U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had sent Gadsden to negotiate with Santa Anna for the land. Davis valued it, as others did, as the perfect tract for the construction of the
southern transcontinental railroad. The railroad line would connect western territories to
the cast and north, greatly increasing the accessibility of these new lands.
1
support settlement of U. S. territory gained through the U. S.-Mexican War
e
-"America's Story." Library of Congress, http://www. loc. gov (accessed
November 12, 2009)
encourage commerce among U. S. states formed from the Louisiana Purchase
e

According to the excerpt above, the Gadsden Purchase was intended to -
allow the United States and Mexico to share railroad construction costs
e
encourage the sale of U. S. government land in Florida