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Charleston born, Yale educated James Gadsden was one of the architects of the Manifest Destiny ideal that swept American thinking in the mid-19th century. Towns in Arizona, Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee and Florida are named for him.

Everyone has an opinion about the illegal immigration problem these days on the Arizona border. Corporations and cities are lining up to boycott Arizona resorts because the state's governor has made a bold statement regarding federal enforcement -- or the lack thereof. On the other hand, the distinct Arizona flag motif is popping up on everything from T-shirts and jogging shorts to car decals. Few are aware that the southern border of Arizona was a deft bit of diplomatic maneuvering by Charlestonian James Gadsden, Yale-educated soldier and statesman of the antebellum era.

Southerners were Arizona-minded 153 years ago just as they are today -- maybe more so. Native-son James Gadsden, grandson of Revolutionary firebrand, Christopher Gadsden, and brother to Episcopal Bishop Christopher Gadsden, was the key to the acquisition that rounded out the lower 48.

All but the history majors are forgiven for knowing little to nothing about the Gadsden Purchase. The best high school history texts give the topic just one page out of a thousand. The Louisiana Purchase gets about a half-dozen pages by comparison.

The Louisiana deal done by Jefferson garnered the United States 828,000 square miles of real estate that is now the heartland of the country. All of that land came at a cost of 15 million dollars in 1803. Under greatly different circumstances in 1853, Charleston native James Gadsden got us 29,670 square miles of arid land south of the Gila River for 10 million dollars.

Gadsden's deal may seem pitiful when compared to the Louisiana deal negotiated between Jefferson and Napoleon's agents, but in reality, James Gadsden was able to secure a bonanza for the nation as well as enhance the cause of southern rights. Northerners claimed that Gadsden and President Franklin Pierce conspired with Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, to finagle more territory for the expansion of slavery.

The Gadsden Purchase of land in what is now southernmost Arizona and New Mexico has been described as one of the most curious real estate deals that the U.S. has ever engaged in. Southern adventurers, known then as filibusteros - a Spanish term for pirate, conspired to seize Cuba as a potential American state. It was all under the patriotic guise of Manifest Destiny, but ultimately the plan was to offset abolition votes with slave votes in the U.S. Senate and House. James Gadsden, who grew up along East Bay Street and attended St. Philip's Church, was the point man for an amazing intrigue. Being the grandson of Christopher Gadsden, one of the originators of colonial secession from Britain, James was privy to a considerable cache of social and political contacts up and down the coast. Young Gadsden prepped at the Associated Academy of Charleston, a school then well-known to the Ivy League schools.

Like his grandfather, James Gadsden had an inclination to mercantile trade, so he returned to his native Charleston and engaged in import until the hostilities of 1812 curtailed ship traffic in the port. Also like his grandfather, James Gadsden possessed a martial bearing. Don't be misled by the babyfaced fellow that stares out from his portrait. He was a hardy fellow who so impressed General Andrew Jackson that "Old Hickory" made him aide-de-camp.

Gadsden's military service is seldom mentioned in his legacy these days as he was responsible for some incidents in history that have since slid to the other side of political correctness. For instance, during the Seminole War in 1818, Jackson became suspicious of two British Indian traders by the name of Robert Armbrister and Alexander Arbuthnot. Jackson suspected these men of plotting on the side of the Seminoles and arming them with British-made weapons. Captain James Gadsden captured both men on board their schooner and turned them over to Jackson - who tried them and had Armbrister shot by firing squad and Arbuthnot hanged from the yardarm of his ship. This incident almost caused Britain to renew her war with America. Jackson's severity in the way he handled the incident raised the ire of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, and those men were set for a collision course a few years later when, by a curious political twist, Calhoun was Jackson's vice-president.

Then there's the story of rebellious Seminoles, renegades, runaway slaves, and fugitives who holed up in a earthen fort down on the Apalachicola River in the Florida panhandle. One of Jackson's field officers, Colonel Duncan Clinch attacked these desperadoes and a well-placed shot aimed by Captain Gadsden exploded the fort's powder magazine, thereby killing over 300 of these hapless fellows.

The Seminoles were rounded up and marched with their meager possessions overland to Oklahoma, all in the name of manifest destiny. The episode is remembered today as the "trail of tears" where half of these uprooted people perished along the way to the reservation.

James Gadsden was outspoken while serving with Jackson in Florida and made nullification remarks that brought a rift to their relationship. Gadsden reportedly became the first white man to cross from the east to the west side of the Florida panhandle. He also claimed a huge acreage for himself while in service and established a plantation in north Florida following the conclusion of the Seminole War.

By 1840 James Gadsden was well-known in Army circles, in Washington, and throughout South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He had an engineering background in the Army and for that reason the investors of the South Carolina Railroad called him back from Florida to be president of the corporation. It was the 136 mile Charleston to Hamburg line that was designed to thwart the port of Savannah from obtaining upstate Carolina cotton.

Gadsden was delighted with the power and prestige of captaining one of the world's greatest railroads, and he dreamed of one day linking the east and west of this country together by rail. That idea was well-known to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, and Davis maneuvered things politically with like-minded President Pierce to send Gadsden down to Mexico as Minister-Plenipotentiary to meet with Mexican leader Santa Anna concerning our purchase of land south of Arizona's Gila River.

Santa Anna was clinging to power after his defeat in the Mexican War, and his corrupt dealings were legendary. Gadsden used his best poker face and his wily Indian fighter instincts in negotiating with the Mexican. In the end, Gadsden obtained 30, 000 square miles, roughly the same amount of land that comprises South Carolina, for 30 cents an acre.

He did not gain for us access to the Sea of Cortez, however. Northerners viewed the land deal as a sneaky southern plot to settle more slave states. In World War I, German spies used the land deal as a ploy to renew Mexican-North American border tensions.

What would Gadsden say to illegal immigrants who pour across the border today into the six additional counties he acquired for Arizona? Judging from his actions with the Seminoles and the fugitives in Florida, he'd be bold in securing the border.

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant. Visit his website at www.historyslostmoments.com.)