Gadsden Purchase Treaty Signed -- December 30, 1853
On December 30, 1853, the Gadsden Purchase Treaty was signed, giving the United States approximately 45,000 square miles of northern Mexico. President Franklin Pierce and his Secretary of State Jefferson Davis wanted the land - which now comprises New Mexico and a quarter of southern Arizona - for a proposed southern transcontinental railroad. Pierce appointed South Carolinian railroad promoter James Gadsden as American minister to Mexico and charged him with negotiating a treaty with President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna of Mexico. After a few false starts, Gadsden and Santa Anna agreed on a treaty in which the United States would purchase 55,000 square miles for $15 million dollars. In addition, the treaty resolved outstanding differences between the two nations regarding the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican War.
The Gadsden Purchase aroused significant opposition at home, especially during the debate over Senate ratification. Antislavery politicians charged that the treaty was actually an effort to expand slavery. Railroad promoters seeking a northern transcontinental railroad objected to the purchase for it seemed to insure the demise of their favored project. These protests were to no avail, however. On April 25, 1854, the Senate ratified the treaty but reduced the land grant and cut the payment to $10 million dollars. In June, the House passed an appropriations bill, and the treaty went into effect.
The Gadsden Purchase was an important but limited victory for President Pierce. His administration obtained a sizable amount of land without war and settled international problems resulting from the Mexican War. Pierce's southern allies acquired the land they needed to build a southern railroad route to the Pacific. However, Pierce's victory came at a price. As the treaty's ratification debate demonstrated, the Gadsden Purchase inflamed sectional tensions over the expansion of slavery. This issue was a recurring problem for the Pierce Administration - and one it failed to solve.
For more information, please visit the Franklin Pierce home page or go to more Events in Presidential History.
