THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

The year 1953 marks the one-hundredth birthday of the Gadsden Purchase, comprising all or part of eight southern Arizona counties and six counties in southwestern New Mexico. The event will undoubtedly pass with little more than a few-day flush of activity occasioned by local celebrations and a gleam in the eyes of a few thousand stamp collectors over owning a sheet of the commemorative stamps printed to mark the centennial. Actually, this second of the two largest real estate deals Uncle Sam has negotiated within his borders with foreign powers (the first was the Louisiana Purchase) deserves more attention than it will receive for two reasons. The first is that the Gadsden Purchase holds a unique position in the history of Uncle Sam's real estate transactions in that so many Americans know so many "only half truths" about it. For example, it is "common knowledge" that the Gadsden Purchase cost the United States $10,000,000;

BY SAMUEL A. SICILIANO MAP BY NORTON ALLEN

that it was negotiated to settle boundary differences between the United States and Mexico; that it was done by a fellow named Gadsden who lived somewhere in Texas; and that he

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"ALONG THE APACHE TRAIL" BY TEX LUND. Ansco Automatic Reflex Camera, f.3.5 lens, Ansco Natural Color film (daylight) 1/25th second, f.11. The exposure was made from the Apache Trail, between Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats, in February, 1952, two days after a heavy rain; so the air was washed clean and clear. This made for ideal picture taking, in this beautiful scenic area of Arizona.

really shouldn't have bothered because it "didn't mean very much to us anyway."

The whole truth of the matter is that the $10,000,000 involved in the Gadsden Purchase wasn't only for the land we received; it was done not only to settle a boundary but, primarily, to give us land on which to build a transcontinental railroad; the man who did it was from South Carolina; and we gained 45,535 square miles of territory which has already returned over four billion dollars in revenue from its mining properties alone.

And, to further convert semi-fiction into fact, 1953 doesn't really mark the one-hundredth birthday of the Gadsden Purchase. True, it was signed December 30, 1853. But it wasn't ratified and proclaimed "the law of the land" until June 30, 1854.

Reason number two for more of the limelight of interest being shed upon the Gadsden Purchase is that it might never have become a reality if it hadn't been for one of those quirks of fate which become what we know as the signposts of history and which change the ways of nations and the lives of its people. Just about the time the "East" decided to forget the Mexican War and a place called "Texas or something," gold was discovered in California. Eastern eyes turned west with a reawakened start and the need for transcontinental transportation became apparent. The Rocky Mountains stretched high and practically impassable for 2,000 miles from Canada south to the Gila River, but where the Rockies met the Gila they dwindled into the plains of the Southwest, ideal for railroad building. It was there that the Eastern eyes centered, two of which belonged to James Gadsden, president of the South Carolina Railroad, with headquarters in Charleston. Gadsden saw no reason why he couldn't build a railroad over those plains and achieve two ends with a dual track purpose-provide transportation between the gold fields of the West and the supply centers of the East and also partake of the China trade to enrich the South in its competition with the North.

Upon investigation, however, Gadsden found a reason why he couldn't. That reason was a many-paged document called the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the instrument which ended the Mexican War in 1848. Article V of that treaty set the boundary line between the two countries as "beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, up the middle of that river to a point where it strikes the boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination, thence northward along the western line of New Mexico until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila."

However, "where there's a will, there's a way" and by the same token, where there's a will, one can usually find a flaw. Such a flaw was found in Article V of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The boundary designations in that article were based on outlines in "Map of the United Mexican States" by J. Disturnell. Investigation proved that Disturnell's map contained numerous errors, one of which had to do with the course of the Rio Grande in the vicinity of the "town called Paso." If the United States was correct in its assumption of error we rightfully owned enough plains land on which to build a railroad.

Mexico, however, disputed our claim. It wasn't that she didn't want us to have the railroad right-of-way but, if she allowed the claim, she would lose the rich Santa Rita copper deposits and the Messila Villages is one of the few really productive valleys in the area.

Tempers flared again on the border and the Mexicans took armed possession of the disputed territory, justifying their action with the terms of Article 11 of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which obligated the United States to restrain the Indians on our side of the border from raiding into Mexico. The Mexican government went even further and claimed the United States owed her 15 millions of dollars for damages caused by marauding Indians.

President Franklin Pierce now turned to his Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, for advice. Davis, who enjoyed more of the President's confidence than any other member of the official family, suggested the negotiation of a new treaty with Mexico's president, Santa Anna. "This," he said, "will solve all facets of this problem. We can avoid another war, gain an all-American route for a railroad right-of-way, settle Mexico's damage claims and, at the same time, protect the national pride of both countries concerned."

Davis even knew just the man to negotiate the treaty, his good friend James Gadsden.

"But," we can imagine President Pierce asking, "will Santa Anna agree to a new treaty and is this Gadsden qualified to deal with him?"

Davis, anticipating the questions, had ready answers for them. His Intelligence Service reported that Santa Anna needed money to pay his army and was really looking for a way, with honor, of withdrawing the troops occupying the disputed area. As for Gadsden, he had served with distinction in the War of 1812 as aide-de-camp to General Andrew Jackson and was at the head of one of the South's most prosperous railroads. And, as Federal Commissioner of the Southern Division in 1832, he had negotiated treaties with the Seminole Indians in Florida.

Pierce was convinced. He sent Gadsden's nomination as Minister to Mexico to the Senate and ordered him to leave for preliminary treaty meetings in Mexico at his earliest convenience.

Gadsden carried on negotiations for six months, first with Santa Anna himself, then with a commission appointed by the Mexican president. He worked under several handicaps, paramount among them being the time element. Revolution was in the air and Gadsden had to complete the treaty before the Santa Anna government was overthrown, which would necessitate redoing all of the work already accomplished with a new government. Also, opposition to his work was increasing in Congress on the part of Northern members. They feared the addition of any territory which might be turned into slave-holding states.

Despite all handicaps, however, Gadsden reached agreement with the Mexican Commission on December 30, 1853 and started for home to present the treaty to President Pierce. The President sent the treaty to the Senate on February 10, 1854. Then began almost five months of heated Senatorial debate. The tenor of that debate can be judged by comments which appeared on the editorial pages of the nation, ranging from the Mobile Register's ". . . the most important treaty ever negotiated by the United States" to the New York Herald's charge that the treaty was negotiated for the benefit of Jefferson Davis, who, the newspaper claimed, owned land near the new boundaries which would quadruple in value as railroad rights-of-way.

But, despite the charges and counter charges, the treaty was accepted by the Senate and signed by President Pierce on June 29, 1854. The following day the President proclaimed it "the law of the land." It was a different treaty in certain respects than that which Gadsden brought home with him. The Senate had reduced the land we could have gotten by some 8,000 square miles; it didn't contain provisions for the Gulf of California port which the President wanted; and it didn't make friends of the majority of the Mexican people. But it did add 45,535 square miles of territory to the United States, it cost us only $10,000,000, it settled Mexico's damage claims against us, and it gave us an easily traveled transcontinental route wholly within our borders.

How very fortunate we are that the proponents of the basic treaty won out can be proved by looking at the Gadsden Purchase at the time of its 100th birthday.

Actually the Gadsden Purchase has become, in its one hundred years, an empire of the four "C's"-Copper, Cattle, Cotton and Climate. We bought, at a fraction over 34é an acre, an inestimable wealth of mineral, livestock, agriculture and tourist benefits staggering to contemplate.

Wire which carries power to and allows communication between communities in the near and far corners of the world finds its beginning, many times, in the aweinspiring pits, laced with the "color" of copper, which rest within the confines of the Gadsden Purchase. And the metal scratched from those pits helps turn the wheels on which we measure progress in factories around the globe, The boundaries of the Gadsden Purchase encompass a wealth in minerals, agriculture, industry, scenery, climate, education and many progressive communities, the largest being Tucson, shown in the air view, at left. The acres of seemingly valueless land acquired in the Purchase have been of such great value as to far exceed wishes of the sponsors.

Cattle, mining, and, most of all, scenery and climate comprise part of the riches that

and makes possible the operation of the products of man's inventive genius which allow for an easier, better life in the homes of the world. The rangelands of the Gadsden Purchase abound with the sleek, fat meat animals which provide fare for uncountable tables bringing health and wealth to the nation. As for the white fluffs of wealth blanketing the cotton fields by the thousands of acres within the Gadsden Purchase, we have but to look at only one fact to realize the magnitude of return on that 346 per acre investment31,535 square miles of the Gadsden Purchase are in the state of Arizona and Arizona, with most of its cotton production in the Purchase area, is the only state in the Union which produces more bales of cotton than it has people. The fourth in the quartette of "C's" is a commodity an area has or it hasn't the climate which attracts the tourist dollar. The Gadsden Purchase area has it and in abundance. This 28% of the state of Arizona and 11% of the state of New Mexico enjoys over 90% possible sunshine annually and while its summer temperatures are among the highest in the continental United States its winters make it a tourist mecca. Of course the monetary return from the tourist trade is dwarfed by that other result of climate, agriculture. The Reclamation Service brought water to the desert waste of the Gadsden Purchase shortly after the Purchase's fiftieth birthday and teamed with the climate to establish a source of uncountable profit from our $10,000,000 investment. Alfalfa, citrus fruits, vegetables, dates, pecans, melons and barley are just a few of the farm products which join cotton in reaching out from the Gadsden Purchase to capture dollars from the markets of the world and return them as interest on the 34 per acre real estate venture. Naturally, it would be impossible to measure the full return. Figures just aren't available from every endeavor made possible by the four "C's" and the branches of commerce they foster. For example, there is the railroad which was finally built within the Gadsden Purchase to connect the West with the East, the Southern Pacific. The payroll of this enterprise in just one city, Tucson, Arizona, each year exceeds the $10,000,000 we paid Mexico. And who among us could presume to place a dollar value on the added years of life health-seekers have found in the beneficial climate? Or the value to knowledge gained through the study of the historical and archeological treasures found, and still being found, within the limits of the Gadsden Purchase?

A century of development and growth have accrued to America from the Gadsen Purchase And the future looks even more promising than the first hundred years. The area is flexing its commercial muscles with the attraction of industry through expansion of transportation and power facilities. Its agriculture is attaining new horizons through reclamation of more sandy wasteland, the latest effort along this line being the WelltonMohawk Project near Yuma, Arizona which will add 75,000 acres of agricultural productive capacity. And the economy is being swelled through defense spending, the armed forces finding the climate offering greater opportunity for training and testing projects than that found in any other section of the country. It follows then that the area should be enjoying a growth population-wise too. And it is. There are now more than 350,000 people in the Gadsden Purchase and statistics prove that it is the fastest growing area in the nation.

All of this is why the Gadsden Purchase centennial deserves more note than it will receive. But, by the same token, all of this is why it will not receive more. It has been said that "The future is work, the past reflection. The worker cannot afford the luxury of the latter." When you are meeting with investors, when you are trying to influence congressional delegations, when you are searching for ways and means to maintain the growth of community services at the pace of the growth of the community, you have little time to plan and execute celebrations in observance of the birthday of an event which occurred a hundred years ago-even if that event made possible your being where you are.

As for the students of history, they will have to accept their disappointment at the lack of "adequate celebration." After all, disappointment was the lot of James Gadsden himself. He never lived to see even the beginning of the great awakening of the area he was responsible for bringing into the American fold. He didn't even see the initial plans for his railroad come into being for it waited until after the Civil War, and death came to James Gadsden on Christmas Day in 1858. However, if the history students will allow themselves the luxury of imagination, might they not picture Mr. Gadsden looking upon lush green fields and smiling with the thought that, if history were to recognize only one of each man's accomplishments, perhaps it will set aside this empire as his monument-not of short-lived stone and metal and the sculptor's art; but, instead, the long-lived combination of people, their well-being and the fruits of their labors.