Filibustering is defined today as long-winded speeches by politicians mainly done to annoy opponents from rival political parties. Back in the 19th century it was much different.
Filibusters were adventurers, men right of a comic book legend that went out and founded empires and made their own destinies. Today we will review two of them from American history.
Aaron Burr
In 1805 former vice president Aaron Burr was a broken man. He had dueled and killed Alexander Hamilton, one of the most popular men in America. He was shunned by society, he was out of office, and he was nearly bankrupt.
But 19th century America was a land of opportunity and new beginnings and Burr sought his new beginning out west. Back then of course out west meant Ohio and the Louisiana purchase.
Burr met with two men. One was General James Wilkinson, a crooked army officer in charge of the army post in New Orleans, the other man was Harman Blennerhasset, an exiled Irish lord that set up an estate on an island on the Ohio river.
The three men decided that they would invade Mexico, which was then much larger and included Texas, California, and the southwest. Using a small army they would seize the frontier and set up their own country. They began gathering men and weapons on Blennerhasset’s island and had nice little army ready by 1806.
However, fate stepped in. Wilkinson as well as being crooked, was a spy for hire and he decided to cash in by telling the Spanish about the plot and to tell his own government as well and make himself look good in the process.
So the governor of Ohio called out the state militia and captured the island. Burr was put on trial for treason. Using every political favor he was owed and his own brilliant legal mind (he was after all one of the best lawyers in North America at the time) he was able to get an acquittal.
In his later life as he lay dying in Staten Island he heard about the Texas revolution taking place in 1836 and said “What was treason in my heart 30 years ago is now patriotism”.
William Walker
One of the most amazing and capable Americans ever, was born in Tennessee in 1824. William Walker was a gifted student. He excelled in all his studies and graduated from the University of Nashville (a precursor of Vanderbilt University) at age 14. He then went on to study medicine and received a medical degree in Philadelphia. Later on he traveled to New Orleans and studied law. He soon got bored with these pursuits and in 1849 he joined the gold rush in California.
But soon even this adventure was not enough for him and he was soon working as a reporter in San Francisco, One night sitting in a bar and talking to friends he came up with the idea of invading the west coast of Mexico.
With 45 men he invaded Baja California and captured the capital and declared the free republic of Sonora. The Mexican government took notice and sent a force to kick him out. Back in the US he was charged with inciting a war but such was his charm that a jury took only 8 minutes to acquit him.
He wasn’t done yet. He had a bigger bolder plan. Nicaragua was in the middle of a civil war and needed mercenaries. Walker assembled a force of 300 men and landed in Nicaragua. Once there he defeated the federal army and set up a local as president. Walker ruled in all but name.
He angered the locals by re-establishing slavery and trying to impose English as the official language. Walker’s idea was to expand his newly won empire around the Gulf and establish what was known in the South as the “Golden Circle”. A ring of slave owning states and countries around the Gulf Of Mexico that included the Old South, Mexico, Cuba, and northern South America.
The local Nicaraguan people resented being made unwilling pawns in Walker’s grandiose plans. This resentment soon boiled over and a rebellion to oust Walker soon began to take shape and got support from other Central American nations.
Walker got in contact with Cornelius Vanderbilt to set up a route to cross passengers from ships in the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. This would make millions for Vanderbilt. But Walker got greedy and tried to offer the same deal to Vanderbilt’s rivals.
Angered by this, Vanderbilt got the US government to declare Walker a pirate and he also funded the Nicaraguan rebels to kick Walker out. Soon an army of Central American troops banded together and kicked Walker out. In fact the Anniversary of this battle is still celebrated in Costa Rica.
Walker decided to try his luck once more and with a force of men invaded Honduras. This time his luck ran out. The British had a colony next door called British Honduras (now Belize) and did not like Walker causing trouble. So the Royal Navy seized Walker and turned him over the Honduran government who promptly had him shot.
It’s hard to imagine that men with such grandiose dreams once dared to act on these dreams and nearly got away with it. How might the present look like if these empires had been allowed to flourish.
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