Gadsden Purchase - Overview, Purpose, Controversy, U.S. Statehood

(1853) An area in S Arizona and New Mexico bought from Mexico for $10 000 000 as a route for a transcontinental railroad. The purchase, named after US minister to Mexico James Gadsden (1788–1858), defined the present-day US/Mexican border.

The Gadsden Purchase or Gadsdena, is a 29,640 mi² (76,770 km²) region of what is today southern Arizona and New Mexico that was purchased by the United States from Mexico in 1853.

Overview

After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, border disputes between the United States and Mexico remained unsettled. Land that now comprises lower Arizona and New Mexico was part of a proposed southern route for a transcontinental railroad. U.S. President Franklin Pierce was convinced by Jefferson Davis, then the country's Secretary of War, to send James Gadsden (who had personal interests in the rail route) to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico.

Purpose

The Gadsden Purchase was intended to allow for the construction of a southern route for a transcontinental railroad, and was also designed to fully compensate Mexico for the lands taken by the U.S. after the Mexican-American War. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had ended the military conflict between the two nations, but had provided only a token amount of money in compensation for the vast territory ceded by Mexico to the United States. On December 30, 1853, U.S. Minister to Mexico James Gadsden and Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna agreed on the price of $10 million for the Gadsden land, which valued the included territory at around $340 per square mile ($130/km²) or about 53 cents per acre.

Controversy

As originally envisioned, the purchase would have encompassed a much larger region, extending far enough south to include most of the current Mexican states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas as well as all of the Baja California peninsula. These original boundaries were opposed not only by the Mexican people, but also by anti-slavery U.S. Senators who saw the purchase as tantamount to the acquisition of more slave territory.

The purchased lands were initially appended to the existing New Mexico Territory. The difficulty of governing the new areas from the territorial capital at Santa Fe led to efforts as early as 1856 to organize a new territory out of the southern portion of the New Mexico Territory.

U.S. Statehood

In 1861, during the American Civil War, the Confederacy formed the Confederate Territory of Arizona, including in the new territory mainly areas acquired by the Gadsden Purchase. In 1863, using a north-to-south dividing line, the Union created its own Arizona Territory out of the western half of the New Mexico Territory. The new U.S. Arizona Territory also included most of the lands acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.