The Gadsden Purchase

With the debate and arguing going on in Congress and all over the country between anti- and pro-slavery factions, the South was determined to tie the Far West to its cause, not only through slavery but also through economic interests.

The dream of laying rails across the mountains and deserts of the West, of linking the West to the East was years old.  One of the major advocates was Jefferson Davis who became President Pierce's secretary of war.  Davis was determined that the route of commerce be through the South, from New Orleans to the Pacific via Texas and New Mexico. 

There was one problem to that - the best route would still have to go through Mexican land.  Davis urged the President to send James Gadsden, a rail executive from South Carolina, to negotiate with Mexico for the land needed.  On December 30, 1853, some 30,000 square miles of Arizona and New Mexico were transferred to the United States for $15 million (later reduced to $10 million). 

With the Gadsden Purchase (there are actually two spellings to this name), the United States borders now formed the present shape (except Alaska and Hawaii),  Before those boundaries could be made secure, however, the question of slavery would have to be resolved and that proved to threaten the country's very existence.



Next time...John Smith and company
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Today in Pioneer History:  On May 15, 1856, after the shooting of a prominent journalist, San Franciscans form their second vigilance committee to combat lawlessness, in a town that had grown in 2 years from 900 inhabitants to a booming metropolis with more than 200,000 residents.