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Gadsden Purchase

1853

An 1853 land purchase from Mexico, negotiated under Pierce's administration to secure a southern railroad route.

Pierce's administration negotiated this purchase, reflecting his expansionist and Southern-leaning policy goals.

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A red-orange 1953 U.S. 3-cent postage stamp with a scalloped border. It shows a map of the southwest labeled 1853 Gadsden Purchase, with Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and a covered wagon pulled by oxen among saguaro cacti.
Commemorative stamp marking the Gadsden Purchase, issued 1953, depicting the 1853 land acquisition.

About this source

What it is

The Gadsden Purchase was an agreement by which the United States bought a large area of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico from Mexico. It was first signed in December 1853 by James Gadsden, U.S. Minister to Mexico, and Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna, and took effect in 1854.

Why it matters

Pierce's administration, strongly influenced by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, pursued the purchase to secure land for a southern transcontinental railroad route, reflecting the Southern-leaning, expansionist aims of his presidency. The sale also eased Mexico's financial troubles and fixed the modern U.S.–Mexico border. Because new territory raised the question of whether it would allow slavery, the purchase was tangled up in the national slavery debate that dominated Pierce's years in office.

Look closer

  • Why would a railroad route matter enough to justify buying land from another country?
  • Whose interests shaped this deal, and whose were left out?
  • What does the stamp commemorating this purchase choose to show, and what might it leave out?

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