 Narciso López was dropped off in Savannah, Georgia by the U.S. mail ship Isabel on May 25, 1850. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested for violating the Neutrality Act. The two Georgia lawyers represented him pro bono, and he was released within three hours, and López left Savannah only a few days later to travel to Mobile, Alabama. What López learned as he traveled through the South after his failed invasion of Cuba was that he had become famous. When people in the United States, both in the North and the South, learned of his exploits, despite his having faced defeat, there were waves of pro-Philibuster demonstrations. His face was in the paper so much that he was recognized regularly by passers-by, and public rallies were held to support him. People all over the country were excited about the possibility of invading Cuba. In Philadelphia, the Chestnut Theater even produced a play entitled, Invasion of Cuba with the lead actor portraying López. Much of this was driven by sensationalist journalism, which isn't as unique to the modern era as some people seem to believe. Newspapers wanted to sell papers. And pieces about López's heroic exploits helped accomplish this. But now the country was facing increasing divisions over slavery following the compromise of 1850, which had been introduced in January, but would not be passed for several months in September because of the lengthy congressional debate over it. Free soil papers railed against López's connection to slaveholders. Officers of the Philibusters accused British abolitionists of propelling the forces López was fighting against. Though many of these were pro-expansionists rather than pro-slavery, and they were simply pointing to abolitionists because the majority of the people in the country despised abolitionists, especially with this occurring so early in 1850 before the new Fugitive Slave Act had been passed. And López's exploits were spun to make his adventure seem like a success rather than a failure. The New York Sun wrote that it was, quote, In receipt of the glorious news of the successful landing of the Cuban patriots and the commencement of a general revolution for freedom throughout the island of Cuba, liberty has triumphed. Cuba is free, end quote. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but the positive spin strengthened the Philibuster status. People enjoy supporting a winner. Newspaper editors who had previously opposed López's Philibusters started to change their tune as López the hero sold papers better than López the failure. And few editors, save some of the openly anti-slavery ones like Horace Greeley, wanted to criticize a hero. López was famous, and he was ready to start preparing his next invasion. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. In the previous episode, I went over the first invasion by Narciso López and his small army of Philibusters. We left off after López had been driven from the island by Spanish forces, and he and his men barely escaped capture off the coast of Florida. Today we are going to finish the López story. López left Savannah for Mobile, and from Mobile he traveled back to New Orleans, where he had enjoyed previous recruiting success. López may have been a hero, but federal marshals had a warrant for his arrest, so he peacefully submitted and went to trial in the case United States v. Narciso López. I don't think it's necessary to bore you with the details of the arguments made in court, but each day, after the court adjourned, López found a crowd of supporters waiting for him. Capitalizing on his newfound fame, he made speeches to the crowd about the need to liberate Cuba from Spanish rule, which a translator related back to the crowd in English. After two weeks in court, the jury indicted López and 15 others, including John Quipman and John O'Sullivan, for violating the Neutrality Act of 1818. But not long after this ruling, President Zachary Taylor died from cholera on July 9, passing the presidency to Millard Fillmore. With Fillmore as president, Daniel Webster took the office of Secretary of State, and within a month of his taking this new position, he received an angry letter from Spain's minister to the U.S., asking why the Pirates of Cardenas, as the minister called them, were still not in prison. They were under federal indictment, and Fillmore, like Taylor, wanted to enforce the Neutrality Law. An indictment for clarification just means that the grand jury had decided that there was enough evidence to charge the filibusters with a federal crime, but the U.S. attorney in New Orleans, Logan Huntin, still had to obtain a conviction, and Fillmore promised federal support to help Huntin achieve this. But many people in New Orleans were sympathetic to López, even many who held local positions in the federal government. So when Washington was giving instructions to New Orleans federal officials, they couldn't really trust that their own people would support the federal government's objective. In many cases, López and his men actually were helped by federal officials in the city, which one Spanish spy referred to as quote, unquote, most damnable heresy. So Huntin's investigation into López's crime was hindered by his own colleagues in effect. So when the trial began in January of 1851, Huntin was basically facing obstacles brought about by the increasing distrust in the south of the central government that all related to the sectional dispute, especially with a wig in office. The evidence was on a side, but the city wasn't. So after weeks of argument, the jury was divided. The majority wanted to convict López, but with four determined to acquit him, the judge declared a mistrial. Two weeks later, John Quitman, one of the men indicted, resigned as governor of Mississippi, a response to his political battling with the federal government he didn't support. Out of all the filibusters who had been indicted, Quitman's was the one that really stirred tensions in the sectional crisis. He was a southern nationalist and being put on trial by a wig-controlled federal government only fanned the flames for his supporters. When he was indicted, he refused to submit to arrest and stand trial in New Orleans. He basically was able to turn the issue into a political controversy tied to the sectional crisis that was erupting over the recently passed compromise of 1850. Quitman actually called for a Mississippi Convention to consider secession. This was justified as a protest against the compromise of 1850, but Quitman was presenting it as a convention to determine how Mississippi could, in his words, assert her sovereignty. The sectional controversy provided him a popular excuse to defy the federal authorities who were commissioned with his arrest. The convention to decide secession wasn't scheduled until November of 1851, a year after Quitman called for it. Quitman's dilemma was that he couldn't tell what support he enjoyed was support for secession and what was support for Lopez, who was very popular in Mississippi. So Quitman was facing a major dilemma, and in February of 1851, he finally decided to submit to arrest following his resignation as governor. His resignation was tendered because he wanted to avoid setting the precedent that the federal government could arrest a sitting governor. If he submitted while in office, he would basically be handing more legal power to the federal government. So after posting bail, Quitman was received in New Orleans as an honored guest, and he made no attempts to hide his admiration for the filibusters and spoke readily about the United States' need to annex Cuba to spread American liberty. While he waited trial, other filibusters were being tried, and like Lopez, a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial. After the third mistrial, Hunton decided that no conviction was going to be achieved in any of the trials, and he dropped the prosecution of the remaining defendants. Supporters in Lafayette Square celebrated by firing 31 cannon blasts, one for each of the 30 states in the Union, and the last one for Cuba. While he was in New Orleans dealing with the trials, Lopez continued to prepare for another invasion of Cuba. Shortly after the charges were dropped, John O'Sullivan joined in by purchasing a ship called the Cleopatra in New York, where he also recruited some new volunteers himself. With Quitman no longer the governor, O'Sullivan tried to persuade him to sign on as the new commander of the filibuster army, but Quitman declined the offer once again. Lopez would remain in charge of the second expedition as well. Operating from different parts of the country, Lopez as primary supporters such as O'Sullivan and John Henderson brought him fresh recruits, many of whom were European exiles from Germany and Hungary, giving a more diverse mixture of nationalities than the first filibuster of American volunteers. But of course, many Americans joined the second filibuster as well. The recruits were brought to New Orleans where, just like before, they were given fake tickets, this time claiming that their ship's destination was Texas. Meanwhile, Spain was corresponding with Secretary of State Daniel Webster discussing their fears of further filibustering expeditions. Word of Lopez's plan had leaked out, just like before, and President Fillmore sent the USS Decatur to Havana to aid Spain in stopping the filibusters. Federal troops also seized to the filibuster ships, foiling Lopez's plans. Lopez and his men moved their operations to Georgia, planning to board the Cleopatra in Havana. With federal officials on the lookout for them, Lopez and Gonzales had to sneak into the city on a small country road rather than taking the train that would have been quicker. Once they reached Savannah, they got word from Osullivan that their ships had been taken. The only good news was that the weapons they had stashed in Georgia had not been seized. So the filibuster was foiled for the time, but in July of 1851, reports started to come into the United States press about revolts taking place in Cuba. The time seemed ripe for revolution. The federal government eventually released the Cleopatra and the delay seemed like it may have been fortuitous to Lopez, who sold the ship and used the funds to start preparing a new expedition back in New Orleans. As all this was going on, more reports kept coming in about successful revolts against the Spanish authorities in Cuba, giving Lopez a sense of urgency and optimism. Afraid to delay any longer, Lopez took the men and weapons he had, got hold of an old steamer called the Pempero, and took off for Cuba. When the Pempero landed in New Orleans, it required some mechanical repairs before the expedition could commence. Federal government was preparing to seize the Pempero, though, and Lopez only found this out because the plan was leaked through Fillmore's attorney general, John J. Crintenden. His son, William Crintenden, was one of Lopez's new recruits, and he was able to inform Lopez of the government's plans to seize the ship. So Lopez hastened his departure even more, deciding to set off the following evening, hoping that they could get far enough without making the necessary repairs to the ship until they could get safely away from federal authorities. They were able to depart without incident, but this is only because the federal customs collector at the port, William Fredit, refused to stop Lopez, even though he was instructed to do so days before. Fillmore fired him for this, but Lopez had gotten out of New Orleans without a problem. After six days on the water, though, officers in Lopez's army discovered that they only had enough coal for three more days of travel, and they hadn't even passed the tip of Florida yet. And because the repairs to the ship had been rushed, the ship was moving at barely more than half its normal speed. So the original plan called for a stopover on Florida's Atlantic coast to pick up reinforcements and cannons shipped in from Savannah, but there was no way they were gonna make it that far. The officers kept this information quiet so as not to upset the troop. So the ship stopped at Key West and Stephen Mallory, he would soon become a U.S. Senator, Stephen Mallory came aboard the ship and gave more news about successful uprisings. With most of the men unaware of the coal shortage, which was still kept secret, celebration took place on the ship. To deal with their coal shortage without revealing it to the men, Lopez and his officers used the reports of uprisings as a pretext to change their destination to Baha'i Honda, just west of Havana, where the men would unload and then the Pumpero would be sent back to Florida for their reinforcements. Most likely, Lopez was just impatient to join the revolution and the coal shortage was just one more barrier that is doing so. After only a few hours of celebration in Key West, the ship set off for Baha'i Honda, which they reached in the evening of August 11th. On the way to Cuba, they stopped a Spanish merchant ship and took the captain prisoner to help them navigate their landing. Once off the coast of Baha'i Honda, their captive advised them against entering shallow waters. So to avoid getting stuck, several men took a small boat to shore to scout out the area. Finally, they found a suitable landing site 10 miles west of Baha'i Honda in the village of El Murillo, where there was a small cove. The village was small and the pier was empty at night, so the ship coasted in just before midnight. But in a repeat of the bad luck of the first expedition, the ship got stuck in the shallow waters and the men had to take rowboats or swim the rest of the way to the shore with their weapons and their provisions. Small crew was left on the ship to wait for the rising tide before returning to Florida to pick up the reinforcements. What Lopez did not realize is that as he passed Havana, he thought he had been undetected, but he was mistaken. Having been spotted, Spanish authorities correctly assumed that the ship was carrying Lopez as they were expecting another invasion. To make matters worse, Lopez released the captive merchant ship captain at El Murillo, and he immediately took off to inform the authorities of Lopez's location. He also informed them that Lopez believed that rebellions were erupting in Havana, so this was where Lopez and his men were headed. With all of this information, the Spanish forces had plenty of time to prepare a counterattack while Lopez and his men were unloading their ship in the early morning hours of August 12th. Spanish general Manuel Inna, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but again, we're just going to have to tolerate my mispronunciations in these episodes. But general Inna and 750 soldiers under his command took off from Havana to Baha'i Honda. They traveled along the coast on board the very same ship that had nearly captured Lopez after the first expedition, the Bizarro. Another force of 400 men, 120 of whom were on horseback led by Colonel Yocan Morales, took a train to Guanahe, a town 40 miles southeast of Baha'i Honda. A third set of troops under the command of Colonel Angel Elizalde started marching directly toward Lopez from the town of Pinar del Rio, which was southwest of the filibuster's location. The plan was to attack Lopez from three different directions, cutting off any possible escape route. Lopez was unaware of any of this, of course. His men were completely unloaded by 4 a.m. and they had the shore to themselves. Lopez was confident. He was decked out in a white jacket and pantaloons and he had a red sash around his waist. I know you've seen these outfits and pictures at some point. Lopez had no weapons on him and he carried only his spyglass, which he kept in a leather case, slung over his shoulder. The first thing he did when he reached the shore that morning was to kneel down and kiss the Cuban soil. Ready for his invasion, Lopez split his men into two regiments. One group of 120 men led by Crintenden would stay at El Murillo to guard the supplies. The remaining 280 men would follow Lopez inland. As these orders were given, the men could see the Pempero come free in the rising tide and take off back toward Florida. As the men moved inland, they thought they were given a gift by local allies who supported the overthrow of Spain. They found four saddle horses already ready for them to ride. Not the least bit suspicious, the men truly believed these horses had been left by Cubans who supported them and the officers mounted them, now leading the men on horseback. As they marched through, the men who were not fortunate enough to get a horse were getting unruly. The sun was coming up, they were swatting mosquitoes and they were exhausted. Two men nearly broke out in a shooting match and some of the men tossed their muskets to lighten their load. Others stopped to take a break from marching in the August heat, telling the others they would catch up with them later. Finally, at two in the afternoon, the men came across the village of Las Posas. The men were surprised to see that the 50 or so houses in the village were almost completely empty. The place was nearly a ghost town with only a few villagers having remained while the others had been cleared out by local authorities earlier in the day. To the few villagers who were there, Lopez announced himself and his men as their liberators and friends. Then he ordered that the ox-pulled carts in the village be sent to Krentenden back in El Murillo, compensating the peasants he was stealing from with script, which is a type of money issued by various private companies in the 19th century, but this script was issued by Lopez, of course. So eight of Lopez's men took the carts and led them back toward El Murillo. 15 minutes later, a villager came running back into the town with the news that the bizarro had landed in a regiment of Spanish troops that unloaded at Baha'i Honda. This regiment was divided into two divisions. One division headed for Los Poses, where Lopez was, and the other headed for El Murillo. Lopez had to act quickly, but if he fled, he might be cut off from Krentenden. So instead, he sent a messenger to order Krentenden to abandon the ox carts and bring them into Los Poses as quickly as possible. But when Krentenden received the message, he was reluctant to abandon their supply, so he decided that he would wait until the following day to march to Los Poses. The next day came, and Krentenden and his men were having breakfast. While they were eating, the division from Baha'i Honda attacked, taking Krentenden by surprise. Despite this, his men were able to take their weapons quickly enough to fight back, and they drove the Spanish force into the forest. The small victory made them overconfident, though, and Krentenden and 80 of his soldiers pursued the Spanish troops into the forest with 40 filibusters remaining with the supplies. 10 minutes later, the Spaniards attacked again, and this time reinforced. Apparently the surprise attack was only launched after the portion of the Spanish division sent to El Murillo to draw Krentenden out, and the tactic worked. Now he and the 80 men with him were cut off from the 40 men guarding the supply, so Krentenden decided to make a break for Los Poses to join Lopez, but he kept getting cut off by Spanish troops from every direction. It was hopeless. Back in Los Poses, an even larger group of Spanish soldiers were attacking Lopez. The attack came at roughly the same time Krentenden was ambushed, so all of this was happening together. As Lopez's men slaughtered some cows to provide their breakfast, they were interrupted by musket fire. Spanish troops had apparently sneaked into one of the village houses, which they were able to do so and detected because the guards Lopez had posted abandoned their posts without telling anybody. So the filibusters grabbed their firearms, tipped with bayonets, and drove the Spanish troops out of the house. But soon after, a column of Spanish soldiers showed up, and the filibusters were clearly outnumbered. They took up arms and were able to disperse the column, a small success that cost them three of their officers. One was killed and two others were wounded. The wounds weren't fatal, but they were immobilized and not wanting to be captured by the Spanish. They committed suicide. When the battle was over, the filibusters counted between 30 and 35 of their men killed. According to their reports, the dead Spanish troops numbered about 180. There's no telling if the numbers are accurate, their estimates from records of one of the filibusters, but they are all we have. So in any case, the survivors retreated. Soon after the battle, Lopez sent men to search for Krentenden, but he was still missing by late in the afternoon, and Lopez was worried about Spanish troops, so he decided to leave without Krentenden. He and his men left at 2 a.m. the morning of August 14th, and they didn't stop marching until they reached a small farm at nine in the morning. His men helped themselves to food from the farm, and Lopez left his script as compensation to be redeemed after he conquered Cuba, which now seemed to be an especially empty gesture. They stayed in the farm until the afternoon, at which point they took off again and marched until they reached another farm on the morning of August 15th, four miles outside of Baja Ijanda. The men started to slaughter cattle for food, but at noon, a local gave them information about the Spanish troops. According to his report, there were 1,200 infantrymen, 200 cavalry, and some artillery at the port in Baja Ijanda. And he also informed Lopez that they knew where the filibusters were and were already on the march toward them. The Spanish strategy was to block the road to Baja Ijanda while also cutting off Lopez's rear so he couldn't escape. They would attack directly in the evening. Hardly having had time to rest, Lopez urged his men onward, trying to encourage them by promising them that they would soon be reinforced by local revolutionaries. The men reached the main road in advance of the Spanish troops, but his men were drained. To make the situation worse, a rainstorm came down and they were in the mountains so the ground underneath them became loose and they had trouble keeping a solid footing. They stopped again at 11 that night when they came upon another small farm. At the farm, they met two men who were sympathetic to Lopez and his cause. They were from Havana and although they were local allies, like Lopez had been hoping to find, they did not have good news. The uprisings at Puerto Príncipe and Trinidad had been suppressed by the Spanish before Lopez and his men had even left for the United States. When Lopez had been rushing to join the revolution, it had already been stopped and he had no way of knowing. He had led his men into a hopeless situation. His men took the night to get a few hours of sleep before departing again the next morning with their spirits at an all-time low. Shortly before noon, they stopped at another plantation to eat, killing some cattle and taking some crops, still giving the plantation owner the script that at this point was entirely meaningless as there was no longer any hope of conquering Cuba. But a small glimmer of hope was renewed at 4 p.m. when they came across a peasant who carried word that another uprising was getting ready to occur at San Cristobal in the south side of the mountains that they were marching through. This wasn't much, but after all the disappointing news they'd been given during the march, this was at least something positive. At this point, maybe 250 or so men remained with Lopez and many of them had tossed their weapons to lighten their load during the march. But this pending revolt was the best hope they had. So the men took off for San Cristobal but when they stopped for lunch at a plantation at noon on the 17th, they were attacked by a regiment of about 650 Spanish infantry and 300 Lancers. But they had stopped for lunch at a mango grove that overlooked a ridge away from the plantation's main building, so when the Spanish attacked by charging into an open field below the ridge they were completely exposed to the filibuster fire. Safely above the Spanish troops, the men who still had muskets fired them at the Spaniards and when the smoke cleared they could see men and horses strewn about the field injured or dead. Among the casualties was General Inna who led the troops. Lopez's men suffered three wounded and no one dead. One of the wounded filibusters was the victim of friendly fire in fact, so the Spanish only hit two of Lopez's men. But the victory was hardly good news. It was only by luck that they had survived it but the attack let them know that the Spanish knew where they were. Motivated by fear more than optimism at this point the men hurried toward San Cristobal which meant days of marching to get around the mountains. On August 23rd, the men were exhausted. Their clothes were in tatters. They were drenched from the rain and they only had about 10 working muskets left between them. Several of the troops at this point were barefoot and their feet were visibly swollen and bruised from marching for so many days in the mountains. This was the state of Lopez's men as they descended the mountain towards San Cristobal. As they approached the town they were immediately attacked by musket fire and the filibusters scattered. Some of the men were shot and others were immediately captured. The lucky ones if they could be considered lucky at this point escaped into the woods including Lopez. Three days later the commanding general announced that any filibusters who surrendered would not be executed. Lopez assumed that this generosity would not apply to him so he continued to hide until he was finally captured on August 28th. At this point remember Lopez still had no idea what had happened to Krentenden and the rest of his men two weeks earlier. He and his men fell to make it to Las Posas but they escaped immediate capture by the Spaniards and they were able to return to El Murillo. On August 14th they boarded into four small boats and tried to make it to Key West but on their second day on the water they were picked up by the Spanish and taken to Havana. They arrived at Havana on August 16th while Lopez and his troops were on the march. Krentenden's fate as well as that of his men had already been decided by the Spanish authorities. Wanting to evade any attempts by the US to negotiate their prisoner's freedom they were sentenced to death by firing squad without trial before they even arrived in Havana. Keep in mind that Krentenden was the nephew of the attorney general so it was understandable that the Spanish wanted to avoid negotiations. On August 16th Krentenden and his remaining filibusters were executed at 11 o'clock in the morning just outside of Castle Ataris in Havana. Most of the men were lined up for execution in groups of five or six but Krentenden was given special treatment. He was executed first by himself. According to legend though it's unverified historically Krentenden bravely refused his blindfold and refused to kneel proudly declaring in front of his executioners quote a Kentucky and kneels to not accept his God and always dies facing his enemy end quote. But only minutes before he was killed he wrote a short letter to his uncle the attorney general and it said quote dear uncle in a few minutes some 50 of us will be shot. We came here with Lopez you will do me the justice to believe that my motives were good. I was deceived by Lopez. He as well as the public press assured me that the island was in a state of prosperous revolution. I am commanded to finish writing at once. I will die like a man end quote. If you remember from the last episode I told the story about how after Lopez's first conspiracy was foiled and he escaped to the US he was tried in absentee and sentenced to death. When this took place executions were not done by firing squad they were carried out in a much less humane manner. Executions were done in an iron chair that had a pair of clasps on its back to strap in the victim's head. Below the clasps was a metal collar that would be put around the victim's throat and on the collar's back was a screw that would pull the ends of the collar together tightening it. The executioner would have to screw the collar tighter and tighter slowly strangling the person to death. By 1851 this method of execution was no longer in practice but it was still in practice when Lopez had been sentenced to death in 1848. That death sentence the authorities decided was still in effect. So Lopez was to be executed in this manner. Lopez tried to appeal to his captors that because of his years of service in the Spanish military he should be executed by firing squad but his appeals were dismissed. At age 54 Narciso Lopez was brought out by a line of Spanish soldiers onto the wooden platform that held the chair. Accompanied by two friends who were permitted to be with him he climbed the steps of the platform and kneeled to offer a quick prayer. Then he stood up and faced the crowd who had assembled to witness the execution and addressed them saying quote, countryman I most solemnly in this last awful moment of my life ask your pardon for any injury I have caused you. It was not my wish to injure anyone my object was your freedom and happiness. My intention was good and my hope is in God, end quote. With that Lopez took his seat on the iron chair put his head in position without resistance and to let the executioner fix the collar around his throat. He offer some words to his friends we don't know what he said and then he kissed a small cross he had with him. Minutes later he was dead. Narciso Lopez failed at liberating Cuba but in the United States there were still many people who wanted to see its annexation. When Franklin Pierce took the presidency he apparently met privately with John Whitman to encourage him to filibuster in Cuba this time with better forces than Lopez had been able to muster. He also authorized the offer of $130 million for Cuba and Senator John Slidel introduced a bill to suspend the neutrality law of 1818. Cuba looked positioned to be taken by the US by force if Spain continued to refuse to sell it voluntarily but the administration backed off of Cuba after events started to erupt in the Kansas territory. Pierce didn't want to alienate the northern members of the Democratic Party by agitating for a new slave territory in the Caribbean while he was trying to bring Kansas into the union as a slave state in the west. The month after Lopez's execution some Cuban immigrants and southern expansionists formed a group called the Order of the Lone Star. This group was formed in the office of John Henderson the Mississippi cotton planner and US Senator who had spent thousands of dollars to become Lopez's largest financial backer. The goal of this group was to achieve the US annexation of Cuba and bring it into the country as a new slave holding territory. Another US Senator, Pierre Soleil. I don't know if it's pronounced Soleil or Soleil I see it sometimes written with an accent over the E and sometimes not. So I'm pronouncing it Soleil which I believe is the correct pronunciation but forgive me if it's not. But Pierre Soleil from Louisiana served as the group's president. He was also the person by the way commissioned by President Pierce to offer Spain the 130 million dollars for Cuba. When William Walker invaded Nicaragua and installed himself as president there Pierre Soleil would be the person who would convince him to repeal the abolition of slavery and open the country to the peculiar institution once again. The Nicaragua filibuster will be the topic of our next episodes. For more content like this, visit mesus.org.