoCentral America.Cuba still had legal slaveryat 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 adiplomatand Minister to Spain, whichstill controlled Cuba.[5]

Pierre Soulé with son, 1853

In late 1852, while in Washington, D.C., Soulé had provided some support and assistance to the agent responsible for rescuingSolomon Northup,afree blackfromSaratoga Springs, New York,who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup was held as a slave for twelve years by planters in theRed Riverregion, in Louisiana.[6]

Soulé opposed Southernsecessionbefore theAmerican Civil War.At the1860 Democratic National Convention,he supportedStephen A. Douglasand 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 which was Company 1 of the26th Louisiana Infantry Regimentand gave an impassioned speech at a big barbecue inThibodauxinLafourche Parish.[7]

Civil War[edit]

On May 18, 1861, Soulé was captured byfederal troops,charged with "plottingtreasonagainst the United States government, "and imprisoned inFort Warren,Massachusetts.[8]Soulé escaped from the prison and was able to return toConfederateterritory.

After the war ended in 1865, he went into exile inHavana,Cuba. Soulé later returned to the U.S. and died inNew Orleans.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Weil, Julie Zauzmer (January 10, 2022)."More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation".Washington Post.RetrievedMay 5,2024.Database at"Congress slaveowners",The Washington Post,January 13, 2022,retrievedApril 29,2024
  2. ^abc"La vie de Pierre Soulé par Catherine Chancerel",La Dépêche,28 Mai 2015(in French);accessed 24 March 2019
  3. ^Johnson, Walter(2013).River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom.Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 322.ISBN9780674074880.LCCN2012030065.OCLC827947225.OL26179618M.
  4. ^Bailey, Thomas A. (1960)."A Hall of Fame for American Diplomats".The Virginia Quarterly Review.36(3): 390–404.ISSN0042-675X.JSTOR26441699.
  5. ^Jennifer R. Green and Patrick M. Kirkwood, "Reframing the Antebellum Democratic Mainstream: Transatlantic Diplomacy and the Career of Pierre Soulé",Civil War History61, No. 3 (September 2015): 238
  6. ^Solomon Northrup,Twelve Years a Slave,Darby and Miller, Buffalo, 1854, p. 196.
  7. ^John D. Winters,The Civil War in Louisiana,Baton Rouge:Louisiana State University Press,1963,ISBN0-8071-0834-0,p. 76
  8. ^John D. Winters,The Civil War in Louisiana,Baton Rouge:Louisiana State University Press,1963,ISBN0-8071-0834-0,p. 133
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U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Louisiana
January 21, 1847 – March 3, 1847
Served alongside:Henry Johnson 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 3) from Louisiana
March 3, 1849 – April 11, 1853
Served alongside:Solomon W. DownsandJudah P. Benjamin 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Spain
April 7, 1853 – February 1, 1855 		Succeeded by
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