16 Facts About Nicholas Trist

Nicholas Philip Trist was an American lawyer, diplomat, planter, and businessman.

Nicholas Trist was the son of Hore Browse Trist, a lawyer, and Mary Brown.

Nicholas Trist's grandfather was from England, while his grandmother, Elizabeth House Trist, was an acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson.

Nicholas Trist served as Jefferson's personal secretary in the 1820s and became an executor of his estate.

Nicholas Trist married Virginia Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter, on September 11,1824.

Nicholas Trist provided a conduit of communication for James Madison to President Jackson.

Nicholas Trist was appointed US consul in Havana, Cuba, a Spanish territory at the time, by President Jackson, in which capacity he served from 1833 to 1841.

Shortly after arriving there in 1833, Nicholas Trist invested in a sugar plantation deal that went bad.

Nicholas Trist was ordered to arrange an armistice with Mexico wherein the US would offer a restitution up to $30 million US dollars, depending on whether he could obtain Baja California and additional southern territory along with the already planned acquisitions of Alta California, the Nueces Strip, and New Mexico.

Nicholas Trist ignored the order to leave Mexico, and wrote a 65-page letter back to Washington, DC explaining his reasons for staying.

Nicholas Trist capitalized on the opportunity to continue bargaining with Santa Anna offering $15 million.

Nicholas Trist successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2,1848.

Nicholas Trist's negotiation was controversial among expansionist Democrats since he had ignored Polk's instructions and settled on a smaller cession of Mexican territory than many expansionists wanted and felt he could have obtained.

Nicholas Trist finally recovered his expenses in 1871, at the urging of Senator Charles Sumner.

Nicholas Trist supported Republican Abraham Lincoln for US president in 1860.

Nicholas Trist died in Alexandria on February 11,1874, aged 73.