James Gadsden

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James Gadsden (1788-1858), American railroad promoter and a leading advocate of Southern nationalism, was the minister to Mexico responsible for the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.

James Gadsden was born in Charleston, S.C., on May 15, 1788, the grandson of a Revolutionary patriot. After graduating from Yale College in 1806, Gadsden entered business and then became a professional Army officer, rising to the rank of colonel by 1820. During the War of 1812 he served as an engineer and as an aide to Gen. Andrew Jackson. Later he fought against the Seminole Indians and was responsible for securing the evidence which led to the seizure, trial, and execution of two British agents.

In 1821 Gadsden served as adjutant general, but the Senate refused to confirm his appointment. Gadsden resigned from the Army and moved to Florida, where he was active in the territory's affairs. In 1823 he was responsible for placing the Seminoles on reservations and for building the state's first roads. He failed several times in bids to represent the Florida territory in Congress. Because in 1832 he backed nullification of President Jackson's earlier Tariff Act, he lost the support and friendship of the President.

During the 1830s Gadsden became an exponent of Southern nationalism and the expansion and integration of all Southern railroads. He proposed to end Southern economic dependency on the North by providing a direct link between the South and Europe, connecting all Southern railroads into one system, and connecting the Southern system with the Pacific Coast. He promoted these schemes at a number of Southern economic conferences between 1837 and 1850. Between 1840 and 1850 Gadsden served as president of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad and greatly expanded its mileage. His ideas concerning Southern transportation were farsighted, but he was continually frustrated both by his devotion to Southern nationalism and by the general opposition of other Southern leaders whose notions of states' rights prevented effective regional development.

In 1853 Gadsden urged the purchase of territory along the Gila River from Mexico for the purpose of building a southern railroad between New Orleans and California. He won the support of U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and, through Davis's efforts, was appointed minister to Mexico. Gadsden next advocated purchasing extensive territory from Mexico, but he was successful in acquiring only a small strip (now parts of New Mexico and Arizona), which became known as the Gadsden Purchase. He died on Dec. 26, 1858.

Further Reading

There is no biography of Gadsden, but background information can be found in Paul Neff Garber, The Gadsden Treaty (1923). See also James Morton Callahan, American Foreign Policy in Mexican Relations (1932).

Lieutenant James Gadsden

James Gadsden (May 15, 1788 – December 25, 1858)^[1] was an American diplomat, soldier and businessman and namesake of the Gadsden Purchase, in which the United States purchased from Mexico the land that became the southern portion of Arizona and New Mexico.

Biography

He was born in 1788 in Charleston, South Carolina, the grandson of American Revolutionary patriot Christopher Gadsden. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1806.

Gadsden served in the United States Army under General (and future US president) Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 and again in the newly-acquired territory of Florida in the early 1820s. While in Florida, Gadsden established Fort Gadsden in the Florida panhandle and helped to establish Fort Brooke at the site of present-day Tampa, Florida. Gadsden then left the army and was appointed a commissioner in 1823 to assist the government in moving the Seminoles to reservations in Oklahoma. Gadsden County in Florida was named in his honor.

He served as president of the South Carolina Railroad from 1840 to 1850 and promoted the construction of a transcontinental railroad by the southern route. In 1853, he was appointed U.S. minister to Mexico to negotiate the Gadsden Treaty which led to the Gadsden Purchase by the United States from Mexico of about 30,000 square miles (78,000 km²) in the southern section of what is now Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

References

1. ^ "James Gadsden". NNDB. Soylent Communications. 2008. http://www.nndb.com/people/610/000104298/. Retrieved 2008-02-28. 

Military offices
Preceded by Daniel Parker	Adjutant General of the U. S. Army August 13, 1821-March 22, 1822	Succeeded by Charles J. Nourse (acting)

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