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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Green, Thomas J. (Thomas Jefferson) (1802-1863) to James Gadsden

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03587.05 Author/Creator: Green, Thomas J. (Thomas Jefferson) (1802-1863) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 October 1853 Pagination: 3 p. ; 25 x 19.7 cm. Order a Copy

Introduces Mr. Robert Rose, who is hand delivering this letter, as a businessman connected with building the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, of which Gadsden is an advocate. Writes that if Gadsden is successful in securing a treaty with Mexico for Sonora, he should insist upon 30 degrees north latitude from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California. He says that the land is rich in silver, is closer to a Chinese trading post, and will be accessible by railroad. Encloses a letter for Hon. Robert J. Walker regarding the "Pacific road" (not included). Imprint in the upper left corner reads "O & H."

Gadsden was a railroad promoter and advocated a Southern rail system, the purpose of which would be to control the trade of the South and the West, thereby freeing those regions from their dependency on the North. To further this end he promoted Southern commercial conventions, and at a convention in 1845 he boldly urged the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. In 1853, when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War in Pierce's cabinet, Gadsden was appointed minister to Mexico to negotiate for territory along the border. The result was the Gadsden Purchase. He was recalled in 1856 for exceeding his instructions. Green served in the First Senate of California and sponsored the bill creating the University of California. He later became major general of the California militia. Walker, a grandson-in-law of Benjamin Franklin, was Polk's Secretary of the Treasury and later Governor of the Kansas Territory.

Gadsden, James, 1788-1858
Green, Thomas J. (Thomas Jefferson), 1802-1863
Walker, Robert J. (Robert John)., 1801-1869
Rose, Robert, fl. 1853

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