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A business person is a person involved in business – in particular someone undertaking activities for the purpose of generating cash flow, sales, and revenue utilizing a combination of human, financial.

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La Federación de Entidades Privadas de Centroamérica, Panamá y República Dominicana ( Fedepricap) se reunirá esta semana en Washington, con el objetivo de intercambiar puntos de vista con entidades y actores de ese país.

La asamblea de la Fedepricap se celebra por primera vez en Estados Unidos y se tocaran temas económicos, políticos, financieros, de inversión y legalización comercial.

"Este encuentro también aprovecha el intercambio con instituciones gubernamentales, centros de pensamiento y organismos internacionales", comentó Antonio Malouf, presidente del Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras (Cacif).

Entre los participantes también se encuentran José González Campo, presidente de Fedepricap Guatemala; Aída de Maduro, vicepresidenta de Fedepricap y originaria de Panamá, y Roberto Ardón, director ejecutivo del Cacif.

Ayer, los empresarios se reunieron con los senadores Marco Rubio y Norma Torres, con quienes trataron el tema de la corrupción, el contexto político regional, seguridad y migración.

Las actividades de la Asamblea continúan este miércoles y jueves con reuniones en el Departamento de Estado y la Cámara de Comercio Estadounidense.

Haces dos semanas, la Secretaría de Integración Económica Centroamericana (Sieca) informó que las exportaciones totales de Centroamérica sumaron 7,811 millones de dólares (mdd) en el tercer trimestre de 2017, lo que representó un crecimiento de 14% con respecto al mismo período de 2016.

"La recuperación gradual del comercio exterior en Centroamérica en 2017 se debe al aumento en el valor de las exportaciones hacia terceros socios comerciales, así como un incremento de las importaciones intrarregionales", según datos del informe Pulso Regional de la Sieca.

También puedes leer: Analizan proyecto para unificar fronteras en Centroamérica

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Empresarios de Centroamérica se reúnen por primera vez en Washington * Forbes México

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La Federación de Entidades Privadas de Centroamérica, Panamá y República Dominicana ( Fedepricap) se reunirá esta semana en Washington, con el objetivo de intercambiar puntos de vista con entidades y actores de ese país. La asamblea de la Fedepricap se celebra por primera vez en Estados Unidos y se tocaran temas económicos, políticos, financieros, de inversión y legalización comercial.

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Stephen Fuller Austin was an American empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas", and the founder of Texas, he led the second, and ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300.

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It was Austin's father, Moses Austin, who took the first steps toward establishing an American colony in Mexican Tejas. In 1820, he traveled to San Antonio to petition for a land grant, and in 1821 received approval to settle 300 American families on 200,000 acres.

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Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna was a Mexican politician and general who fought to defend royalist New Spain and then for Mexican independence.

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The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission

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Let's say it together now people, one more time, just to make sure we're all on the same page:

The United Nations will not take over The Alamo.

Somehow, not everyone has received this memo. Since it became clear that San Antonio's Spanish missions might become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, tin foil hat enthusiasts have decried the effort as a possible threat to Texas' sovereignty.

No, seriously. That's a thing that people think might happen.

Most notable among these of course is State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, who filed the "Protect the Alamo Act" in the most recent legislative session to prevent the General Land Office from entering "into an agreement that vests any ownership, control, or management of the Alamo complex in an entity formed under the laws of another country."

To the surprise of no one, the bill went nowhere. But this weekend, protesters assembled at The Alamo to oppose the "creeping influence" of the U.N., according to the San Antonio Express-News.

What does that even mean? That the U.N. will somehow monopolize the sale of coonskin caps or Davey Crockett Nutcrackers (both of which are available for sale at the online Alamo Gift Shop)?

Approval of The Alamo and San Antonio's other Spanish missions as a UNESCO Heritage Sites only added fuel to the fire. Nevermind that World Heritage status comes with significant international prestige and a potential economic windfall for San Antonio.

It's absurd that this is even a topic of discussion, much less something that occupies the minds of our elected officials. But Land Commissioner George P. Bush, whose agency now manages The Alamo along with the City of San Antonio, issued a statement this weekend:

"It ain't gonna happen," Bush said in a news release. "Frankly, as a proud native Texan, I believe that safeguarding the crown jewels of Texas history is one of the General Land Office's most important roles."

There you have it. Nothing to worry about.

But then again, that's just what somebody working for the U.N. would say, isn't it George?

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People Still Think The United Nations Might Take Over The Alamo

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Let's say it together now people, one more time, just to make sure we're all on the same page: The United Nations will not take over The Alamo. Somehow, not everyone has received this memo.

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The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution

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The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes.

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James Knox Polk was an American politician who served as the 11th President of the United States. He previously was Speaker of the House of Representatives and Governor of Tennessee.

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Often touted as one of the greatest presidents in American history, James Polk was known for getting done what he set out to do, culminating with the fulfillment of 'manifest destiny.' Learn more about the 11th U.S. president at Biography.com.

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Mexican restaurant for inventive tasting menus & small-batch wines served in a cozy, luxe interior.

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Californios by Sam Cooey and Iouel Embaye

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Californios by Sam Cooey and Iouel Embaye

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Californios are Spanish-speaking people from Spain and Mexico that settled in California. Ever since 1769, they had been migrating into California. They established successful businesses, and found...

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The California Republic was an unrecognized breakaway state that, for twenty-five days in 1846, militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Sonoma County in California.

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Bear Flag, 1846. This is a photo of the original Bear Flag that was
destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.

The Bear Flag Revolt
The purpose of this segment is not to tell the story of the Bear Flag Revolt. There are books available that can tell that story in detail. Here I only wish to tell as it affects the family history.
By 1846, there were around 800 Americans in California, mostly in the northern part of the state and within trading distance of Sutter's Fort. Most of the settlers knew one another. There were war clouds between Mexico and the United States, thus Mexican officials were becoming wary of the ever-growing American presence in California. William Todd, who will come back into our story later, wrote in a letter, "...the Mexicans talk every spring and fall of driving the foreigners out."
As in most histories there is more than one version. I prefer the one that is best for the family history. In the first half of June 1846, probably the first week of the month, an unidentified horseman crossed Moon's primitive ferry with the news that the Mexicans were forming an army to drive out all Americans north of Sutter's Fort.
Local history tells this tale: "Moon, on hearing the tale from the unknown horseman crossing the river immediately spread the alarm among the Northern Valley settlers and they gathered at the Moon house, that original adobe building, to plan some concerted defense..." Thus, Uncle Billy became the Paul Revere of the Bear Flag Revolt.
Most historians believe that it was not Moon who spread the word but another. The settlers did meet in the Moon house to plan the revolt, but there is some question as to whether it was the original adobe or the unfinished famous wood frame house. Most historians believe it was the wood frame house.
Some say that there were a dozen or more at the meeting, others that there were five or six. Among those in the meeting was Henry Ford, Uncle Billy's partner. He had military experience having deserted from the army. Included was Ezekiel Merritt, Uncle Billy's partner known as "Zeke" or "Stuttering Merritt." He was quite a character. He lived with a squaw.
One historian describes him as "...a big, stuttering, excitable frontiersman with a bushy, tobacco-juice-stained beard, a mane of graying hair, and fierce bloodshot eyes." Bancroft says, "...a coarse-grained, loud-mouthed, unprincipled, whiskey-drinking, quarrelsome fellow." John Charles Fremont, the Pathfinder, said, "a rugged man, fearless and simple: taking delight in incurring risks, but tractable and not given to asking questions when there was something he was required to do." Another said, "When excited he had a peculiar stuttering speech. His whole appearance and manner was that of a man moved by some revengeful, intoxicating passion." He was over six feet in height, "...dressed in greasy buckskins, beaded moccasins, and foxtail cap." He was a famous Indian fighter. Merritt was probably living at the Moon house at the time of the revolt.Another who was at the meeting was Robert Baylor Semple, 6'8", with red hair. He was a most amazing personality. Mary Todd Lincoln's sister once rode with him in a stage coach and said he was "...the most brilliant man she had ever heard." The famed Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, thought he was very smart. A British naval officer was amazed to find that Semple knew more about British naval history than he did. The American counsel said, "...near genius whose light shown brightly, in flashes, then flickered and died out." I am telling you these stories so you know the kind of men that Uncle Billy counted as his friends.
By the end of the meeting two things had been decided: One was to gather an army and take over the Mexican headquarters for all of Northern California, which was located in Sonoma close to San Francisco bay. Ford put it bluntly, "We have gone to war with the Mexican nation."
The second decision was to make a flag. They took a washed out flour sack from Chile, which had been shipped to San Francisco and freighted by team to the Moon store. William Todd, whose aunt, Mary Todd from Kentucky, had married a lawyer four years earlier named Abraham Lincoln, has gone down in history as "The Great Artist." A red star and bar were cut out from a red flannel shirt, then a pot of blacking was used to draw a bear so crude that it looked like a pig. Underneath, were the words "California Republic."
Thus began the Bear Flag Revolt and ever since the Moon house has been known as the "Cradle of the California Republic." Ford and Merritt were the leaders.
The California Republic lasted just 25 days when news was received that the United States was officially at war with Mexico. The Bear Flag was taken down from the pole in Sonoma and the American flag raised. (Some say the Bear Flag was made in Sonoma from a petticoat.)
Legend has it that a naval officer from one of the American war ships, Lieutenant Revere, grandson of Paul Revere, put the bear flag in his pocket and walked off with it. It would later find it's way to the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco, there destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. (This was the same naval officer who did the previous sketch of Sutter's Fort.)

Another version
"Ford was the man who carried the Bear Flag to Sonoma on June 14, 1846. After July 7, the original flag was carried away by John Elliott Montgomery, 16. He disappeared, and his father, Commander John B. Montgomery, took the flag to Boston Navy Yard, and later it was transferred to the Navy Department at Washington D. C. Californians asked for it and it was presented in 1855 to the Society of California Pioneers and brought to San Francisco. The Society made a copy of it, which is reserved in their museum in San Francisco. The original was lost in the big San Francisco fire in 1906."

248 Bear Flaggers would join the California Battalion of the US Army and march off to war.
At the famous Bancroft Library on the University of California campus at Berkeley, there is a shoebox with a few notes inside about our famous Wm. C. Moon. Unnamed historians placed these scraps of paper there over the years. In a letter from Bidwell, it says Wm. C. Moon stayed on the ranch during the war of 1847-1848. Uncle Billy's partners, the leaders of the Bear Flag Revolt, Ford and Merritt, went off to war. I can only assume that Moon stayed behind to take care of their ranches.

The transition for the Californios to US rule was not difficult. Long neglected and abused by the Mexican government, the Californios had no love for, nor loyalty to Mexico. When war was certain, three California Mexican leaders in Northern California held a meeting to decide which country they wanted to align themselves with. One wanted to go with France because of the common religion. Another wanted to align themselves with England because of the empire. The third wanted to go with the United States because of the Constitution. Not one person even considered staying with Mexico!

A recommended book on the Bear Flag Revolt, the events leading up to it, and afterwards, is Bear Flag Rising, by Dale L. Walker. The definitive works on the revolt is The Men of the Bear Flag Revolt and Their Heritage, by Barbara R. Warner, in which the author attempts to give the genealogy, history, and biographical sketch of all the major participants.

The replica of the Moon House is used in a parade by the Squaw Hill 4-H Club.

More Moon Stories
William C. Moon was in the right place at the right time in history. In 1848, gold was discovered. It would take six months for news of the discovery to reach the outside world, then another six months for the outside world to get to the California gold fields. This gave the early pioneers a one-year jump on the rest of the world.
The shoebox tells us that Moon went to the gold fields in 1848, with Job F. Dye. It is also recorded that he mined on Clear Creek, near Muletown, before the gold rush of '49.

An article in the Sacramento Union newspaper dated 19 May 1858, tells an interesting tale of gold mining, intrigue, and Uncle Billy's reputation as a hunter. Following, is the full story as reported in the paper:

An old Trapper in Tehama-a correspondent of the Union, writing from Tehama County, gives the following reminiscences. We do not wish to be understood as impugning the veracity of "Old Moon" and his partner accumulating some two hundred pounds of gold, or of "Old Moon" and the "three other hunters" bagging, "within a circuit of four miles," three hundred deer and one thousand hares," etc., but we do say they had most uncommon luck: If the mines are exhausted, certainly the forests are not. Do you know "Old Moon," the hunter and trapper? No! Well he lives on his own ranch, about twenty-five miles, by the river, below Tehama, and is well known here as the greatest hunter and trapper in this section. He hunted and trapped for years in what was called the "Far West," and can tell many tales of "hair breath 'capes" from animals and "injuns." In 1834, he came to California, then inhabited almost wholly by the red man. When the gold was discovered, he employed about one hundred Indians to work for him. In a short time he and his partner had accumulated about two hundred solid pounds of gold. His partner took it to San Francisco to have it assayed, and vamosed with the whole to parts unknown. Since that time "Old Moon," whose hair is white as snow, has contented himself with the possession of a good ranch and a trusty gun, which he knows how to use. A few days ago, "Old Moon" and three other hunters went out to the Coast range of mountains, and within a circuit of four miles, bagged the following game: three hundred deer, five elk, and one thousand hares, grouse, etc. They were not gone over thirty days. Can anyone beat that? Some other time I may give you some items of "Old Moons" past life. Peg Leg Smith, with whom I conversed a few days ago, told me that "Old Moon" had several times saved him (Smith) from the Indians on the Plains.

Foremost among the talents of a mountain man was his ability to tell tall tales.
It is interesting to note that at the time this article was written, Uncle Billy was forty-nine years of age and already called "Old Moon!"
If his partner vamoosed with the gold it was probably Ezekiel Merritt.
The shoebox tells us in the words of Bidwell, Moon "was an inveritable hunter." After Merritt's death (In another note, Bidwell states that Merritt died in the winter of 1847 or 1848) "... he mined for a short time at Feather River."
Trusting your partner with 200 pounds of gold was not unusual in the early years of the gold rush, particularly in the first year. A man could leave a pile of his gold on the banks of the river he mined it from, or leave a box of gold on the paddlewheel docks, and nobody would touch it, even though everyone knew the box was full of gold.
As I already told you, the early pioneers had a year head start on the "49ers." When the prospectors started coming into California they came pouring in from all over the world. It would be the greatest peacetime migration in history. And Moon was perfectly positioned for them.
The sternwheelers made their way up the Sacramento River and it's tributaries. The miners came into San Francisco, then by sternwheeler up the Sacramento River to Moons place, one of the departing places for the gold fields. Although the river was not navigable year round it did provide an excellent transportation system. The smaller sternwheelers were dismantled in the "States," put aboard ships and freighted to San Francisco. The larger boats simply paddled their way around the Cape of Good Hope.
The paddlewheelers established a terminus at the Moon Ranch in 1850, which was 232 river miles from Sacramento (Sutter's Fort), then headed north another 38 miles to Red Bluff, which was the headwaters. Red Bluff was as far as the steamboats could go without hitting bottom. The valley did not end at Red Bluff, just the steamboat transportation. The valley extended north many more miles. This shows you the vastness of the land that Uncle Billy opened to the world.
Moon established a more modern ferry by this time. A ferry to cross the Sacramento was not established at Red Bluff until three years later. The ferry landing was not at the Moon house itself but a few hundred yards up river. The house had to be situated on a bank high enough to escape the flooding, whereas the ferry landing (also the paddlewheel landing) had to have a gentle slope so the ferry and paddlewheelers could nose in.
The original landing was called Moon's, Squaw Hill, later the Corning Landing. There are different versions of how the name Squaw Hill came into being. Some say two elderly Indian women would stand on the hill and wave to the passengers on the passing sternwheelers. Others tell the same story, but say it was two young Indian girls. Still others say that this was the place the Indian women cleaned their fish.

Moons Ferry Over the Sacramento River

"In the early days streams that could not be forded were crossed by ferries in place of bridges. Those ferries were flat barges large enough to hold one or more vehicles. They were propelled back and forth across the streams by the use of poles or the force of the current. Usually they were attached to cables stretching across the streams. Since the Sacramento River was navigable a cable placed across the stream would obstruct river traffic; so a pontoon system was used. The ferry here has just pushed off. If the front of the ferry is pointed up-stream the current will carry it across to the opposite bank." (This is from an 1880 illustration.)

The following are two excerpts of interest from an 1850 diary:
"(May 23) A cool morning. Spent afternoon at Myer's. A party from the wedding, and some travelers, caught a ducking. Crossing a wagon, oxen and 6 men, in the scow, at Moon's Ferry, about 2 miles below Hall's, the oxen caused the boat to upset, and the men had to swim.
(Aug. 3rd) ...Early in the afternoon J.J. Myers, McBride, Moon, (proprietor of the Sacramento ferry) all mounted, with Mr Moon's squaw, astraddle a mule, and 10 of his indians a-foot, passed, on their way from the settlements to the upper Feather River mines."
As I told you before, the Moon house is where everything came together. When the few primitive roads were established they would pass the Moon house. (Although in the very early days there were no roads. The rivers were the only forms of transportation.) Stagecoaches, wagons, etc. had to cross at the Moon ferry. Here is where all of the connections were made for transportation: river boats, stagecoaches, etc. Uncle Billy's Moon house must have been a very busy place indeed.
By July 1851, a post office was established at the Moon house with Nathaniel Merrill as postmaster. Merrill was a cousin of Ford's. Merrill would become manager of the Moon house and all of its operations and would start the first serious farming in the county in the same year.
The original post office is on display at the Tehama County Museum in the little town of Tehama, not far from Corning off of I-5. It is a little museum but quite good. In the early 1850's, a man came to the Moon house from the gold fields and placed his baggage behind a pot bellied stove but did not notice a sign, which said "Sacramento." At the bottom of his bag was a smaller bag with $4,000 in gold dust.
Remember, the honest people of the time would not touch your possessions. When the man came back to get his bag, it was gone. He asked Moon what happened to his bag, and Uncle Billy told him he had put it on the paddleboat for Sacramento. We can assume that the miner just about had a heart attack. Realizing the mistake, Uncle Billy loaned the man his best horse so that he could attempt to ride ahead and catch the boat at its next stop, but he arrived too late.
Nobody wanted to ride any further because the land was flooded. Finally a man was found who was willing to ride all the way to Sacramento. The gold was finally retrieved. The retrivee was paid only for his expenses by the retrivor, and nothing extra for his extraordinary effort in the face of adversity.
Next is the story of a murder at the Moon house. In late 1851, a man named Nathaniel Bowman killed another man, Levi Seigler, at the Moon ranch by beating him over the head with a bottle. Apparently Seigler's snoring upset Bowman. Bowman was placed under guard at Monroeville and on 22 March 1852 indicted for murder by the grand jury. After he was convicted he escaped from his imprisonment and hobbled into a house laden in heavy chains and begged the owner for his life and that the chains be cut loose. Being a good citizen, the man led Bowman back to Monroeville where he was eventually executed.All early day inns had their stories of buried gold. In the early 1850's, a miner stayed at the Moon house, then was stricken with fever. He would linger for weeks, alternating between bouts of delirium. Finally he died. But before his last breath he told of burying a pot of gold worth $40,000 under an old oak tree north of the house. For 50 years people would search for the gold without success.
At the California State Library in Sacramento there is on file a Federal Government deposition dated 1858, with William C. Moon called as a witness for the US Government. It is not a very serious case. It looks like the government bought some cattle from someone and thought they were overcharged. The deposition took place in San Francisco and an attorney represented Moon.
Moon gave his birth date, stated he had first come to California in 1840. Either he was wrong about the date or had visited the state on a previous trip. He was probably wrong on the date. Furthermore, he said he had lived on his ranch since 1844. Then he went on to say he knew nothing about cattle except how they were carried on the tax roles.
Two things are curious about this deposition. Why would he take the precaution of being represented by an attorney when he was only a witness? And why would he say he knew nothing about cattle when he was a cattle rancher?
There are numerous references to Moon's squaw in legal documents and diaries of the time. This was not a derogatory statement at this time in history. It merely denoted that he had an Indian wife.
He had a half-breed son, also named William C. Moon, born in 1859, and dying at the age of 18, in 1877.
The native Indians were an important part of this era of California history. Moon, like most of the ranchers, used Indian labor extensively.
Of historical note: Uncle Billy was from Missouri, a strong slave state. Working 10 Indians, or 100, would have been normal for a slave owner.
In a legal document dated 6 February 1857, Nicholas P. Moon is also living on the ranch. This would have been Uncle Billy's nephew who showed up in the 1850 census in Missouri.
In 1867, a William Coleman Moon shows up in the same area, four years difference in age, also native of Tennessee, also a cattle rancher. It has long been believed that the two were the same. However, the county historian says that Uncle Billy died on 31 May 1878, (I haven't been able to verify this with official records.) and I have William Coleman Moon signing a deed six months later. I believe that they were two different men and that Coleman used his full middle name so as not to confuse the two.
Eventually, Moon sold his interest in the house but kept a room. This is where he died. The shoebox says that "G" was with him when he died. That was probably Isaac L. Given, a member of the Workman-Rowland party and a prominent local citizen. No one knows what happened to his Indian wife or where the half-bred son is buried. Some say that Moon is buried on the ranch, others that he is buried at the Tehama cemetery.
His photo can be dated, with certainty, to within five years of his death. Bancroft lists him as one of California 66 original pioneers. I assume this means he was one of the first to come and actually to settle California.
In time the famous Moon house fell into disrepair and was abandoned. Sometime after 1910 the house was torn down, the lumber used for fence post, which still fill the countryside. The chimney bricks were dismantled and used by others. The famous Moon house is no more. In time the fame of Uncle Billy and his Moon house would fade from memory. The family, like the other residents of the area, would eventually come to think that the Moon house was Chinese.

This is how the ferry looked in 1911, a big improvement over Uncle Billy's primitive ferry of 1846. Notice how the ferry, and paddlewheelers, nose into the landing. The paddlewheelers were used until 1916, the ferry until 1921. At that time the Woodson Bridge was built on the same spot.

My family history web site has 79 chapters. If you would like to know more about the other chapters then go to my Home Page www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net

Next Chapter

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Bear Flag, 1846. This is a photo of the original Bear Flag that was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. The Bear Flag Revolt The purpose of this segment is not to tell the story of the Bear Flag Revolt. There are books available that can tell that story in detail.

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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, officially titled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic.

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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

After the defeat of its army and the fall of the capital in September 1847, Mexico entered into peace negotiations with the U.S. envoy, Nicholas Trist. The resulting treaty required Mexico to cede 55 percent of its territory including the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and most of Arizona and Colorado. Mexico also relinquished all claims for Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern boundary of Texas.

In turn, the U.S. government paid Mexico $15 million "in consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of the United States" and agreed to pay American citizens debts owed by the Mexican government. Mexicans in areas annexed by the U.S. could relocate within Mexico's new boundaries or receive American citizenship and full civil rights.

The United States ratified the treaty on 10 March and Mexico on 19 May. The ratifications were exchanged on 30 May, and the treaty was proclaimed on 4 July 1848.

The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of 38-14. The opponents of this treaty were led by the Whigs, who had opposed the war and rejected manifest destiny in general, and rejected this expansion in particular. The amount of land gained by the United States from Mexico was further increased due to the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which ceded parts of present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico to the United States.

Nicholas Trist negotiated the peace talks; Trist, the chief clerk of the U.S. State Department, accompanied General Winfield Scott as a diplomat and President James K. Polk's representative. After two previous unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a treaty with General José Joaquín de Herrera, Trist and General Scott determined that the only way to deal with Mexico was as a conquered enemy. Trist negotiated with a special commission representing the collapsed government led by Don José Bernardo Couto, Don Miguel de Atristain, and Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas of Mexico.

Although Mexico ceded Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México, the text of the treaty did not list territories to be ceded and avoided the disputed issues that were causes of war: the validity of the 1836 revolution that established the Republic of Texas, Texas's boundary claims as far as the Rio Grande, and the right of the Republic of Texas to arrange the 1845 annexation of Texas by the United States.

Instead, Article V of the treaty described the new U.S.-Mexico border. From east to west, the border consisted of the Rio Grande northwest from its mouth to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico (roughly 32 degrees north), as shown in the Disturnell map, then due west from this point to the 110th meridian west, then north along the 110th meridian to the Gila River and down the river to its mouth. Unlike the New Mexico segment of the boundary, which depended partly on unknown geography, "to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California", a straight line was drawn from the mouth of the Gila to one marine league south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, slightly north of the previous Mexican provincial boundary at Playas de Rosarito.

In the United States, the 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles) of the area between the Adams-Onis and Guadalupe Hidalgo boundaries outside the 1,007,935 km ² (389,166 sq mi) claimed by the Republic of Texas is known as the Mexican Cession. That is to say, the Mexican Cession is construed not to include any territory east of the Rio Grande, while the territorial claims of the Republic of Texas included no territory west of the Rio Grande. The Mexican Cession included essentially the entirety of the former Mexican territory of Alta California, but only the western portion of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and includes all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona, and western portions of New Mexico and Colorado.

Articles VIII and IX ensured the safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, the property rights of Mexican citizens were often not honored by the United States in accordance with modifications to and interpretations of the Treaty. The United States also agreed to assume $3.25 million (equivalent to $101.8 million today) in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens.

The residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship; Over 90% chose American citizenship. The others moved to what remained of Mexico (where they received land) or, in some cases in New Mexico, were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens.

Article XII engaged the United States to pay, "In consideration of the extension acquired", 15 million dollars (equivalent to $470 million today), in annual installments of 3 million dollars.

Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. It provided that the United States would prevent and punish raids by Indians into Mexico, prohibited Americans from acquiring property, including livestock, taken by the Indians in those raids, and stated that the United States would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the Comanche and Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war. This article promised relief to them.

Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U.S. presence near the Mexican border. Mexico filed 366 claims with the U.S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853. In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the Gadsden Purchase, Article XI was annulled.

The land that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought into the United States became, between 1850 and 1912, all or part of ten states: California (1850), Nevada (1864), Utah (1896), and Arizona (1912), as well as, depending upon interpretation, the entire state of Texas (1845), which then included part of Kansas (1861); Colorado (1876); Oklahoma (1907); and New Mexico (1912). The area of domain acquired was given by the Federal Interagency Committee as 338,680,960 acres. The cost was $16,295,149 or approximately 5 cents an acre. The remainder (the southern parts) of New Mexico and Arizona were peacefully purchased under the Gadsden Purchase, which was carried out in 1853. In this purchase, the United States paid an additional $10 million (equivalent to $260 million in 2021) for land intended to accommodate a transcontinental railroad. However, the American Civil War delayed the construction of such a route, and it was not until 1881 that the Southern Pacific Railroad finally was completed as a second transcontinental railroad, fulfilling the purpose of the acquisition.

Mexico had claimed the area in question since winning its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. The Spanish had conquered part of the area from the American Indian tribes over the preceding three centuries. Still, powerful and independent indigenous nations remained within that northern region of Mexico. Most of that land was too dry (low rainfall) and too mountainous to support many people until the advent of new technology after about 1880: means for damming and distributing water from the few rivers to irrigated farmland; the telegraph; the railroad; the telephone; and electrical power.

About 80,000 Mexicans inhabited California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the period 1845 to 1850, with far fewer in Nevada, southern and western Colorado, and Utah. On 1 March 1845, U.S. President John Tyler signed legislation to authorize the United States to annex the Republic of Texas, effective on 29 December 1845. The Mexican government, which had never recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country, had warned that annexation would be viewed as an act of war. Both the United Kingdom and France recognized the Republic of Texas's independence and repeatedly tried to dissuade Mexico from declaring war against its northern neighbor. British efforts to mediate the quandary proved fruitless, in part because other political disputes (particularly the Oregon boundary dispute) arose between Great Britain (as the claimant of modern Canada) and the United States.

On 10 November 1845, before the outbreak of hostilities, President James K. Polk sent his envoy, John Slidell, to Mexico. Slidell had instructions to offer Mexico around $5 million for the territory of Nuevo México and up to $40 million for Alta California. The Mexican government dismissed Slidell, refusing to even meet with him. Earlier in that year, Mexico had broken off diplomatic relations with the United States, based partly on its interpretation of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, under which newly independent Mexico claimed it had inherited rights. In that agreement, the United States had "renounced forever" all claims to Spanish territory.

Neither side took any further action to avoid a war. Meanwhile, Polk settled a major territorial dispute with Britain via the Oregon Treaty, which was signed on 15 June 1846. By avoiding any chance of conflict with Great Britain, the United States was given a free hand regarding Mexico. After the Thornton Affair of 25-26 April, when Mexican forces attacked an American unit in the disputed area, with the result that 11 Americans were killed, five wounded, and 49 captured, Congress passed a declaration of war, which Polk signed on 13 May 1846. The Mexican Congress responded with its own war declaration on 23 April 1846.

U.S. forces quickly moved beyond Texas to conquer Alta California, and New Mexico. Fighting there ended on 13 January 1847 with the signing of the "Capitulation Agreement" at " Campo de Cahuenga" and the end of the Taos Revolt. By the middle of September 1847, U.S. forces had successfully invaded central Mexico and occupied Mexico City.

Some Eastern Democrats called for complete annexation of Mexico and recalled that a group of Mexico's leading citizens had invited General Winfield Scott to become dictator of Mexico after his capture of Mexico City (he declined). However, the movement did not draw widespread support. President Polk's State of the Union address in December 1847 upheld Mexican independence and argued at length that occupation and any further military operations in Mexico were aimed at securing a treaty ceding California and New Mexico up to approximately the 32nd parallel north and possibly Baja California and transit rights across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Despite several military defeats, the Mexican government was reluctant to agree to the loss of California and New Mexico. Even with its capital under enemy occupation, the Mexican government was inclined to consider factors such as the unwillingness of the U.S. administration to annex Mexico outright and what appeared to be deep divisions in domestic U.S. opinion regarding the war and its aims, which caused it to imagine that it was actually in a far better negotiating position than the military situation might have suggested. A further consideration was the growing opposition to slavery that had caused Mexico to end formal slavery in 1829 and its awareness of the well-known and growing sectional divide in the U.S. over the issue of slavery. It, therefore, made sense for Mexico to negotiate to play Northern U.S. interests against Southern U.S. interests.

The Mexicans proposed peace terms that offered only the sale of Alta California north of the 37th parallel north - north of Santa Cruz, California and Madera, California and the southern boundaries of today's Utah and Colorado. Anglo-American settlers already dominated this territory, but perhaps more importantly from the Mexican point of view, it represented the bulk of pre-war Mexican territory north of the Missouri Compromise line of parallel 36°30′ north - lands that, if annexed by the United States, would have been presumed by Northerners to be forever free of slavery. The Mexicans also offered to recognize the freedom of Texas from Mexican rule and its right to join the Union but held to its demand of the Nueces River as a boundary.

While the Mexican government could not reasonably have expected the Polk Administration to accept such terms, it would have had reason to hope that a rejection of peace terms so favorable to Northern interests might have the potential to provoke sectional conflict in the United States or perhaps even a civil war that would fatally undermine the U.S. military position in Mexico. Instead, these terms, combined with other Mexican demands (in particular, for various indemnities), only provoked widespread indignation throughout the United States without causing the sectional conflict the Mexicans hoped for.

Jefferson Davis advised Polk that if Mexico appointed commissioners to come to the United States, the government that appointed them would probably be overthrown before they completed their mission, and they would likely be shot as traitors on their return; so that the only hope of peace was to have a U.S. representative in Mexico. Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the State Department under President Polk, finally negotiated a treaty with the Mexican delegation after ignoring his recall by President Polk in frustration with the failure to secure a treaty. Notwithstanding that the treaty had been negotiated against his instructions, given its achievement of the major American aim, President Polk passed it on to the Senate.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by Nicholas Trist (on behalf of the United States) and Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto, and Miguel Atristain as plenipotentiary representatives of Mexico on 2 February 1848 at the main altar of the old Basilica of Guadalupe at Villa Hidalgo (within the present city limits) as U.S. troops under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott were occupying Mexico City.

An amendment by Jefferson Davis giving the United States most of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, all of Coahuila, and a large part of Chihuahua was supported by both senators from Texas ( Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk), Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana, and one each from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee. Most of the leaders of the Democratic party, Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Calhoun, Herschel V. Johnson, Lewis Cass, James Murray Mason of Virginia and Ambrose Hundley Sevier were opposed, and the amendment was defeated 44-11.

An amendment by Whig Sen. George Edmund Badger of North Carolina to exclude New Mexico and California lost 35-15, with three Southern Whigs voting with the Democrats. Daniel Webster was bitter that four New England senators made deciding votes for acquiring the new territories.

A motion to insert into the treaty the Wilmot Proviso (banning slavery from the acquired territories) failed 15-38 on sectional lines.

The treaty was leaked to John Nugent before the U.S. Senate could approve it. Nugent published his article in the New York Herald and, afterward, was questioned by senators. He was detained in a Senate committee room for one month, though he continued to file articles for his newspaper and ate and slept at the home of the sergeant of arms. Nugent did not reveal his source, and senators eventually gave up their efforts.

The treaty was subsequently ratified by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 38 to 14 on 10 March 1848 and by Mexico through a legislative vote of 51 to 34 and a Senate vote of 33 to 4, on 19 May 1848. News that New Mexico's legislative assembly had just passed an act for the organization of a U.S. territorial government helped ease Mexican concern about abandoning the people of New Mexico. The treaty was formally proclaimed on 4 July 1848.

Protocol of Querétaro

The protocol further noted that the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs had accepted said explanations on behalf of the Mexican Government, and was signed in Querétaro by A. H. Sevier, Nathan Clifford and Luis de la Rosa.

The United States would later ignore the protocol on the grounds that the U.S. representatives had over-reached their authority in agreeing to it.

In addition to the sale of land, the treaty also provided recognition of the Rio Grande as the boundary between the state of Texas and Mexico. The land boundaries were established by a survey team of appointed Mexican and American representatives, and published in three volumes as The United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. On 30 December 1853, the countries, by agreement, altered the border from the initial one by increasing the number of border markers from 6 to 53. Most of these markers were simply piles of stones. Two later conventions, in 1882 and 1889, further clarified the boundaries, as some of the markers had been moved or destroyed. Photographers were brought in to document the location of the markers. These photographs are in Record Group 77, Records of the Office of the Chief Engineers, in the National Archives.

The southern border of California was designated as a line from the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers westward to the Pacific Ocean so that it passes one Spanish league south of the southernmost portion of San Diego Bay. This was done to ensure that the United States received San Diego and its excellent natural harbor without relying on potentially inaccurate designations by latitude.

The treaty extended the choice of U.S. citizenship to Mexicans in the newly purchased territories before many African Americans, Asians, and Native Americans were eligible. If they chose to, they had to declare to the U.S. government within a year of the Treaty being signed; otherwise, they could remain Mexican citizens, but they would have to relocate. Between 1850 and 1920, the U.S. Census counted most Mexicans as racially "white".

The United States received the territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. Today they comprise some or all of the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming from the treaty.

Disputes about whether to make all this new territory into free states or slave states contributed heavily to the rise in North-South tensions that led to the American Civil War just over a decade later.

Border disputes continued. Mexico's economic problems persisted, leading to the controversial Gadsden Purchase in 1854, intended to rectify an error in the original treaty, but led to Mexico demanding a large sum of money for the revision, which was paid. There was also William Walker's short-lived Republic of Lower California filibustering incident in that same year. The Channel Islands of California and Farallon Islands are not mentioned in the Treaty.

The armed forces of both countries routinely crossed the border. Mexican and Confederate troops often clashed during the American Civil War, and the United States crossed the border during the war of Second French intervention in Mexico. In March 1916, Pancho Villa led a raid on the U.S. border town of Columbus, New Mexico, which was followed by the Pershing expedition. The shifting of the Rio Grande since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe caused a dispute over the boundary between the states of New Mexico and Texas, a case referred to as the Country Club Dispute that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927. Controversy over community land grant claims in New Mexico persists to this day.

Writing many years later, Nicholas Trist would describe the treaty as "a thing for every right-minded American to be ashamed of".

(^ Spanish: Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States.

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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the capital in September 1847, Mexico entered into peace negotiations with the U.S. envoy, Nicholas Trist.

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The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico at that time.

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The Gadsden Purchase ( Spanish: la Venta de La Mesilla "The Sale of La Mesilla") is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km ²) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effect on June 8, 1854. The purchase included lands south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande where the U.S. wanted to build a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route, which the Southern Pacific Railroad later completed in 1881-1883. The purchase also aimed to resolve other border issues.

The first draft was signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and by Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico. The U.S. Senate voted in favor of ratifying it with amendments on April 25, 1854, and then sent it to President Franklin Pierce. Mexico's government and its General Congress or Congress of the Union took final approval action on June 8, 1854, when the treaty took effect. The purchase was the last substantial territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States, and defined the Mexico-United States border. The Arizona cities of Tucson and Yuma are on territory acquired by the U.S. in the Gadsden Purchase.

The financially strapped government of Santa Anna agreed to the sale, which netted Mexico $10 million (equivalent to $230 million in 2020). After the devastating loss of Mexican territory to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the continued unauthorized military expeditions in the zone led by New Mexico territorial governor and noted filibuster William Carr Lane, some historians argue that Santa Anna may have calculated it was better to yield territory by treaty and receive payment rather than have the territory simply seized by the U.S.

As the railroad age evolved, business-oriented Southerners saw that a railroad linking the South with the Pacific Coast would expand trade opportunities. They thought the topography of the southern portion of the original boundary line was too mountainous to allow a direct route. Projected southern railroad routes tended to veer to the north as they proceeded eastward, which would favor connections with northern railroads and ultimately favor northern seaports. Southerners saw that to avoid the mountains, a route with a southeastern terminus might need to swing south into what was still Mexican territory.

The administration of President Pierce, strongly influenced by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, saw an opportunity to acquire land for the railroad, as well as to acquire significant other territory from northern Mexico. In those years, the debate over slavery in the United States entered into many other debates, as the acquisition of new territory opened the question of whether it would be slave or free territory; in this case, the debate over slavery ended progress on construction of a southern transcontinental rail line until the early 1880s, although the preferred land became part of the nation and was used as intended after the Civil War.

In January 1845, Asa Whitney of New York presented the United States Congress with the first plan to construct a transcontinental railroad. Although Congress took no action on his proposal, a commercial convention of 1845 in Memphis took up the issue. Prominent attendees included John C. Calhoun, Clement C. Clay, Sr., John Bell, William Gwin, and Edmund P. Gaines, but James Gadsden of South Carolina was influential in the convention's recommending a southern route for the proposed railroad. The route was to begin in Texas and end in San Diego or Mazatlán. Southerners hoped that such a route would ensure Southern prosperity, while opening the "West to southern influence and settlement".

Southern interest in railroads in general, and the Pacific railroad in particular, accelerated after the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. During that war, topographical officers William H. Emory and James W. Abert had conducted surveys that demonstrated the feasibility of a railroad's originating in El Paso or western Arkansas and ending in San Diego. J. D. B. DeBow, the editor of DeBow's Review, and Gadsden both publicized within the South the benefits of building this railroad.

Gadsden had become the president of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company in 1839; about a decade later, the company had laid 136 miles (219 km) of track extending west from Charleston, South Carolina, and was $3 million (equivalent to $74 million in 2020) in debt. Gadsden wanted to connect all Southern railroads into one sectional network. He was concerned that the increasing railroad construction in the North was shifting trade in lumber, farm and manufacturing goods from the traditional north-south route based on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to an east-west axis that would bypass the South. He also saw Charleston, his home town, losing its prominence as a seaport. In addition, many Southern business interests feared that a northern transcontinental route would exclude the South from trade with the Orient. Other Southerners argued for diversification from a plantation economy to keep the South independent of northern bankers.

Gadsden supported nullification in 1831. When California was admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850, he advocated secession by South Carolina. Gadsden considered slavery "a social blessing" and abolitionists "the greatest curse of the nation".

When the secession proposal failed, Gadsden worked with his cousin Isaac Edward Holmes, a lawyer in San Francisco since 1851, and California state senator Thomas Jefferson Green, in an attempt to divide California into northern and southern portions and proposed that the southern part allow slavery. Gadsden planned to establish a slave-holding colony there based on rice, cotton, and sugar, and wanted to use slave labor to build a railroad and highway that originated in either San Antonio or the Red River valley. The railway or highway would transport people to the California gold fields. Toward this end, on December 31, 1851, Gadsden asked Green to secure from the California state legislature a large land grant located between the 34th and 36th parallels, along the proposed dividing line for the two California states.

A few months later, Gadsden and 1,200 potential settlers from South Carolina and Florida submitted a petition to the California legislature for permanent citizenship and permission to establish a rural district that would be farmed by "not less than Two Thousand of their African Domestics". The petition stimulated some debate, but it finally died in committee.

The Compromise of 1850, which created the Utah Territory and the New Mexico Territory, would facilitate a southern route to the West Coast since all territory for the railroad was now organized and would allow for federal land grants as a financing measure. Competing northern or central routes championed, respectively, by U.S. Senators Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, would still need to go through unorganized territories. Millard Fillmore established a precedent for using federal land grants when he signed a bill promoted by Douglas that allowed a south to north, Mobile to Chicago railroad to be financed by "federal land grants for the specific purpose of railroad construction". To satisfy Southern opposition to the general principle of federally supported internal improvements, the land grants would first be transferred to the appropriate state or territorial government, which would oversee the final transfer to private developers.

By 1850, however, the majority of the South was not interested in exploiting its advantages in developing a transcontinental railroad or railroads in general. Businessmen like Gadsden, who advocated economic diversification, were in the minority. The Southern economy was based on cotton exports, and then-current transportation networks met the plantation system's needs. There was little home market for an intra-South trade. In the short term, the best use for capital was to invest it in more slaves and land rather than in taxing it to support canals, railroads, roads, or in dredging rivers. Historian Jere W. Roberson wrote:

Southerners might have gained a great deal under the 1850 land grant act had they concentrated their efforts. But continued opposition to Federal aid, filibustering, an unenthusiastic President, the spirit of "Young America", and efforts to build railroads and canals across Central America and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico divided their forces, leaving a lot of time for the Pacific railroad. Moreover, the Compromise of 1850 encouraged Southerners not to antagonize opponents by resurrecting the railroad controversy.

-  Jere W. Roberson, The South and the Pacific Railroad, 1845-1855

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ended the Mexican-American War, but left issues affecting both sides that still needed to be resolved: possession of the Mesilla Valley, protection for Mexico from Indian raids, and the right of transit in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

The treaty provided for a joint commission, made up of a surveyor and commissioner from each country, to determine the final boundary between the United States and Mexico. The treaty specified that the Rio Grande Boundary would veer west eight miles (13 km) north of El Paso. The treaty was based on the attached 1847 copy of a twenty-five-year-old map. Surveys revealed that El Paso was 36 miles (58 km) further south and 100 miles (160 km) further west than the map showed. Mexico favored the map, but the United States put faith in the results of the survey. The disputed territory involved a few thousand square miles and about 3,000 residents; more significantly, it included the Mesilla Valley. Bordering the Rio Grande, the valley consisted of flat desert land measuring about 50 miles (80 km), north to south, by 200 miles (320 km), east to west. This valley was essential for the construction of a transcontinental railroad using a southern route.

John Bartlett of Rhode Island, the United States negotiator, agreed to allow Mexico to retain the Mesilla Valley (setting the boundary at 32° 22′ N, north of the American claim 31° 52′ and at the easternmost part, also north of the Mexican-claimed boundary at 32° 15′) in exchange for a boundary that did not turn north until 110° W in order to include the Santa Rita Mountains, which were believed to have rich copper deposits, and some silver and gold which had not yet been mined. Southerners opposed this alternative because of its implication for the railroad, but President Fillmore supported it. Southerners in Congress prevented any action on the approval of this separate border treaty and eliminated further funding to survey the disputed borderland. Robert B. Campbell, a pro-railroad politician from Alabama, later replaced Bartlett. Mexico asserted that the commissioners' determinations were valid and prepared to send in troops to enforce the unratified agreement.

Article XI of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo contained a guarantee that the United States would protect Mexicans by preventing cross-border raids by local Comanche and Apache tribes. At the time the treaty was ratified, Secretary of State James Buchanan had believed that the United States had both the commitment and resources to enforce this promise. Historian Richard Kluger, however, described the difficulties of the task:

Comanche, Apache, and other tribal warriors had been punishing Spanish, Mexican, and American intruders into their stark homeland for three centuries and been given no incentive to let up their murderous marauding and pillaging, horse stealing in particular. The U. S. Army had posted nearly 8,000 of its total of 11,000 soldiers along the southwestern boundary, but they could not halt the 75,000 or so native nomads in the region from attacking swiftly and taking refuge among the hills, buttes, and arroyos in a landscape where one's enemies could be spotted twenty or thirty miles away.

In the five years after approval of the Treaty, the United States spent $12 million (equivalent to $280 million in 2020) in this area, and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott estimated that five times that amount would be necessary to police the border. Mexican officials, frustrated with the failure of the United States to effectively enforce its guarantee, demanded reparations for the losses inflicted on Mexican citizens by the raids. The United States argued that the Treaty did not require any compensation nor did it require any greater effort to protect Mexicans than was expended in protecting its own citizens. During the Fillmore administration, Mexico claimed damages of $40 million (equivalent to $900 million in 2020) but offered to allow the U.S. to buy-out Article XI for $25 million ($580 million) while President Fillmore proposed a settlement that was $10 million less ($230 million).

During negotiations of the treaty, Americans had failed to secure the right of transit across the 125-mile-wide (201 km) Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. The idea of building a railroad here had been considered for a long time, connecting the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean. In 1842 Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna sold the rights to build a railroad or canal across the isthmus. The deal included land grants 300 miles (480 km) wide along the right-of-way for future colonization and development. In 1847 a British bank bought the rights, raising U.S. fears of British colonization in the hemisphere, in violation of the precepts of the Monroe Doctrine. United States interest in the right-of-way increased in 1848 after the gold strikes in the Sierra Nevada, which led to the California Gold Rush.

The Memphis commercial convention of 1849 recommended that the United States pursue the trans-isthmus route, since it appeared unlikely that a transcontinental railroad would be built anytime soon. Interests in Louisiana were especially adamant about this option, as they believed that any transcontinental railroad would divert commercial traffic away from the Mississippi and New Orleans, and they at least wanted to secure a southern route. Also showing interest was Peter A. Hargous of New York who ran an import-export business between New York and Vera Cruz. Hargous purchased the rights to the route for $25,000 (equivalent to $600,000 in 2020), but realized that the grant had little value unless it was supported by the Mexican and American governments.

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom, which guaranteed the neutrality of any such canal, was finalized in April 1850. Mexican negotiators refused the treaty because it would eliminate Mexico's ability to play the US and Britain against each other. They eliminated the right of the United States to unilaterally intervene militarily. The United States Senate approved the treaty in early 1851, but the Mexican Congress refused to accept the treaty.

In the meantime, Hargous proceeded as if the treaty would be approved eventually. Judah P. Benjamin and a committee of New Orleans businessmen joined with Hargous and secured a charter from the Louisiana legislature to create the Tehuantepec Railroad Company. The new company sold stock and sent survey teams to Mexico. Hargous started to acquire land even after the Mexican legislature rejected the treaty, a move that led to the Mexicans canceling Hargous' contract to use the right of way. Hargous put his losses at $5 million (equivalent to $124 million in 2020) and asked the United States government to intervene. President Fillmore refused to do so.

Mexico sold the canal franchise, without the land grants, to A. G. Sloo and Associates in New York for $600,000 (equivalent to $15 million in 2020). In March 1853 Sloo contracted with a British company to build a railroad and sought an exclusive contract from the new Franklin Pierce Administration to deliver mail from New York to San Francisco. However, Sloo soon defaulted on bank loans and the contract was sold back to Hargous.

The Pierce administration, which took office in March 1853, had a strong pro-southern, pro-expansion mindset. It sent Louisiana Senator Pierre Soulé to Spain to negotiate the acquisition of Cuba. Pierce appointed expansionists John Y. Mason of Virginia and Solon Borland of Arkansas as ministers, respectively, to France and Nicaragua. Pierce's Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was already on record as favoring a southern route for a transcontinental railroad, so southern rail enthusiasts had every reason to be encouraged.

The South as a whole, however, remained divided. In January 1853, Senator Thomas Jefferson Rusk of Texas introduced a bill to create two railroads, one with a northern route, and one with a southern route starting below Memphis on the Mississippi River. Under the Rusk legislation, the President would be authorized to select the specific termini and routes as well as the contractors who would build the railroads. Some southerners, however, worried that northern and central interests would leap ahead in construction and opposed any direct aid to private developers on constitutional grounds. Other southerners preferred the isthmian proposals. An amendment was added to the Rusk bill to prohibit direct aid, but southerners still split their vote in Congress and the amendment failed.

This rejection led to legislative demands, sponsored by William Gwin of California and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and supported by the railroad interests, for new surveys for possible routes. Gwin expected that a southern route would be approved-both Davis and Robert J. Walker, former Secretary of the Treasury, supported it. Both were stockholders in a Vicksburg-based railroad that planned to build a link to Texas to join up with the southern route. Davis argued that the southern route would have an important military application in the likely event of future troubles with Mexico.

A treaty initiated in the Fillmore administration that would provide joint Mexican and United States protection for the Sloo grant was signed in Mexico on on March 21, 1853. At the same time that this treaty was received in Washington, Pierce learned that New Mexico Territorial Governor William C. Lane had issued a proclamation claiming the Mesilla Valley as part of New Mexico, leading to protests from Mexico. Pierce was also aware of efforts by France, through its consul in San Francisco, to acquire the Mexican state of Sonora.

Pierce recalled Lane in May and replaced him with David Meriwether of Kentucky. Meriwether was given orders to stay out of the Mesilla Valley until negotiations with Mexico could be completed. With the encouragement of Davis, Pierce also appointed James Gadsden as ambassador to Mexico, with specific instructions to negotiate with Mexico over the acquisition of additional territory. Secretary of State William L. Marcy gave Gadsden clear instructions: he was to secure the Mesilla Valley for the purposes of building a railroad through it, convince Mexico that the US had done its best regarding the Indian raids, and elicit Mexican cooperation in efforts by US citizens to build a canal or railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Supporting the Sloo interests was not part of the instructions. Gadsden met with Santa Anna in Mexico City on September 25, 1853, to discuss the terms of the treaty.

The Mexican government was going through political and financial turmoil. In the process, Santa Anna had been returned to power about the same time that Pierce was inaugurated. Santa Anna was willing to deal with the United States because he needed money to rebuild the Mexican Army for defense against the United States. He initially rejected the extension of the border further south to the Sierra Madre Mountains. He initially insisted on reparations for the damages caused by American Indian raids, but agreed to let an international tribunal resolve this. Gadsden realized that Santa Anna needed money and passed this information along to Secretary Marcy.

Marcy and Pierce responded with new instructions. Gadsden was authorized to purchase any of six parcels of land with a price fixed for each. The price would include the settlement of all Indian damages and relieve the United States from any further obligation to protect Mexicans. $50 million (equivalent to $1.3 billion in 2020) would have bought the Baja California Peninsula and a large portion of its northwestern Mexican states while $15 million ($380 million) was to buy the 38,000 square miles (98,000 km ²) of desert necessary for the railroad plans.

"Gadsden's antagonistic manner" alienated Santa Anna. Gadsden had advised Santa Anna that "the spirit of the age" would soon lead the northern Mexican states to secede so he might as well sell them now. Mexico balked at any large-scale sale of territory. The Mexican President felt threatened by William Walker's attempt to capture Baja California with 50 troops and annex Sonora. Gadsden disavowed any government backing of Walker, who retreated to the U.S. and was placed on trial as a criminal. Santa Anna worried that the US would allow further aggression against Mexican territory. Santa Anna needed to get as much money for as little territory as possible. When the United Kingdom rejected Mexican requests to assist in the negotiations, Santa Anna opted for the $15 million package (equivalent to $349 million in 2020).

Santa Anna signed the treaty on December 30, 1853, along with James Gadsden. Then the treaty was presented to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.

Pierce and his cabinet began debating the treaty in January 1854. Although disappointed in the amount of territory secured and some of the terms, Pierce signed it, and submitted it to the Senate on February 10. Gadsden, however, suggested that northern Senators would block the treaty to deny the South a railroad.

The treaty needed a two-thirds vote in favor of ratification in the US Senate, where it met strong opposition. Anti-slavery senators opposed further acquisition of slave territory. Lobbying by speculators gave the treaty a bad reputation. Some Senators objected to furnishing Santa Anna financial assistance.

The treaty reached the Senate as that body focused on the debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On April 17, after much debate, the Senate voted 27 to 18 in favor of the treaty, falling three votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. After this defeat, Secretary Davis and southern Senators pressed Pierce to add more provisions to the treaty including:

protection for the Sloo grant;

a requirement that Mexico "protect with its whole power the prosecution, preservation, and security of the work [referring to the isthmian canal]";

permission for the United States to intervene unilaterally "when it may feel sanctioned and warranted by the public or international law"; and

a reduction of the territory to be acquired by 9,000 square miles (23,000 km²) to the final size of 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km²), and dropping the price to $10 million (equivalent to $230 million in 2020) from $15 million ($350 million).

The land area included in the treaty is shown in the map at the head of the article, and in the national map in this section.

This version of the treaty successfully passed the US Senate April 25, 1854, by a vote of 33 to 12. The reduction in territory was an accommodation of northern senators who opposed the acquisition of additional slave territory. In the final vote, northerners split 12 to 12. Gadsden took the revised treaty back to Santa Anna, who accepted the changes. The treaty went into effect June 30, 1854.

While the land was available for construction of a southern railroad, the issue had become too strongly associated with the sectional debate over slavery to receive federal funding. Roberson wrote:

The unfortunate debates in 1854 left an indelible mark on the course of national politics and the Pacific railroad for the remainder of the antebellum period. It was becoming increasingly difficult, if not outright impossible, to consider any proposal that could not somehow be construed as relating to slavery and, therefore, sectional issues. Although few people fully realized it at the close of 1854, sectionalism had taken such a firm, unrelenting hold on the nation that completion of an antebellum Pacific railroad was prohibited. Money, interest, and enthusiasm were devoted to emotion-filled topics, not the Pacific railroad.

-  Jere W. Roberson, The South and the Pacific Railroad, 1845-1855

The effect was such that railroad development, which accelerated in the North, stagnated in the South.

As originally envisioned, the purchase would have encompassed a much larger region, extending far enough south to include most of the current Mexican states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. The Mexican people opposed such boundaries, as did anti-slavery Americans, who saw the purchase as acquisition of more slave territory. Even the sale of a relatively small strip of land angered the Mexican people, who saw Santa Anna's actions as a betrayal of their country. They watched in dismay as he squandered the funds generated by the Purchase. Contemporary Mexican historians continue to view the deal negatively and believe that it has defined the American-Mexican relationship in a deleterious way.

The residents of the area gained full US citizenship and slowly assimilated into American life over the next half-century. The principal threat to the peace and security of settlers and travelers in the area was raids by Apache Indians. The US Army took control of the purchase lands in 1854 but not until 1856 were troops stationed in the troubled region. In June 1857 it established Fort Buchanan south of the Gila at the head of the Sonoita Creek Valley. The fort protected the area until it was evacuated and destroyed in July 1861. The new stability brought miners and ranchers. By the late 1850s mining camps and military posts had not only transformed the Arizona countryside; they had also generated new trade linkages to the state of Sonora, Mexico. Magdalena, Sonora, became a supply center for Tubac; wheat from nearby Cucurpe fed the troops at Fort Buchanan; and the town of Santa Cruz sustained the Mowry mines, just miles to the north.

After the Gadsden Purchase, southern Arizona's social elite, including the Estevan Ochoa, Mariano Samaniego, and Leopoldo Carillo families, remained primarily Mexican American until the coming of the railroad in the 1880s. When the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company opened silver mines in southern Arizona, it sought to employ educated, middle-class Americans who shared a work ethic and leadership abilities to operate the mines. A biographical analysis of some 200 of its employees, classed as capitalists, managers, laborers, and general service personnel, reveals that the resulting work force included Europeans, Americans, Mexicans, and Indians. This mixture failed to stabilize the remote area, which lacked formal social, political, and economic organization in the years from the Gadsden Purchase to the Civil War.

From the late 1840s into the 1870s, Texas stockmen drove their beef cattle through southern Arizona on the Texas-California trail. Texans were impressed with the grazing possibilities offered by the Gadsden Purchase country of Arizona. In the last third of the century, they moved their herds into Arizona and established the range cattle industry there. The Texans contributed their proven range methods to the new grass country of Arizona, but also brought their problems as well. Texas rustlers brought lawlessness, poor management resulted in overstocking, and carelessness introduced destructive diseases. But these difficulties did force laws and associations in Arizona to curb and resolve them. The Anglo-American cattleman frontier in Arizona was an extension of the Texas experience.

When the Arizona Territory was formed in 1863 from the southern portion of the New Mexico Territory, Pima County and later Cochise County -created from the easternmost portion of Pima County in January 1881-were subject to ongoing border-related conflicts. The area was characterized by rapidly growing boom towns, ongoing Apache raids, smuggling and cattle rustling across the United States-Mexico border, growing ranching operations, and the expansion of new technologies in mining, railroading, and telecommunications.

In the 1860s conflict between the Apaches and the Americans was at its height. Until 1886, almost constant warfare existed in the region adjacent to the Mexican border. The illegal cattle operations kept beef prices in the border region lower and provided cheap stock that helped small ranchers get by. Many early Tombstone, Arizona residents looked the other way when it was "only Mexicans" being robbed.

Outlaws derisively called " The Cowboys" frequently robbed stagecoaches and brazenly stole cattle in broad daylight, scaring off the legitimate cowboys watching the herds. Bandits used the border between the United States and Mexico to raid across in one direction and take sanctuary in the other. In December 1878, and again the next year, Mexican authorities complained about the "Cowboy" outlaws who stole Mexican beef and resold it in Arizona. The Arizona Citizen reported that both U.S. and Mexican bandits were stealing horses from the Santa Cruz Valley and selling them in Sonora. Arizona Territorial Governor Frémont investigated the Mexican government's allegations and accused them in turn of allowing outlaws to use Sonora as a base of operations for raiding into Arizona.

The Gadsden purchase resulted in the division of the Tohono Oʼodham Nation and its ancestral lands by the new international border. This disrupted traditional migratory practices and transportation of materials and goods essential for their spirituality, economy and traditional culture. Nine communities are on the Mexican side of this boundary. Conflicts have arisen mainly in the 21st century with stronger enforcement of customs laws at the border.

In 1846, James Gadsden, then president of the South Carolina Railroad, proposed building a transcontinental railroad linking the Atlantic at Charleston with the Pacific at San Diego. Federal and private surveys by Lt. John G. Parke and Andrew B Gray proved the feasibility of the southern transcontinental route, but sectional strife and the Civil War delayed construction of the proposed railroad. The Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles reached Yuma, Arizona, in 1877, Tucson, Arizona in March 1880, Deming, New Mexico in December 1880, and El Paso in May 1881, the first railroad across the Gadsden Purchase.

At the same time, 1879-1881, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was building across New Mexico and met the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico March 7, 1881, completing the second transcontinental railroad (the first, the central transcontinental, was completed May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah). Acquiring trackage rights over the SP, from Deming to Benson, the Santa Fe then built a line southwest to Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, completed October 1882, as its first outlet to the Pacific. This line was later sold to the Southern Pacific. The Southern Pacific continued building east from El Paso, completing a junction with the Texas & Pacific in December 1881, and finally in 1883, its own southern transcontinental, the Sunset Route, California to New Orleans, Atlantic waters to the Pacific. These railroads caused an early 1880s mining boom in such locales as Tombstone, Arizona, Bisbee, Arizona, and Santa Rita, New Mexico, the latter two world class copper producers. From Bisbee, a third sub-transcontinental was built across the Gadsden Purchase, the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, to El Paso by 1905, then to a link with the Rock Island line to form the Golden State Route. The EP&SW was sold to the Southern Pacific in the early 1920s.

The portion of the Southern Pacific in Arizona was originally largely in the Gadsden Purchase but the western part was later rerouted north of the Gila River to serve the city of Phoenix (as part of the agreement in purchasing the EP&SW). The portion in New Mexico runs largely through the territory that had been disputed between Mexico and the United States after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had gone into effect, and before the time of the Gadsden Purchase. The Santa Fe Railroad Company also completed a railroad across Northern Arizona, via Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff and Kingman in August 1883. These two transcontinental railroads, the Southern Pacific (now part of the Union Pacific Railroad) and the Santa Fe (now part of the BNSF), are among the busiest rail lines in the United States.

During the early twentieth century, a number of short-lines usually associated with mining booms were built in the Gadsden Purchase to Ajo, Silverbell, Twin Buttes, Courtland, Gleeson, Arizona, Shakespeare, New Mexico, and other mine sites. Most of these railroads have been abandoned.

The remainder of the Gila Valley pre-Purchase border area was traversed by the Arizona Eastern Railway by 1899 and the Copper Basin Railway by 1904. Excluded was a 20-mile (32 km) section in the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, from today's San Carlos Lake to Winkelman at the mouth of the San Pedro River, including the Needle's Eye Wilderness. The section of US Highway 60 about 20 miles (32 km) between Superior and Miami via Top-of-the-World (this road segment is east of Phoenix, in the Tonto National Forest passing through a mountainous region), takes an alternate route (17.4 road miles) between the Magma Arizona Railroad and the Arizona Eastern Railway railheads on each side of this gap. This highway is well north of the Gadsden Purchase. Given the elevations of those three places, at least a 3% grade would have been required for rails built here, rather than the final alignment; railroads prefer 1% or less grade for better operation. This rugged terrain above the Gila River confirms the engineering, technical wisdom of acquiring the Gadsden Purchase for a southern transcontinental railroad. To William H. Emory of the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers who surveyed the region in the 1840s-1850s, it was a good route "to the Pacific."

County

Seat

Pop.[68]

Area (mi²)

Area (km²)

Total

1,767,770

32,180

83,350

The northernmost point of the Gadsden Purchase, and also along the national border during the period of 1848-53, is at approximately in the town of Goodyear, Arizona, about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Phoenix, Arizona.

Sunland Park (population 14,267 in 2010), a suburb of El Paso, Texas, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, is the largest community of New Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.

Geologist Harold L. James stated in 1969 about the Gadsden Purchase: "Although the boundary controversy did not teach any lessons or impart any wisdom, it did lead to the purchase of an extremely valuable strip of territory that has more than paid for itself in subsequent mineral and agricultural resources. Despite the comedy of errors, chaos, and misunderstanding, the Southwest must therefore be grateful."

However, economist David R. Barker estimated in 2009 that the purchase was likely not profitable for the United States federal government. Stating that "Current historical accounts take it for granted that the purchase has been a boon to the United States", he calculated that the region produces little tax revenue; most mines are on Indian reservations which receive all royalties. The federal government spent a great deal of money during the 19th century to defend the territory from Apaches that would not have been necessary without the purchase.

The consequences of the Gadsden Purchase for Mexicans and Native Americans living in the region form the background of the story in the film Conquest of Cochise (Columbia, 1953).

The United States Post Office Department issued a postage stamp commemorating 100 years since the Gadsden Purchase, on December 30, 1953.

In 2012, the Gadsden Purchase was featured in a segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

A supporting character in the 2021 novel Billy Summers by Stephen King is named "Gadsden Drake" after the Gadsden Purchase.

Kluger, Richard (2007). Seizing Destiny: How America Grew From Sea to Shining Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0375413414.

May, Robert E. (1973). The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0807100516.

Nevins, Allan (1947). Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852-1857. OCLC 69655131.

Nichols, Roy Franklin (1969). Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills (2nd ed.). OCLC 33126738.

Richards, Leonard L. (2007). The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0307265203.

Roberson, Jere W. (April 1974). "The South and the Pacific Railroad, 1845-1855". The Western Historical Quarterly. Vol. 5, no. 2. pp. 163-186. JSTOR 967035.

Terrazas, Marcela (2001). "The Regional Conflict, the Contractors, and the Construction Projects of a Road to the Pacific at the End of the War Between Mexico and the United States". Journal of Popular Culture. Vol. 35, no. 2. pp. 161-169. ISSN 0022-3840. stresses railroad speculation and corruption themes

Truett, Samuel (2004). "The Ghosts of Frontiers Past: Making and Unmaking Space in the Borderlands". Journal of the Southwest. 46 (2): 309-350. JSTOR 40170292.

Vázquez, Josefina Z. & Meyer, Lorenzo (1985). The United States and Mexico. ISBN 978-0226850238.

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The Gadsden Purchase ( Spanish: la Venta de La Mesilla "The Sale of La Mesilla") is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km 2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effect on June 8, 1854.

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The Donner Party, or Donner-Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846.

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A heroic figure he was not, although his romantic position as pioneer in the great valley made him seem so to many travelers and historians. . . . his fate was the ordinary one of the persistent and unteachable dreamer.

Sutter's Friend, I.S. Tichenor (1866)

Captain John Sutter, an immigrant from Switzerland,was born on February 15 of 1803 in Kandern, Baden, a few miles from the Swiss border. As an apprentice to a firm of printers and booksellers, Sutter found the paper business was not for him.

He met his future wife, Annette D'beld, while clerking in a draper's shop, and the two were married in Burgdorf on October 24 of 1826.

Business failures prompted Sutter's decision to seek his fortune in America. At the age of thirty-one, he left his wife and four children in Germany and started his long trip.

After arriving in America, Sutter headed west for Missouri where he worked as a merchant and innkeeper for several years. All the while he dreamed of establishing his own agricultural empire somewhere out west. In April of
1838, he joined a trapping party on their way to the Pacific Coast. The traders reached Fort Vancouver in October, the Pacific headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. Unable to leave for California immediately, Sutter sailed on the ship "Columbia" for the Sandwich Islands, where he landed at Honolulu on December 9 of 1838.

While in Hawaii, Sutter presented himself as a successful former Captain in the Swiss Guards. Even though he was broke, Sutter became very popular with some influential Hawaiian business people. Sutter interested them in his project to establish a mercantile base in the Sacramento valley. Before leaving Honolulu in April of 1839, Sutter had borrowed supplies, money and had made a contract to take nine Hawaiians with him to California. He sailed to California by way of Sitka, Alaska.

At Monterey in 1839, Sutter met with Governor Alvarado to discuss the possibility of establishing himself in the country. In reach of his dream, Sutter then chartered the schooner "Isabella" from the firm of Spear and Hinckley, and two smaller vessels. Loaded with provisions he had bought on credit, Sutter led his fleet up the Sacramento River on August 1 of 1839.

Two weeks later they landed near where the American joins the Sacramento River. They encountered a group of two hundred Indians who at first did not seem friendly. Because of his skills at diplomacy and the Indians fear of his canons, Sutter established a friendship with the Indians. He soon led his workers in setting up camp. A tent and some brush huts built by the Hawaiians provided the first shelter for the small party. Later, a more substantial adobe building was erected with the help of the Indians.

In order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29 of 1840.The following year, on June 18, he received title to 48,827 acres of the Sobrante Land Grant from Governor Alvarado. He also received a grant of land he named "New Helvetia", after his homeland. He could now begin building his empire.

Sutter started building his fort in 1840 to protect his settlement which he called New Helvetia. Besides Mexicans and the Hawaiians who worked for him, Sutter also had around 350 California Nisenan and Miwok Indians who were employed to guard the fort. John Bidwell also arrived from Missouri and helped Sutter with the management of the fort.There were large herds of cattle and horses grazing in fields about the fort. Hunters were sent into the mountains for furs pelts and elk hides. A distillery, flour mill and bakery were built. A blacksmith shop and carpenter shop furnished tools. A boat launch soon carried freight and passengers between Sutter's Fort and the San Francisco Bay.

In 1841, Sutter bought the Russian settlements of Ross and Bodega for $32,000, secured by mortgage on New Helvetia. Sutter also established Hock Farm on the west bank of the Feather River, a few miles south of what would become Yuba City. This farm supplied food for the settlement at Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento River.

Sutter's "New Helvetia" and Sobrante land grants, stretched from about what is now Redding to south of Sacramento. It finally comprised over 150,000 acres, not including pasture land. He also had purchased Fort Ross from the Russians.

Sutter went about to find his vision of utopia. He learned how to farm and recruited immigrants for his settlement from the United States, Switzerland and Germany.

Sutter's Fort was pretty well completed by 1844. It grew in importance as more settlers arrived from the difficult trip west.

The Fort was not only a trading post but also occupied one of the most strategic locations in Northern California. It became the natural objective for parties crossing the Sierras, especially in the winter months.

In November of 1846, the Donner Party stopped for the evening near Truckee in the Sierras. They became trapped by a snowstorm. They were unable to move. 40 of the 87 people in the Donner party died from the weather and hunger. They remained snowbound until February of 1847, when they finally rescued and brought to Sutter's Fort. Sutter put them up at the fort until they were healthy and able to move on.

In 1847 Sutter contracted with James Marshall to build a sawmill on the south fork of the American River about 50 miles east of Sutter's Fort. The sawmill was almost completed when, on January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in the tail race.

On January 28, 1848 Marshall came to Sutter's Parlor at the fort's main building. Marshall met privately with Captain Sutter to show him the gold he had found at the mill. Grabbing a book, Sutter performed a few simple tests on the yellow metal. "Its gold," he said. Simple words that ignited the imagination of the world.

The following year would forever be known for the thousands of gold-seeking 49ers who abandoned farms and families across the country to search for riches in California. Many found the yellow stuff but few made their fortunes.

The Gold Rush hurt Sutter. Sutter's workmen quit working to look for gold. Tens of thousands of new arrivals swept law and order before them, helping themselves to Sutter's land, crops and livestock. Sutter tried, with partners, to become a merchant to the miners but his partners cheated him and his creditors pursued him.

In order to keep from loosing everything, Sutter deeded his remaining land to his son, John Sutter,Jr. The younger Sutter began laying out the Sacramento town site in January 1849. Captain Sutter was very unhappy about this as he had wanted the local city center to be at Sutterville.In late 1849, Sutter sold his fort to Alden Bayly for $7,000. He moved to Hock Farm, near Yuba City, with his wife and children.

In 1850, California became the 31st state of the United States. People continued to come west looking for gold until it became more and more difficult to find. During the 1850's, after it had served it's purpose, all that remained of Sutter's Fort was the main building.

In 1865, Sutter's home at Hock Farm was burned down by a disgruntled worker. Sutter then decided to try to obtain reimbursement from Congress for his help in colonizing the State of California; his aid to emigrants; and his losses from having his Sobrante Land Grant declared invalid by the courts. In 1871, he and his family moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania because of his poor health.

On June 16, 1880, Congress adjourned without passing a bill that would have given Sutter $50,000 as reimbursement. Two days later John Sutter died of heart failure in Washington D.C.. His body was returned to Lititz and buried in the Moravian Brotherhood's Cemetery. Mrs. Sutter died the following January.

Sutter told his own story of the Discovery of Gold and the impact it had on his life.

Student Activity 2

Write an Essay

Write a five paragraph essay. Choose one of the following topics or create one of your own:

1. A biographical sketch of John A. Sutter.

2. A historical sketch of Sutter's Fort.

3. The lifes of the Native Americans of the Sacramento Valley and how they were affected by the Gold Rush.

4. Describe the different Americans living in California at the time of Sutter's arrival.
Back to Student Activities
Student Activity 3

Portrait of John A. Sutter

Find a photograph or drawing of John A. Sutter and make your own drawing of him. The teacher can print out several different pictures from the website to use for models.

Supplies: You will need white drawing paper, pencils, colored pencils, crayons or water colors.
Back to Student Activities

( Table of Contents)( Teacher's Guide to Activities)( References)( SCORE)

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Sutter's Friend, I.S. Tichenor (1866) Sutter's "New Helvetia" and Sobrante land grants, stretched from about what is now Redding to south of Sacramento. It finally comprised over 150,000 acres, not including pasture land. He also had purchased Fort Ross from the Russians.

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The Donner Party, or Donner-Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846.

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On April 16, 1846, nine covered wagons left Springfield, Illinois on the 2,500-mile journey to California, in what would become one of the greatest tragedies in the history of westward migration.

"My father, with tears in his eyes, tried to smile as one friend after another grasped his hand in a last farewell. Mama was overcome with grief. At last, we were all in the wagons. The drivers cracked their whips. The oxen moved slowly forward and the long journey had begun."

- Virginia Reed, daughter of James Reed

The originator of this group was a man named James Frasier Reed, an Illinois businessman, eager to build a greater fortune in the rich land of California. Reed also hoped that his wife, Margaret, who suffered from terrible headaches, might improve in the coastal climate. Reed had recently read the book The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, by Landsford W. Hastings, who advertised a new shortcut across the Great Basin. This new route enticed travelers by advertising that it would save the pioneers 350-400 miles on easy terrain. However, what was not known by Reed was that the Hastings Route had never been tested, written by Hastings who had visions of building an empire at Sutter's Fort (now Sacramento.) It was this falsified information that would lead to the doom of the Donner Party.

Reed soon found others seeking adventure and fortune in the vast West, including the Donner family, Graves, Breens, Murphys, Eddys, McCutcheons, Kesebergs, and the Wolfingers, as well as seven teamsters and a number of bachelors. The initial group included 32 men, women and children.

With James and Margaret Reed were their four children, Virginia, Patty, James, and Thomas, as well as Margaret's 70-year-old mother, Sarah Keyes, and two hired servants. Though Sarah Keyes was so sick with consumption that she could barely walk, she was unwilling to be separated from her only daughter. However, the successful Reed was determined his family would not suffer on the long journey as his wagon was an extravagant two-story affair with a built-in iron stove, spring-cushioned seats, and bunks for sleeping. Taking eight oxen to pull the luxurious wagon, Reed's 12-year-old daughter Virginia dubbed it "The Pioneer Palace Car."

In nine brand new wagons, the group estimated the trip would take four months to cross the plains, deserts, mountain ranges and rivers in their quest for California. Their first destination was Independence, Missouri, the main jumping-off point for the Oregon and California Trails.

Also in the group were the families of George and Jacob Donner. George Donner was a successful 62-year-old farmer who had migrated five times before settling in Springfield, Illinois along with his brother Jacob. Obviously adventurous, the brothers decided to make one last trip to California, which unfortunately would be their last.

With George were his third wife, Tamzene, their three children, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza, and George's two daughters from a previous marriage, Elitha and Leanna. Jacob Donner, and his wife Elizabeth, brought their five children, George, Mary, Isaac, Samuel, and Lewis, as well as Mrs. Donner's two children from a previous marriage, Solomon and William Hook.

Also along with them were two teamsters, Noah James and Samuel Shoemaker, as well as a friend named John Denton. At the bottom of Jacob Donner's saddlebag was a copy of Lansford Hastings's Emigrant's Guide, with its tantalizing talk of a faster route to the garden of the earth.

Ironically, on the very day that the Illinois party headed west from Springfield, Lansford Hastings prepared to head east from California, to see what the shortcut he had written about was really like.

The wagon train reached Independence, Missouri about three weeks later, where they re-supplied. The next day, on May 12, 1846, they headed west again in the middle of a thunderstorm. A week later they joined a large wagon train captained by Colonel William H. Russell that was camped on Indian Creek about 100 miles west of Independence. Along the entire journey, others would join the group until its size numbered 87.

On May 25th the train was held for several days by high water at the Big Blue River near present-day Marysville, Kansas. It was here that the train would experience its first death when Sarah Keyes died and was buried next to the river. After building ferries to cross the water, the party was on their way again, following the Platte River for the next month.

Along the way, William Russell resigned as the captain of the wagon train and the position was assumed by a man named William M. Boggs. Encountering few problems along the trail, the pioneers reached Fort Laramie just one week behind schedule on June 27, 1846.

At Fort Laramie, James Reed ran into an old friend from Illinois by the name of James Clyman, who had just traveled the new route eastwardly with Lansford Hastings. Clyman advised Reed not to take the Hastings Route, stating that the road was barely passable on foot and would be impossible with wagons; also warning him of the great desert and the Sierra Nevadas. Though he strongly suggested that the party take the regular wagon trail rather than this new false route, Reed would later ignore his warning in an attempt to reach their destination more quickly.

Joined by other wagons in Fort Laramie, the pioneers were met by a man carrying a letter from Lansford W. Hastings at the Continental Divide on July 11th. The letter stated that Hastings would meet the emigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them on his cutoff, which passed south of the Great Salt Lake instead of detouring northwest via Fort Hall (present-day Pocatello, Idaho.)

The letter successfully allayed any fears that the party might have had regarding the Hastings cutoff. On July 19th the wagon train arrived at the Little Sandy River in present-day Wyoming, where the trail parted into two routes - the northerly known route and the untested Hastings Cutoff. Here, the train split, with the majority of the large caravan taking the safer route. The group preferring the Hastings route elected George Donner as their captain and soon began the southerly route, reaching Fort Bridger on July 28th. However, upon their arrival at Fort Bridger, of Lansford Hastings, there was no sign, only a note left with other emigrants resting at the fort. The note indicated that Hastings had left with another group and that later travelers should follow and catch up. Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez assured the Donner Party that the Hastings Cutoff was a good route. Satisfied, the emigrants rested for a few days at the fort, making repairs to their wagons and preparing for the rest of what they thought would be a seven-week journey.

On July 31st, the party left Fort Bridger, joined by the McCutchen family. The group now numbered 74 people in twenty wagons and for the first week made good progress at 10-12 miles per day.

On August 6, the party reached the Weber River after having passed through Echo Canyon. Here they came to a halt when they found a note from Hastings advising them not to follow him down Weber Canyon as it was virtually impassible, but rather to take another trail through the Salt Basin.

While the party camped near modern-day Henefer, Utah, James Reed, along with two other men forged ahead on horses to catch up with Hastings. Finding the party at the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, Hastings accompanied Reed partway back to point out the new route, which he said would take them about one week to travel. In the meantime, the Graves family caught up with the Donner Party, which now numbered 87 people in 23 wagons. Taking a vote among the party members, the group decided to try the new trail rather than backtracking to Fort Bridger.

On August 11th, the wagon train began the arduous journey through the Wasatch Mountains, clearing trees and other obstructions along the new path of their journey. In the beginning, the wagon train was lucky to make even two miles per day, taking them six days just to travel eight miles. Along the way, they discovered that some of their wagons would have to be abandoned and before long, morale began to sink and the pioneers began to adamantly blame Lansford Hastings. By the time they reached the shore, they also blamed James Reed.

On August 25th, the caravan lost another member, one Luke Halloran, who died of consumption, near present-day Grantsville, Utah. About this time, fear began to set in as provisions were running low and time was against them. In the twenty-one days since reaching the Weber River they had moved just 36 miles.

Five days later, on August 30th, the group began to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert, believing the trek would take only two days, according to Hastings. However, what they didn't know was that the desert sand was moist and deep, where wagons quickly got bogged down, severely slowing their progress. On the third day in the desert, their water supply was nearly exhausted and some of Reed's oxen ran away. When they finally reached the end of the grueling desert five days later on September 4th, the emigrants rested near the base of Pilot Peak for several days. On their eighty mile journey through the Salt Lake Desert, they had lost a total of thirty-two oxen; Reed was forced to abandon two of his wagons, and the Donners, as well as man named Louis Keseberg, lost one wagon each.

On the far side of the desert, an inventory of food was taken and found to be less than adequate for the 600-mile trek still ahead. Ominously, snow powdered the mountain peaks that very night. They reached the Humboldt River on September 26th.

Realizing that the difficult journey through the mountains and the desert had depleted their supplies, two of the young men traveling with the party, William McCutcheon and Charles Stanton, were sent ahead to Sutter's Fort, California to bring back supplies.

From September 10th through the 25th, the party followed the trail into Nevada around the Ruby Mountains, finally reaching the Humboldt River on September 26th. It was here that the "new" trail met up with Hasting's original path. Having traveled an extra 125 miles through strenuous mountain terrain and dry desert, the disillusioned party's resentment of Hastings, and ultimately, Reed, was increased tremendously.

The Donner Party soon reached the junction with the California Trail, about seven miles west of present-day Elko, Nevada and spent the next two weeks traveling along the Humboldt River. As the disillusionment of the party increased, tempers began to flare in the group.

On October 5th at Iron Point, two wagons became entangled and John Snyder, a teamster of one of the wagons began to whip his oxen. Infuriated by the teamster's treatment of the oxen, James Reed ordered the man to stop and when he wouldn't, Reed grabbed his knife and stabbed the teamster in the stomach, killing him. The Donner Party wasted no time in administering their own justice. Though member, Lewis Keseberg, favored hanging for James Reed, the group, instead, voted to banish him. Leaving his family, Reed was last seen riding off to the west with a man named Walter Herron.

The Donner Party continued to travel along the Humboldt River with their remaining draft animals exhausted. To spare the animals, everyone who could, walked. Two days after the Snyder killing, on October 7th, Lewis Keseberg turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop, who had been traveling with him. The old man, who could not keep up with the rest of the party with his severely swollen feet, began to knock on other wagon doors, but no one would let him in. He was last seen sitting under a large sagebrush, completely exhausted, unable to walk, worn out, and was left there to die.

The terrible ordeals of the caravan continued to mount when on October 12th, their oxen were attacked by Piute Indians, killing 21 one of them with poison-tipped arrows, further depleting their draft animals.

Continuing to encounter multiple obstacles, on October 16th, they reached the gateway to the Sierra Nevada on the Truckee River (present-day Reno) almost completely depleted of food supplies. Miraculously, just three days later on October 19th, one of the men the party had sent on to Fort Sutter - Charles Stanton, returned laden with seven mules loaded with beef and flour, two Indian guides, and news of a clear, but difficult path through the Sierra Nevada. Stanton's partner, William McCutchen had fallen ill and remained at the fort. The caravan camped for five days 50 miles from the summit, resting their oxen for the final push. This decision to delay their departure was yet one more of many that would lead to their tragedy.

October 28th, an exhausted James Reed arrived at Sutter's Fort, where he met William McCutchen, now recovered, and the two men began preparations to go back for their families.

In the meantime, while the wagon train continued to the base of the summit, George Donner's wagon axle broke and he fell behind the rest of the party. Twenty-two people, consisting of the Donner family and their hired men, stayed behind while the wagon was repaired. Unfortunately, while cutting timber for a new axle, a chisel slipped and Donner cut his hand badly, causing the group to fall further behind.

As the rest of the party continued to what is now known as Donner's Lake, snow began to fall. Stanton and the two Indians who were traveling ahead made it as far as the summit but could go no further. Hopeless, they retraced their steps where five feet of new snow had already fallen.

With the Sierra pass just 12 miles beyond, the wagon train, after attempting to make the pass through the heavy snow, finally retreated to the eastern end of the lake, where level ground and timber was abundant. At the lake stood one existing cabin and realizing they were stranded, the group built two more cabins, sheltering 59 people in hopes that the early snow would melt, allowing them to continue their travels.

The 22 people with the Donners were about six miles behind at Alder Creek. Hastily, as the snow continued, the party built three shelters from tents, quilts, buffalo robes. and brush to protect themselves from the harsh conditions.

At Donner Lake, two more attempts were made to get over the pass in twenty feet of snow, until they finally realized they were snowbound for the winter. More small cabins were constructed, many of which were shared by more than one family. The weather and their hopes were not to improve. Over the next four months, the remaining men, women, and children would huddle together in cabins, makeshift lean-tos, and tents.

Meanwhile, Reed and McCutchen had headed back up into the mountains attempting to rescue their stranded companions. Two days after they started out it began to rain. As the elevation increased, the rain turned to snow and twelve miles from the summit the pair could go no further. Caching their provisions in Bear Valley, they returned to Sutter's fort hoping to recruit more men and supplies for the rescue. However, the Mexican War had drawn away the able-bodied men, forcing any further rescue attempts to wait. Not knowing how many cattle the emigrants had lost, the men believed the party would have enough meat to last them several months. On Thanksgiving, it began to snow again, and the pioneers at Donner Lake killed the last of their oxen for food on November 29th.

The very next day, five more feet of snow fell, and they knew that any plans for a departure were dashed. Many of their animals, including Sutter's mules, had wandered off into the storms and their bodies were lost under the snow. A few days later their last few cattle were slaughtered for food and party began eating boiled hides, twigs, bones and bark. Some of the men tried to hunt with little success.

On December 15, Balis Williams died of malnutrition and the group realized that something had to be done before they all died. The next day five men, nine women, and one child departed on snowshoes for the summit, determined to travel the 100 miles to Sutter's Fort. However, with only meager rations and already weak from hunger the group faced a challenging ordeal. On the sixth day, their food ran out and for the next three days, no one ate while they traveled through grueling high winds and freezing weather. One member of the party, Charles Stanton, snow-blind and exhausted was unable to keep up with the rest of the party and told them to go on. He never rejoined the group. A few days later, the party was caught in a blizzard and had great difficulty getting and keeping a fire lit. Antonio, Patrick Dolan, Franklin Graves, and Lemuel Murphy soon died and in desperation, the others resorted to cannibalism.

Living off the bodies of those that died along the path to Sutter's Fort, the snowshoeing survivors were reduced to seven by the time they reached safety on the western side of the mountains on January 19, 1847. Only two of the ten men survived, including William Eddy and William Foster, but all five women lived through the journey. Of the eight dead, seven had been cannibalized. Immediately messages were dispatched to neighboring settlements as area residents rallied to save the rest of the Donner Party.

On February 5, the first relief party of seven men left Johnson's ranch, and the second, headed by James Reed, left two days later. On February 19th, the first party reached the lake finding what appeared to be a deserted camp until the ghostly figure of a woman appeared. Twelve of the emigrants were dead and of the forty-eight remaining, many had gone crazy or were barely clinging to life. However, the nightmare was by no means over. Not everyone could be taken out at one time and since no pack animals could be brought in, few food supplies were brought in. The first relief party soon left with 23 refugees, but during the party's travels back to Sutter's Fort, two more children died. En route down the mountains, the first relief party met the second relief party coming the opposite way and the Reed family was reunited after five months.

On March 1st the second relief party finally arrived at the lake, finding grisly evidence of cannibalism. The next day, they arrived at Alder Creek to find that the Donners had also resorted to cannibalism. On March 3rd, Reed left the camp with 17 of the starving emigrants but just two days later they are caught in another blizzard. When it cleared, Isaac Donner had died and most of the refugees were too weak to travel. Reed and another rescuer, Hiram Miller, took three of the refugees with them hoping to find food they had stored on the way up. The rest of the pioneers stayed at what would become known as "Starved Camp."

On March 12th the third relief led by William Eddy and William Foster reached Starved Camp where Mrs. Graves and her son Franklin had also died. The three bodies, including that of Isaac Donner, had been cannibalized. The next day, they arrived at the lake camp to find that both of their sons had died. On March 14th they arrived at the Alder Creek camp to find George Donner was dying from an infection in the hand that he had injured months before. His wife Tamzene, though in comparatively good health, refused to leave him; sending her three little girls on without her. The relief party soon departed with four more members of the party, leaving those who are too weak to travel. Two rescuers, Jean-Baptiste Trudeau and Nicholas Clark were left behind to care for the Donners, but soon abandon them to catch up with the relief party.

A fourth rescue party set out in late March but were soon stranded in a blinding snowstorm for several days. On April 17th, the relief party reached the camps to find only Louis Keseberg alive among the mutilated remains of his former companions. Keseberg was the last member of the Donner Party to arrive at Sutter's Fort on April 29th. It took two months and four relief parties to rescue the entire surviving Donner Party.

In the Donner Party tragedy, two-thirds of the men in the party perished, while two-thirds of the women and children lived. Forty-one individuals died, and forty-six survived. In the end, five had died before reaching the mountains, thirty-five perished either at the mountain camps or trying to cross the mountains, and one died just after reaching the valley. Many of those who survived lost toes to frostbite.

The story of the Donner tragedy quickly spread across the country. Newspapers printed letters and diaries and accused the travelers of bad conduct, cannibalism, and even murder. The surviving members had differing viewpoints, biases and recollections so what actually happened was never extremely clear. Some blamed the power-hungry Lansford W. Hastings for the tragedy, while others blamed James Reed for not heeding Clyman's warning about the deadly route.

After the publicity, emigration to California fell off sharply and Hastings' cutoff was all but abandoned. Then, in January 1848, gold was discovered in at John Sutter's Mill in Coloma and gold-hungry travelers began to rush out West once again. By late 1849 more than 100,000 people had come to California in search of gold near the streams and canyons where the Donner Party had suffered.

Donner Lake, named for the party, is today a popular mountain resort near Truckee, California and the Donner Camp has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. The Donner Camp has been the site of recent archeological excavations.

© Kathy Weiser/ Legends of America, updated April 2023.
Also See: Danger and Hardship on the Oregon Trail Oregon Trail California Trail Fort Laramie, Wyoming Tales and Trails of the American Frontier Westward Expansion & Manifest Destiny

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