Filibusterism and Catholicity: Narciso López, William Walker, and the Antebellum Struggle for America's Souls
U.S. Catholic commentators denounced the filibustering expeditions of the antebellum decade—particularly Narciso López's attempts to liberate Cuba and William Walker's brief takeover of Nicaragua—as expressions of cultural hubris and revolutionary violence. The filibuster became an emblem in the Catholic press not only of the darker aspects of America's "Manifest Destiny" but also of a transatlantic tendency toward lawlessness; "filibusterism" became shorthand for all that threatened Christian civilization in the post-1848 world. What then did Catholic prelates and publicists make of the fact that López and Walker, not to mention many of their supporters, were themselves Catholic? By focusing on the contrition displayed in their dying moments, Catholic accounts turned the filibusters' fate into a lesson for the United States in the fractious 1850s: either accept the Catholic faith or succumb to social disorder
Article, 2015