James Gadsden

(1788-1858)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:James_Gadsden.jpg 

In the beginning...

 James Gadsden was born May 15, 1788 in Charleston, South Carolina to Phillip and Catherine Gadsden. After enduring an undistinguished adolescence, Gadsden graduated from Yale College in 1806. He returned to Charleston and entered into the field of business, eventually abandoning that career for the United States Army where he served under General Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812.

Mr. Gadsden and Mr. Jackson

After Andrew Jackson's invasion of Spanish Florida in the The First Seminole War of 1818, Florida came under American ownership as a result of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. However, the wars against the Seminole Indians were far from over. Jackson was appointed first U.S. governor over the Florida territory and subsequently launched an attack on the Seminoles still inhabiting the peninsula. Colonel James Gadsden, fighting alongside future president Andrew Jackson, was appointed Indian commissioner. He was asked to draw up a new treaty with the Seminoles which forced the Indians out of Florida and to the West in order "to render... [the Seminoles] perfectly subservient to the views of the government. Unfortunately, Mr. Gadsden's relationship with Mr. Jackson was doomed. In 1832, James Gadsden refused to support President Jackson's Tariff Act and lost the support and friendship of his comrade in arms.

A pen and ink drawing that portrays a Seminole Indian following a trail during the First Seminole War, led by General Andrew Jackson.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/american-indians/pictures/seminole/seminole.jpg

(Click here to learn more about the Seminole Indians!) 

The Gadsden Purchase of 1853

During President Pierce's term in office, James Gadsden was appointed minister to Mexico through his close friend, Jefferson Davis, the chief counselor and Secretary of War in Pierce's cabinet. In 1853, Gadsden was sent to Mexio City in order to negotiate Indian settlements and purchase a small piece of land to build a railway to the Gulf of California. While in Mexico, Gadsden seized the opportunity to obtain as much land as possible from Mexico's desperate leader, Santa Anna. Upon sending a wire to Washington to tell of this good fortune, the government sent orders for Gadsden to purchase as much land as possible for $50,000. However, Gadsden spent well over the allowed amount and was later dismissed from his position as minister to Mexico for going overboard on spending. The land he purchased, which is now a part of Arizona and New Mexico, became known as the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. 

In Honor of Mr. James Gadsden

In 1846, four friends of Colonel James Gadsden, Gabriel and Joseph Hughes, John Moragne, and General D.C. Turrentine purchased land in Alabama with the intent of forming a new town. In James Gadsden's honor, the four named the town Gadsden. In the town of Gadsden, Leonidas Grant and T.J. Cox founded The Gadsden Times to further commemorate the man who gave their town its name.

http://pics2.city-data.com/city/maps/fr904.png

In the end...

James Gadsden ended up spending ten million dollars for the Gadsden purchase. He is best known for securing this piece of land in order to build a Pacific railroad connecting the South to the West. Gadsden did not live to see the construction of the railroad.

On December 25, 1858, James Gadsden died in Charleston, South Carolina.

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Page created by:  Monica G

Avon High School, Avon, Indiana

Date created: May 21, 2008

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