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.