**TODAY ONLY**

December 30

US Buys Gadsden Purchase
On this day in 1853, the United States bought some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase. The territory was nearly the size of Pennsylvania, and was bought for about 3 cents an acre. Signing on the Dotted Line. Meeting in Mexico City on December 30, 1853, James Gadsden, US Minister to Mexico, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico, signed the Gadsden Purchase. The treaty settled the dispute over the exact location of the Mexican border west of El Paso, Texas, giving the US a claim to nearly 29,000 square miles of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona. Boundary Bumbles. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 described the US-Mexico boundary in rather vague terms. US President Pierce wanted to be sure the US owned the Mesilla Valley near the Rio Grande, as it was the most practical route for a southern railroad to the Pacific.	Who Was Gadsden, Anyway? James Gadsden (1788-1858): Was a South Carolina Revolutionary soldier and statesman who was captured by the British at Charleston and confined as a prisoner for ten months at St. Augustine. A soldier for several years under General Andrew Jackson An appointee of President Monroe as the commissioner in charge of placing the Seminole Indians on reservations Promoter of railroads. His pet dream was to knit all Southern railroads into one system and then to connect it with a Southern transcontinental railroad to the Pacific, to make the West commercially dependent on the South instead of the North. Chosen president of the South Carolina Railroad Company. Person who made plans to have the Federal Government acquire title to the necessary territory from Mexico US Minister to Mexico... with instructions of his own design to buy from Mexico enough territory for a railroad to the Gulf of California.	Guadalupe Mountains ~ some of the territory acquired in the Gadsden Purchase Odd Land Deal. The Gadsden Purchase was one of the most curious real estate deals in which the US has ever taken part. By the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, at the close of the Mexican War, the Republic of Mexico had to give up its claim to Texas and turn over to the territory now comprising most of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The territory ceded to the United States by Mexico made up about 200,000 square miles or two-fifths of all her territory. In return, the United States gave $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility for paying $3,000,000 in claims of American citizens against the Mexican Government. Many in the United States who had opposed the war against Mexico felt that the Mexico had been treated badly. The territory desired by Gadsden and his group was at the time, a kind of no man's land, and the site of frequent Indian raids. What Everyone Wanted. The United States wanted to make certain "boundary adjustments." Mexico needed money and wanted a settlement of her Indian claims against the United States. Gadsden and his friends wanted a route for their railroad. And So On This Day in 1852, Gadsden agreed to pay Santa Anna $10,000,000 for a strip of territory south of the Gila River and lying in what is now southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona. And Then... The deal was so unpopular in Mexico that Santa Anna was unseated as dictator and banished. Gadsden was recalled as Minister to Mexico for mixing in Mexican politics and domestic affairs and didn't live to see the Southern Pacific Railroad built through his purchase. Link for More. Setting boundaries. One of the oddest land deals in history.

TODAY ONLY

December 30

US Buys Gadsden Purchase

On this day in 1853, the United States bought some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase. The territory was nearly the size of Pennsylvania, and was bought for about 3 cents an acre.

Signing on the Dotted Line. Meeting in Mexico City on December 30, 1853, James Gadsden, US Minister to Mexico, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico, signed the Gadsden Purchase. The treaty settled the dispute over the exact location of the Mexican border west of El Paso, Texas, giving the US a claim to nearly 29,000 square miles of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona.

Boundary Bumbles. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 described the US-Mexico boundary in rather vague terms. US President Pierce wanted to be sure the US owned the Mesilla Valley near the Rio Grande, as it was the most practical route for a southern railroad to the Pacific.

Who Was Gadsden, Anyway?

James Gadsden (1788-1858):

Was a South Carolina Revolutionary soldier and statesman who was captured by the British at Charleston and confined as a prisoner for ten months at St. Augustine.
A soldier for several years under General Andrew Jackson
An appointee of President Monroe as the commissioner in charge of placing the Seminole Indians on reservations
Promoter of railroads. His pet dream was to knit all Southern railroads into one system and then to connect it with a Southern transcontinental railroad to the Pacific, to make the West commercially dependent on the South instead of the North.
Chosen president of the South Carolina Railroad Company.
Person who made plans to have the Federal Government acquire title to the necessary territory from Mexico
US Minister to Mexico... with instructions of his own design to buy from Mexico enough territory for a railroad to the Gulf of California.

Guadalupe Mountains ~ some of the territory acquired in the Gadsden Purchase

Odd Land Deal. The Gadsden Purchase was one of the most curious real estate deals in which the US has ever taken part. By the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, at the close of the Mexican War, the Republic of Mexico had to give up its claim to Texas and turn over to the territory now comprising most of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The territory ceded to the United States by Mexico made up about 200,000 square miles or two-fifths of all her territory. In return, the United States gave $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility for paying $3,000,000 in claims of American citizens against the Mexican Government. Many in the United States who had opposed the war against Mexico felt that the Mexico had been treated badly. The territory desired by Gadsden and his group was at the time, a kind of no man's land, and the site of frequent Indian raids.

What Everyone Wanted.

The United States wanted to make certain "boundary adjustments."
Mexico needed money and wanted a settlement of her Indian claims against the United States.
Gadsden and his friends wanted a route for their railroad.

And So On This Day in 1852, Gadsden agreed to pay Santa Anna $10,000,000 for a strip of territory south of the Gila River and lying in what is now southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona.

And Then... The deal was so unpopular in Mexico that Santa Anna was unseated as dictator and banished. Gadsden was recalled as Minister to Mexico for mixing in Mexican politics and domestic affairs and didn't live to see the Southern Pacific Railroad built through his purchase.

Link for More.

Setting boundaries.

One of the oddest land deals in history.