Southern U.S. border established
James Gadsden the U.S.minister to Mexico and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna the president of Mexico sign the Gadsden Purchase in Mexico City.The treaty settled the dispute over the location of the Mexican border west of El Paso Texas and established the final boundaries of the southern United States.
For the price of 15 million later reduced to 10 million the United States acquired approximately 30000 square miles of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona.Jefferson Davis the U.S.secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce had sent Gadsden to negotiate with Santa Anna for the land which was deemed by a group of political and industrial leaders to be a highly strategic location for the construction of the southern transcontinental railroad.In 1861 the big four leaders of western railroad constructionCollis P.
Huntington Leland Stanford Mark Hopkins and Charles Crockerestablished the Southern Pacific branch of the Central Pacific Railroad.
