Foreign policy by whom? United States citizens, the press, and the Leander Expedition, 1805--1810

This paper explores United States participation in Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda's failed effort to overthrow colonial rule in Spanish America in 1806. It is a foreign relations study "from below" which argues that, at this inchoate stage in U.S. international involvement, common citizens helped drive their government's stance on foreign policy. Miranda did not receive official consent from the United States federal government, yet he secured the aid of private investors who outfitted him with supplies and a ship and recruited a crew of two hundred American men. After departing from New York City in February of 1806 aboard the Leander, Miranda and his crew ultimately encountered Spanish authorities in Venezuela and faced imprisonment and execution. This expedition has been largely ignored in United States history, yet it laid the groundwork for later U.S. foreign policy. An analysis of first hand accounts of the expedition, the trial of two of Miranda's most influential supporters, and newspaper articles from throughout the country written before, during, and after the Leander expedition reveal an American public that shaped the national conversation about foreign policy. Segments of the public desired commercial and political ties with their neighbors to the south, and, to some extent, advocated the liberation of Spanish America. In the early nineteenth century, actors outside of the government directed the nature of United States foreign relations.