13 Facts About James Gadsden

James Gadsden was an American diplomat, soldier and businessman after whom the Gadsden Purchase is named, pertaining to land which the United States bought from Mexico, and which became the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico.

James Gadsden was known commonly as General Gadsden, although he never had a rank above colonel.

James Gadsden served as a commissioned officer commanded by General Andrew Jackson, who was later elected president in 1828.

James Gadsden served as secretary for Jackson-led negotiations for a treaty with the Chickasaw in 1816.

James Gadsden helped to establish Fort Brooke with George Mercer Brooke at the site of the present-day city of Tampa, Florida.

James Gadsden was appointed Adjutant General in August 1821, but this appointment was not confirmed by the Senate, causing it to expire the following year.

James Gadsden next decided to quit the US Army, and became a planter in Florida; he served in the Florida Territorial Legislature.

James Gadsden was appointed as a commissioner during 1823 to help with the organization and the expulsion of most of the Seminole Indian Tribe from their homes in Florida and southern Georgia, along the Trail of Tears to land reservations that had been reserved for them in what is Oklahoma.

Later, James Gadsden served as the president of the South Carolina Railroad company from 1840 to 1850.

James Gadsden planned to establish a slaveholding colony there based on rice, cotton, and sugar.

Toward this end, on December 31,1851, James Gadsden asked Green to secure from the California state legislature a large land grant located between the 34th and 36th parallels; it would eventually serve as the dividing line for the two California states.

James Gadsden successfully performed this mission by negotiating with the Mexican government in Mexico City for the purchase of more land from Mexico for southmost New Mexico and Arizona, and by establishing the boundary between the United States and Mexico as two long line segments between the Rio Grande at the westmost tip of Texas all the way to the River Colorado at the eastern boundary of California.

The land bought by the James Gadsden Purchase contained the site of Arizona's second largest city, Tucson, a one-time Spanish presidio town, the minor cities and towns of Casa Grande, and Yuma, Arizona, Lordsburg, Deming, New Mexico, and New Mexico's second largest metro area at Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the Mesilla Valley, and it defined the status of the area north of the Gila River, that later became the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Glendale, and Tempe, Arizona.