The New International Encyclopædia/Gadsden Purchase, The

GADSDEN PURCHASE, The. A tract of land lying partly within the present New Mexico and partly within the present Arizona, purchased from Mexico by the United States in 1854. It embraces 45,535 square miles, is bounded on the north by the Gila River, on the east by the Rio Grande, and on the west by the Colorado, and has an extreme breadth from north to south of 120 miles. For this the United States gave the sum of $10,000,000, while Mexico, besides making the cession, agreed (1) to the abrogation of the eleventh article of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (q.v.), and (2) to the abandonment of all damage claims arising from Indian incursions between 1848 and 1853. The land was regarded as of little use for agricultural purposes, and was purchased largely with a view to settling boundary disputes in that quarter between the two governments and to securing a desirable route for the projected Southern Pacific Railroad. The treaty of sale was negotiated with Santa Anna by James Gadsden (q.v.), then Minister to Mexico, in December, 1853, and, after undergoing modifications in the United States Senate, was finally ratified and proclaimed on June 30, 1854, Congress passing the necessary legislation on August 5th. The sale met with much opposition in Mexico, and caused the banishment of Santa Anna in 1855. For the text of the treaty, consult Haswell, Treaties and Conventions (Washington, 1889). See the map in the article United States, Extension of the Territory of the.