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destiny’s
inept diplomat
How William Carey Jones
“Lost” Central America
B y L orraine M c C onaghy
In the expansion of America’s manifest destiny during the mid-1800s, Nicaragua was an appealing
target with its pathway from ocean to ocean across Central America
Antebellum western boundaries seemed easily borrowed to clothe such freebooting advertised as cooler and healthier. During
fluid to many, and the nation’s destiny expeditions as crusading acts of “regeneration” the first years of the Nicaragua transit’s
seemed manifest to continue its imperialist to “liberate” former European colonies, operation, an average of 2,000 Americans
momentum, pursuing an ordained mission. disguising conquest as redemption. Aggressive made the crossing each month, mostly
The U.S. Navy, the Pacific Squadron, expansionists in the Young America wing of heading westward to golden California.
William Walker—the “grey-eyed man the Democratic Party looked west and south According to a contemporary journalist in
of destiny”—and the exceptionally inept to a variety of targets, including Nicaragua Putnam’s Magazine, travelers had “ample time
diplomat William Carey Jones all shared in and its transit, the pathway from ocean to to admire the splendid country through which
that undertaking and its ultimate failure. ocean across Central America. they passed, to look with utter contempt on
The Mexican War had trained a generation The Panama transit is familiar to us today, the natives, and to speculate on what a country
of fighting men to fulfill the American mission but in the 1850s, an alternative route across it would be if it were only under the stars and
by gaining new territory and subduing its Nicaragua was equally appealing. Cornelius stripes.” To expansionist Americans, Nicaraguans
inhabitants under force of arms. They formed Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Company were not fit to look out for themselves. Above
a pool of recruits for a “filibuster”: a private developed a segmented passage from Greytown all, they could not manage the transit so vital to
military expedition to conquer territory on the Atlantic side to San Juan del Sur on the American interests in the west.
outside U.S. borders, from Cuba to the Pacific, by steamer and stagecoach.
Sandwich Islands. Opened in 1851, the Nicaragua route “Conquering” Nicaragua
Manifest destiny’s lush rhetoric was cut 700 miles off the Panama route and was In May 1855, William Walker sailed from
San Francisco to Realejo, Nicaragua,
leading 60 filibuster soldiers. Invited by
the representative of a Nicaraguan political
faction, he soon became the “general” of an
army of more than 2,000 fighters in a private
war to conquer Nicaragua.
Under the Neutrality Law, U.S. citizens
were forbidden to mount such private military
expeditions. However, Walker’s successful
invasion initially had national support from
Americans in and out of government.
President Franklin Pierce formally recognized
the Walker administration as Nicaragua’s
Top left: The navigable San Juan River was a vital 120-mile link in the
Nicaragua route between New York and California in the 1850s.
Bottom left: Walker’s troops rest after the successful battle to take
Granada. Bottom right: Gen. William Walker landing troops at Fort
Castillo, Nicaragua.
32 Prologue
legitimate government. Many expansionists Then, in September 1856, William Walker
saw the filibuster as the first step to “pave the way reinstituted slavery in Nicaragua, a strategic
for large scale American settlement and eventual bid to tap the resources of the American
annexation of these areas to the United States.” South to filibuster the Pacific West. Writing
The United States Democratic Review pointed in his 1860 autobiography, Walker recalled
out that “every sensible man . . . has expressed the proclamation of the slavery decree as
a strong desire for the Americanization of “calculated to bind the Southern States to
Central America [and its] possession . . . is no Nicaragua, as if she were one of themselves.”
less desirable than was the acquisition of Texas Walker claimed that his goal had always
or Kansas, or even of California.” been to provide slavery with a refuge—a
For a time, William Walker was celebrated tropical empire “beyond the limits of the William Walker was sworn in as president of
Nicaragua at the Church of our Lady of Mercy in
as Young America’s national agent of Union”—and that Nicaragua was just the
Granada.
manifest destiny, a pioneer on the “Isthmian beginning. DeBow’s Review praised the
and Caribbean frontier.” “glorious acquisition” of Nicaragua as “a Walker and his senior staff sailed to
Following an election of dubious legality, new State to be added to the South, in or Panama on board the St. Mary’s on May 2,
Walker became president of Nicaragua out of the Union” which Walker had taken 1857, then headed across the isthmus and
and authorized a “crash program” of “possession of in the name of the white race.” on to New Orleans, where he was met with
Americanization. He confidently revoked But the filibuster soon faced a series of “almost frantic enthusiasm.” He went to
the vital transit charter and awarded it to disastrous setbacks. work planning the second filibuster.
Vanderbilt’s rivals to cement a new alliance Meanwhile, on June 5, 1857, Commodore
with them. A Hasty Exit Mervine directed Commander Henry
And Walker’s message of recruitment By January 1857, Walker’s romp was over. Knox Thatcher to prepare the sloop-of-war
called to a generation of Young Americans British warships blockaded the Atlantic side Decatur to receive U.S. State Department
eager to wrap their personal ambition in the to prevent supplies and reinforcements from “special agent” William Carey Jones.
flag, to be both successful and heroic, to be reaching Walker. Supported by a vengeful Secretary of State Lewis Cass had delegated
both an opportunist and a knight. Vanderbilt, Costa Rican Gen. Joaquin Mora Jones to “negotiat[e] between the hostile parties
Stateside newspapers breathlessly reported rallied troops from Costa Rica, Honduras, [in Nicaragua], and assist to end the contest.”
Walker’s successes, his lavish entertainments, El Salvador, and Guatemala into an allied Jones agreed to this difficult and dangerous
his “groaning” table and “elegant” ladies. One army, determined to drive out the invaders. assignment, expecting to “enter the camps . .
observer noted that the streets of Granada Ridden with desertion, illness, hunger, and . of belligerent forces” and to carry “weapons
were soon “thronging with the representatives fatigue, Walker’s army was “driven back step of defense.” At $8 a day plus expenses, Jones
of ‘Young America’,” hoping for a crusade, by step into a corner,” according to the New was to “visit the states of Central America for
good pay, and a 250-acre rancho. York Times, and U.S. representatives prepared the purpose of observing and reporting upon
to negotiate a settlement, rescue American the condition of affairs in that quarter, and
citizens among the filibusters, and reopen the of preventing, as far as possible, the recent
Nicaragua transit, held by the Costa Rican occurrences there from affecting injuriously
alliance, initiatives that involved the U.S. Navy. the interests of this country.” At the time Jones
Pacific Squadron Commodore William received these orders from Cass, Walker had
Mervine ordered Commander Charles Henry not yet surrendered.
Davis to sail the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s north
to meet with senior officers of the Walker Enter Mr. Jones
camp and the Costa Rican high command. William Carey Jones was an attorney in his
Davis found that he was uniquely placed to mid-40s, the son-in-law of Missouri Senator
negotiate a ceasefire and Walker’s surrender. Thomas Hart Benton and the brother-in-law
The Navy commander and the filibuster of California settler and politician John C.
general signed an agreement in which Frémont. Marrying Benton’s daughter Eliza,
William Walker, the “grey-eyed man of destiny,” was
celebrated as Young America’s national agent of
Walker surrendered to the U.S. Navy rather Jones smoothly entered the world of political
manifest destiny. than to the Costa Rican alliance. patronage, and his appointment depended on
plans were frustrated by “sinister controlling Rica and Nicaragua were punished for their Martinez remarked that he suspected Fields
influences,” and he was insulted, almost “outrages on our citizens.” would join any future filibuster, and perhaps
mocked. He was deeply offended by Jones agreed.
theatrical displays of insolence, he couldn’t Absorbing the Failures In one of his final reports to Cass, Jones
keep his temper, and he drank far too much. The most foolish element of Jones’s bumbling suggested that 500 armed men could easily
He was convinced that his correspondence diplomacy was his continued relationship seize the Nicaragua transit, if the force could
was being opened and read. He was irritated with filibuster veterans. “escape the vigilance of the authorities
with Cass and with his assignment: he On the heels of taking up with Edwards of the United States.” If, as Jones was
complained that he had “all the duties and and hiring two former filibusters in San convinced, his mail was being intercepted,
more than the responsibilities of a diplomatic José, Jones hired a third in Nicaragua—a this inflammatory suggestion was de-
minister, without his power, privileges Mr. Fields—to serve as his private secretary, liberately written to be read by Martinez,
or position.” His bids to be appointed “who told me very frankly that he had been Mora, and their staffs. Jones had abandoned
ambassador had met with stony silence; in the army of Walker . . . the fact of [which] his mission.
there was no Navy warship to support him. was not a crime and to have continued until Meanwhile, in the states, Walker was
And he thought it was high time that Costa the capitulation rather a virtue.” President raising just such a force, as he organized