“Filibuster”

Asked the meaning of the term filibuster modern Americans are likely to conjure up images of politicians rendering long-winded speeches to delay the passage of legislation. Prior to 1900, however, filibuster was most frequently applied to American adventurers who raised or participated in private military forces that either invaded or planned to invade foreign countries with which the United States was formally at peace. Although peoples of other countries occasionally filibustered, only the United States gained repute as a filibustering nation.

Young American Males and Filibustering in the Age of Manifest Destiny: The United States Army as a Cultural Mirror by Robert E. May, The Journal of American History, December 1991, Vol. 78, No. 3, pp. 857-886.

FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITIONS.

The era of filibustering expeditions against Central America and Cuba, for the purpose of adding slave territory to the United States, began in 1851. This year a Cuban named Lopez—assisted by some of our citizens in fitting out an expedition—sailed from New Orleans, with five hundred men, to conquer Cuba. He was defeated and put to death, and his men imprisoned. Strenuous efforts were made to procure their release.

Soon after the appearance of the Ostend circular, William Walker, of Tennessee, at the head of a body of men, sailed from New Orleans to conquer Central America. He entered Nicaragua “in the character of an ally to one of the factions habitually disputing the mastery of that, as well as of most other Spanish-American countries.” In this capacity he was aided by native soldiers, and succeeded in capturing Granada, the stronghold of the opposing faction. Upon this, he assumed the rank of general, and soon afterward the title of President of Nicaragua, and decreed that slavery should be re-established in that country. By these acts he excited the jealousy of the natives, and after struggling against them two years, he surrendered at Rivas, May 1, 1857, to a coalition of the Central American states. He returned to New Orleans, and sailed for Nicaragua with a second expedition, but Commodore Paulding, of our navy, brought him back a prisoner to New York. On being released, he conducted a third expedition to Nicaragua, and landed at Truxillo. He was opposed by the President of Honduras, with five hundred men, and by the commander of a British man-of-war. By these he was captured, condemned, and shot. This ended filibustering in the interest of acquiring territory.

Filibustering Expeditions by Walter R. Houghton, History American Politics (Non-Partisan), 1884, pp. 310-311.