Nicholas (Philip) Trist

Lawyer and diplomat, born in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. He attended West Point but left to study law in the office of Thomas Jefferson (whose granddaughter he married). He entered the State Department in 1828 and was consul in Havana, Cuba (1833–41). Chief clerk of the State Department from 1845, he went to Mexico (1847) to negotiate an end to the war with Mexico. When charges that he was conceding too much reached Washington, he was ordered back, but he stayed and ended up signing the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). This ended his diplomatic career, and he returned to practise law in Virginia.

Trist was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Through political connections, Trist was appointed U.S. consul in Havana, Cuba. Shortly after arriving there in 1833, Trist invested in a sugar plantation deal that went bad. According to members of a British commission sent to Cuba to investigate violations of the treaty ending the African slave trade, Trist became corruptly involved in the creation of false documents designed to mask illegal sales of Africans into bondage. For a time Trist also served as the consul in Cuba for Portugal, another country whose nationals were active in the illegal slave trade. Meanwhile, Trist became very unpopular with New England ship captains who believed he was more interested in maintaining good relations with Cuban officials than in defending their interests. Captains and merchants pressed members of Congress for Trist's removal. Madden wrote U.S. abolitionists about Trist's misuse of his post to promote slaving and earn fees from the fraudulent document schemes. Madden traveled to the United States where he gave expert testimony in the trial of the Amistad Africans, explaining how false documents were used to make it appear that Africans were Cuban-born slaves. This exposure of the activities of the U.S. consul general, coupled with the angry complaints of ship captains, caused a Congressional investigation and eventual recall of Trist. (Neither Trist nor Madden appear in the film "Amistad" produced by Debbie Allen and directed by Steven Spielberg, although there are brief Cuba scenes that suggest how the illegal slave trade was carried on there.)

During the Mexican-American War, President James K. Polk sent Trist to negotiate with the Mexicans. President Polk was disgusted by his envoy's incompetence and prompted him to order Trist to return to the United States. General Winfield Scott was also unhappy with Trist's presence in Mexico, although he and Scott quickly reconciled and began a lifelong friendship. Trist successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. Trist did not recover his expenses until 1871. Trist later opposed the American Civil War, telling General Scott in a letter that they were both Virginians by birth and Yankees by adoption.

Trist was also a lawyer, planter, and businessman.