James Gadsden
James Gadsden (
May 15,
1788 -
December 25,
1858) was born in
1778 in
Charleston,
South Carolina, the grandson of American Revolutionary patriot
Christopher Gadsden. After a career as a
US Army officer, James was appointed a commissioner in
1823 to assist the govenment in moving the
Seminoles to reservations. He served as president of the South Carolina Railroad Company from 1840 to 1850 and promoted the construction of a
transcontinental railroad by the southern route. In 1853, he was appointed U.S. minister to
Mexico to negotiate the Gadsden Treaty which led to the
Gadsden Purchase by the
United States from Mexico of about 30,000 acres in the southern section of what is now
Arizona and southwestern
New Mexico.