Tucson Region

Who was this Gadsden, anyway?

James Gadsden was a Southern railroad executive and promoter who dreamed of connecting California to the Eastern United States via a southern route that would benefit the South. With friends in the right places and connections to boot, he helped orchestrate the $10 million purchase of Southern Arizona and New Mexico from a debt-stricken Mexico. But he died before trains came to Arizona. Gadsden was born May 15, 1788, in Charleston, S.C. - the grandson of Revolutionary War patriot Christopher Gadsden. James Gadsden graduated from Yale College in 1806 and became a merchant in Charleston. He served as a lieutenant of engineers for the U.S. Army in the War of 1812. He served as a captain under Gen. Andrew Jackson, fighting against Florida’s Seminole Indians, who resisted being put onto reservations. In between his soldiering duties, Gadsden lived as a rice planter in Florida. In the early 1830s, he was hired to help conduct land surveys for the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Co. and became president of the company in 1839. He wanted to link all of the Southern railroads together and connect them to a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific Ocean. He tried to sell his idea to newspaper editors, statesmen and other influential friends, speaking at railroad conventions and meetings. Jefferson Davis, who had fought in the 1846-48 war against Mexico and would become the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, was a friend of Gadsden’s. When Franklin Pierce became president in 1853 and Davis became secretary of war, Gadsden was appointed U.S. minister to Mexico and was sent to negotiate a land deal for a southern railroad route. Gadsden and his Mexican counterpart signed the deal on Dec. 30, 1853. Gadsden stayed in Mexico for two more years, despite regular conflicts with Mexican leaders and their subsequent demands for his recall. He was replaced as minister to Mexico in 1856 and died in Charleston in 1858 - two decades before the railroad finally came through Arizona.