England, but in 1857 the British government sent Sir Francis Napier to Washington to take Crampton's place. To the Declaration of Paris of 1856, prescribing certain rules of naval warfare, Marcy on behalf of his government refused to subscribe, because Great Britain had rejected his proposed amendment exempting from seizure in time of war all private property not contraband. The diplomatic relations of the United States and Spain furnished, perhaps, the most perplexing of Marcy's problems. Upon the seizure (on Feb. 28, 1854) of the American vessel "Black Warrior," the confiscation of her cargo, and the fining of her captain by the Cuban authorities, on the ground that this vessel had violated the customs regulations of the port of Havana, slavery propagandists sought to force the administration into an attitude that would lead to war with Spain and make possible the seizure of Cuba; and it was largely due to Marcy's influence that war was averted, Spain restoring the confiscated cargo and remitting the captain's fine.[2] The secretary, however, was not averse to increasing his popularity and his chances for the presidency by obtaining Cuba in an honourable manner, and it was at his suggestion that James Buchanan, J. Y. Mason and Pierre Soulé, the ministers respectively to Great Britain, France and Spain, met at Ostend and Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1854 to discuss the Cuban question. But the remarkable "Ostend Manifesto" (see BUCHANAN, JAMES), the outcome of their conference, was quite unexpected, and Marcy promptly disavowed the document. Marcy died at Ballston Spa, New York, on the 4th of July 1857, a short time after the close of Pierce's administration. In domestic affairs Marcy was a shrewd, but honest partisan; in diplomacy he exhibited the qualities of a broad-minded, patriotic statesman, endowed, however, with vigour, rather than brilliancy, of intellect. For his early career, consult J. S. Jenkins, _Lives of the Governors of New York_ (Auburn, New York, 1851), and for his work as secretary of state, see James Ford Rhodes, _History of the United States_ (vols. i. and ii., New York, 1892), and an article by Sidney Webster, "Mr Marcy, the Cuban Question, and the Ostend Manifesto," in vol. viii. of the _Political Science Quarterly_ (New York, 1893). FOOTNOTES: