A filibuster (from the Spanish filibustero), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited rebellions/insurrections across Latin America with its recently independent but unstable nations freed from royal control of the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in the 1810s and 1820s. These occurred particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into the North American Union as territories or free states, serving the interests of the United States. Probably the most notable example is the Filibuster War initiated by William Walker in the 1850s in Nicaragua and Central America.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who act without official authorization from their own government, and they are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries who work on behalf of others, filibusters are independently motivated and work for themselves.Axelrod, Alan Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies CQ Press, 9 January 2014 The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively later in the North American English language political idiom of the political and legislative delaying act of filibustering in the United States Congress, especially in the upper chamber of the U.S. Senate. Military filibustering can be considered a form of freelance imperialism. Filibusters typically failed because of "lack of resources" although the regular U.S. Army sometimes attempted to intervene.
History
The English term "filibuster" derives from the Spanish , itself deriving originally from the Dutch , 'privateer, pirate, robber' (also the root of English freebooter).Oxford English Dictionary, "freebooter". Retrieved 26 October 2012. The Spanish form entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America and the Spanish West Indies.Oxford English Dictionary, "filibuster". Retrieved 26 October 2012.
The Spanish language term was first applied to persons raiding Spanish colonies and merchant ships of the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in the Americas, in the West Indies islands of the Caribbean Sea, the most famous of whom was the Englishman naval hero and captain, Sir Francis Drake (1596) of the beginning Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, with his June 1572 sea campaign and infamous raid and sacking of the town on Nombre de Dios of (Colon Province in modern Panama in Central America). With the end of the era of Caribbean / West Indies piracy in the early 18th century, the term of reference "filibuster" fell out of general currency for a while.
The term was revived in the following mid-19th century to describe the actions of adventurers who tried to take control of various Caribbean / West Indies islands, Mexican, and Central American territories by force of arms. In 1806, the general Francisco de Miranda launched an unsuccessful expedition to liberate Venezuela from Royal Spanish rule with volunteers from the United States recruited in New York City. The three most prominent filibusters of that era were Narciso López (1797–1851) and John Quitman (1798–1858), both in Cuba, along with William Walker (1824–1860), with the Walker affair in Baja California, Sonora of northern Mexico; along with further south to Costa Rica and lastly Nicaragua in Central America. The term returned to North American English language parlance to refer to López's 1851 Cuban expedition.Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America, by Robert E. May. Chapter 1
Other filibusters include the Americans Aaron Burr (former Vice President of the United States, about the Louisiana Purchase / Louisiana Territory and old Southwest Territory), Chatham Roberdeau Wheat (Cuba, Mexico, and Italy), William Blount (old Southwest Territory / West Florida / Florida), James Long (Texas / Republic of Texas), Augustus W. Magee (Texas / Republic of Texas), George Mathews (East Florida / Florida), George Rogers Clark (Louisiana Purchase / Louisiana Territory and old Southwest Territory / Mississippi Territory), William S. Smith (Venezuela), Ira Allen (Canada), Thomas Jordan (Cuba), William A. Chanler (Cuba and Venezuela), Samuel Brannan (Kingdom of Hawaii / Hawaii), Joseph C. Morehead (Mazatlan, Mexico), Henry Alexander Crabb (Sonora, northern Mexico), and Jordan Goudreau (Venezuela).
Non-American filibusters include the French Adel Aubert du Petit-Thouars (Tahiti), Hippolyte Bouchard (Philippines, Hawaii, California, Central America), Marquis Charles de Pindray and Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon (Sonora, northern Mexico), the Dutch Luis Brion (Venezuela), the British Gregor MacGregor (Florida, Central America, and South America), and Thomas Cochcrane (Peru), the Italians Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italy) and Gabriel D'Annuzio in Fiume, the Peruvian Leoncio Prado (Cuba), the Cubans Ambrosio José Gonzales , Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz, Francisco Javier Cisneros, Emilio Laurent Dubet and Fidel Castro (Cuba), the Uruguayans Juan Antonio Lavalleja and Manuel Oribe (Uruguay). The Venezuelans Narciso López (Cuba), Francisco de Miranda, Santiago Mariño, Jose Antonio Paez, Ezequiel Zamora, Juan Crisostomo Falcon, Juan Antonio Sotillo, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, Matias Salazar, Venancio Pulgar, Rafael Capó, Eduardo Perez Albelo, Leon Colina, Joaquin Crespo, Rafael de Nogales Mendez, Nicolas Rolando, Miguel Antonio Matos, Gustavo Machado, Cipriano Castro, Rafael Garbiras Rangel, Juan Pablo Penaloza, Antonio Paredes, Rafael Simon Urbina, Emilio Arévalo Cedeño, Roman Delgado Chalbaud, Jose Maria Ortega Martinez, and Fernando Soto Rojas (Venezuela).
Although the American public often enjoyed reading about the thrilling adventures of mercenary filibusters, those Americans involved in filibustering expeditions were usually in violation of the first Neutrality Act of 1794 that made it illegal for a citizen to wage war against another country at peace with the United States. For example, the journalist John L. O'Sullivan (1813–1895), who coined the related phrase "manifest destiny" for the movement of American westward expansion, was put on trial for raising money in America for López's failed southern filibustering expedition in Cuba.
The second Neutrality Act of 1818 became of great frustration for American filibusters. Article 6 stated anyone engaged in filibustering could receive a maximum three years imprisonment and three thousand dollars in fines. However, it was not uncommon for in the early Republic of late 18th and early 19th century politicians to overlook and sometimes assist filibuster missions in the hopes to add to U.S. territory. This conflict meant the U.S. Army was reluctant to arrest filibusters who broke the terms of this legislation. Officers were worried that without permission from the American federal courts, such as the United States District Court to make these arrests, they could face arrest themselves.
Filibusters and the press There was widespread support in the press for filibusters' missions. A number of journalists were sympathetic towards filibusters, such as John O'Sullivan and Moses S. Beach at the famous New York Sun and L. J. Sigur of the New Orleans Daily Delta. All supported Narciso López's missions to Cuba. John S. Thrasher contributed articles for the annexation of Cuba in the New Orleans Picayune. Some enterprising enthused journalists also enlisted themselves to fight for filibustering missions, such as Richardson Hardy and John McCann of the Cincinnati Nonpareil. The poet Theodore O'Hara was a member of William Walker's expedition to Nicaragua. He worked on the Kentucky Yeoman and the Democratic Rally newspapers. After this, he served in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War (1861–1865).
However, filibustering was not universally praised in the press. Papers backing the Republican party's position of being anti-filibuster would use the term to denounce not just actors such as William Walker but also the abolitionist filibuster John Brown, who led a failed mission into Virginia with the aim of causing a slave revolt. Knowing it would harm their campaign, Republicans identified the actions of Brown as originating in the same lawless ideology as the Democrat endorsed Walker or the pro slavery factions operating in the Bleeding Kansas period, and hence inherently denounced his raid. Samuel Brannan's filibustering mission to Hawaii was identified by contemporary newspapers as being little more than a colonising scheme, although they refrained from passing moral judgement and the Daily Evening Picayune revised their opinion to the tamer 'emigrating company'.
Catholic newspapers had varying opinions on filibustering, but broadly denounced these missions for cultural hubris and violence. Despite criticisms of a 'mad spirit of aggression abroad', Catholic commentators often had more issue with the perceived moral decay domestically that filibusters represented, and could see potential in a Spanish Catholic revival abroad, even if it came as a consequence of violence.
Antebellum United States
Early 19th century There were a number of American filibusters in the early 19th century including (but not limited to) West Florida filibusters around Mobile, the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition, "plots against Pensacola in 1816, and multiple pushes into Texas.
Connection to slavery The mid-nineteenth century (1848–1860) saw Southern planters raise private armies for expeditions to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to acquire territories that could be annexed to the Union as slave states. Despite not being authorized by their government, Southern elites often held considerable sway over U.S. foreign policy and national politics. Despite widespread opposition from Northerners, filibustering thrust slavery into American foreign policy.
Historians have noted that filibustering was not a common practice and was carried out by "the most radical proslavery expansionists". Hardline defenders of slavery saw its preservation as their "top priority", leading to support for filibusters and their campaigns abroad. At the height of filibustering, pro-slavery politicians wanted to expand the United States further into Latin America, as far as Paraguay and Peru. However, these attempts were quickly withdrawn when military and diplomatic retaliation was pursued.
The author and filibuster Horace Bell observed that it could be unpopular to be opposed to filibusterism, as being so "was to be opposed to African slavery".
On the abolitionist side, John Brown was accused by both Catholic and pro Republican newspapers of being a filibuster after leaving New York and heading to Virginia to lead the raid on Harpers Ferry. Comparisons were drawn between his actions and those of Walker, notably how both aimed to use violence to change the status of slavery (with Walker wanting to introduce slavery and Brown wanting to destroy it).
Many future Confederate officers and soldiers, such as Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, of the Louisiana Tigers, obtained valuable military experience from filibuster expeditions.
William Walker