The Desk of Manifest Destiny

The Desk of Manifest Destiny The Nicholas Trist Lap Desk and Quill Pen of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

THE DESK OF MANIFEST DESTINY The desk and quill offered here were the property Nicholas P. Trist (1800-1874) diplomat and career civil servant. In 1847, Trist was sent by President James K. Polk to negotiate the end of the Mexican War. There is little doubt that the desk and pen were used by Trist in drafting the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; the pen is inscribed with the same information. These remarkable artifacts carry with them a story about a man, a diplomatic mission, and an astonishing, Nation-making treaty that almost never came to be. Besides Thomas Jefferson’s lap desk used to draft the Declaration of Independence there are few artifacts more important to the history of America. In truth, this is the desk of Manifest Destiny.

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Nicholas P. Trist (1800-1874)

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo When a special courier from Mexico City arrived in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening February 19, 1848, he carried with him a remarkable document. Just days before, near the sacred shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, President James Polk’s special commissioner to Mexico, Nicholas Trist and representatives of the Republic of Mexico had agreed to conditions outlining the end of war with the United States of America. A Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement had been signed, and with a few pen strokes, the Mexican peace commissioners ceded to the United States more than 500,000 square miles of what is now California, Nevada and Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. While the United Sates had officially annexed Texas in 1845, the treaty settled the issue, adding parts of that territory that what would later become Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Using a recent map published by John Disturnell in 1847, the treaty established the Gila and Rio Grande rivers as permanent borders between the two countries.

Disputes about the areas between Ciudad Juarez and the mouth of the Colorado River were not resolved until later, when the Gadsen Purchase was signed in 1853; but for now, a huge new swath of territory had been added to the Republic.

Only the Louisiana Purchase —negotiated decades earlier during the Jefferson administration — was a larger transaction.

It was a remarkable coup, fulfilling for Polk and many of his Democratic party members, the concept of a United States extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The territorial gains of Guadalupe Hidalgo helped to solidify the idea of American exceptionalism and “manifest destiny,” setting the United States on a path of territorial enlargement that culminated in the boundaries of the lower 48 states we know today. The Treaty added fuel to the already smoldering question of expansion of slavery into new territories, and directly contributed to the national debate that would culminate in the Civil War.

The Disturnall Map of the United States

The signatory page for the Treaty of Guadalupe de Hidalgo, The National Archives

Nicholas Trist, Diplomat The United States standard bearer during the negotiations with Mexico was Nicholas Phillip Trist (1800-1874). Trist was born into an aristocratic Virginia household, was schooled at West Point, and then later studied law with Thomas Jefferson. He became close to Jefferson, marrying his granddaughter Virginia Jefferson Randolph, and at Jefferson’s death served as an executor of the former President’s estate. His development of a relationship with a senior statesman was one that he would follow all his life, and would in large part, shape his career and dictate his financial circumstances. From a promising start in public service and placed on a path that could have led to financial security, Trist would die in obscurity and near financial ruin.

Contemporaries described Trist as brilliant and erudite. He was universally respected for his education and worldly knowledge.

His counsel was regularly sought in Washington, and he had a wide circle of influential friends. But Trist was also known for his inability to take criticism, and his principled stances often failed to see the shades of grey in political issues. He was condescending to his detractors, and generally faced critics by penning long winded multi-paged missives intended to demonstrate his superior intellect and logic. Curiously, in spite of his political connections and knowledge, he never made a public speech, and showed an aversion for face to face meetings with detractors. These were character flaws that would ultimately lead to his undoing, and follow him until his death in 1874.

Trist’s career was largely advanced through his political connections. His close relationship with Thomas Jefferson (he had resided for a time at Monticello, and would marry the former President’s grand-daughter) provided the springboard for his entry into public service. After Jefferson’s death, Trist moved to Washington, D.C. along with his wife and mother-inlaw Martha Jefferson Randolph. As Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Martha, or “Patsy” to her friends, conveyed a certain amount of status on the Trist household, attracting a steady stream of Thomas Jefferson, by Charles Wilson Peale visitors, including Andrew Jackson. Jackson was a long-time admirer of the second President, and soon he and Trist established their own relationship. When Old Hickory’s private secretary returned to

Tennessee, Trist was offered the job. Like Jefferson before him, Jackson came to rely on the younger Trist for advice on various political matters.

In 1833, when the opportunity arose, Jackson offered Trist the position of United States Consul to Cuba, a job that would advance Trist’s career both politically James K. Polk, from a daguerreotype by and financially. Trist Mathew Brady reluctantly accepted position, and in a recurring pattern, the job didn’t quite work out.

While Trist spoke fluent Spanish and French, and was steeped in politics, Jackson had actually engineered the appointment hoping to help Trist financially. The job was a patronage plum.

Had Trist played his cards well, his consulate position would have allowed him to enrich himself financially through various fees collected from merchants and U.S. citizens doing business in Cuba. Once on the ground, however, Trist soon managed to arouse the ire of the businessmen and sea captains that could have lined his pockets. He was recalled to Washington to testify before a Congressional hearing investigating his behavior, and ultimately found to have done nothing wrong. When William Henry Harrison assumed his month-long presidency in 1841, Trist was recalled, and out of work.

Trist was rescued from poverty once again by his old friend Andrew Jackson. In 1844, fellow Democrat and Tennessean James K. Polk assumed the office of president, narrowly defeating Henry Clay. Jackson had worked hard to get Polk nominated and elected, and now he called in a chit. In 1845 Trist was offered and accepted the position of Chief Clerk of the State Department, serving under Secretary of State James Buchanan.

As was the case with Jefferson and Jackson, Trist soon developed an easy, and intimate relationship with the older Buchanan, just as he had with Jefferson and Jackson. Under Buchanan’s mentorship, Trist performed his job admirably; in effect, he was America’s Undersecretary of State, though no such position existed at the time.

In 1847, after years of political fulmination, Polk declared war on Mexico. The War presented Polk and Buchanan with a serious political problem: The Army was led by the Whig generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, both of whom had presidential ambitions. Scott made it no secret that he wanted Polk’s job. While Polk wanted the United States to win the war, he did not want to hand the politically ambitious Scott

a campaign plum.

Buchanan on the other hand, did not want to lead negotiations for a treaty in case talks broke down and he could blamed for their failure. And yet, negotiations did have to take place. With few good choices, Polk and Buchanan settled on Trist to serve as a special emissary to broker peace. Trist’s James Buchanan, by George Healy, 1859 instructions from Polk were clear: General Scott was not to be allowed to enter into the negotiations.

Trist arrived in Mexico in May, 1847, and within days managed to infuriate Scott by indicating that it was he, and not the General who would dictate the terms of a settlement. Over the next few months, acid letters were passed between the two, until finally, their relationship thawed, and they realized that both parties were needed to bring an end to the war and negotiate a favorable settlement for the United States. As had been the case first with Jefferson, Jackson and then Buchanan, Trist now became close with the older Scott, relying on him for counsel and companionship.

At the fall of Mexico City, in September, 1847 it looked as if peace was at hand. But Polk became increasingly concerned that

Winfield Scott Entering the Plaza de la Constitucion by Carl Nebel, 1851

Scott and Trist would negotiate a treaty that was detrimental to his expansionist plans. Just as Trist entered into discussions with the commissioners representing Mexico, Polk recalled him to Washington, ordering him to suspend any further negotiations. Trist initially complied, and readied himself to return to the capital. Aware of the fragile diplomatic position he found himself in, and supported by Scott and other foreign ambassadors, Trist changed his mind, and wrote a 60 page letter to Buchanan explaining his actions. It was an incredible gamble: Trist was directly disobeying the President of the United States, and had no real legal authority to enter into, or conclude any negotiations.

In truth, Polk had little real knowledge of the situation in Mexico, and Trist was certain that given the fragile political conditions in Mexico, his power to compel the commissioners to sign a treaty favorable to the United States could easily slip away.

Likewise, the commissioners knew and trusted Trist, and they were not eager to deal with an unknown replacement that might be far more punitive. And so, on February 2, 1848, in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo – near the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, one of the most sacred sites in Mexico – the treaty was concluded, and dispatched to Washington.

Two weeks later, when Polk received the treaty, he had little choice but to accept it. It accomplished all that he had insisted of Trist, and in spite of his enmity for his unauthorized peace commissioner, Polk passed it along to the Senate, where it was ratified in May. It was a stunning achievement for Trist, and ironically gave Polk the legacy that he clearly wanted in spite of his hatred towards his emissary.

Manifest Destiny and Slavery: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo As Prelude to the Civil War This entire episode had played out against the backdrop of the concept of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the American people were divinely ordained to spread across the continent, institute their unique form of government, and forge a culture that would set an example for the world.

This notion was bitterly contested by the two major political parties of the era. The Democrats, among who were Jackson, Polk, and Trist, believed in its realization by any means necessary, including force. The Whigs, who counted among them Generals Scott and Taylor as well as many of the future Republicans, such as Lincoln, saw violent conquest as antithetical to the American ideals of liberty and democracy. With the ratification of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo the United States officially stretched from the Atlantic to Pacific, satisfying the first requirement for the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny and making the means of acquisition a moot point, but the beliefs at the heart of the two camps’ differing visions would lead to even deeper divisions as they sought to remake the land, eventually culminating in the Civil War. The acquisition of so much new territory immediately led to disagreements about how it would be organized, and slavery was the major issue. Henry Clay’s 1820 Missouri Compromise had established the 36th parallel as the dividing line in the territories of the Louisiana Purchase but it was unsettled whether the same applied to new acquisitions, so Pennsylvania senator David Wilmot proposed in 1846 that all new lands should be free of slavery. The Wilmot Proviso, passed in the House on the strength of the Northern representatives, who outnumbered those from the South due to the greater population of the industrialized North, but slaveholding states still held considerable power in the Senate, where the proposal was defeated. This was repeated in 1847 and again in 1848 when Wilmot attempted to make it a condition of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. The Southern politicians viewed these attempts as evidence of the growing abolitionism in the North and a threat to the plantation economy of their home states.

Northerners began to refer to the South’s disproportionate political influence as the “Slave Power,” as even those who were not abolitionists feared Northern industry would not be able to compete in new territories where slave labor was legal.

Southern politicians started to align themselves more with respect to geography that previous party affiliations, and the first suggestions of secession came about as a result.

In the presidential election of 1848, Zachary Taylor rode the victory in Mexico to election victory as a Whig despite the lack of a clearly stated political platform. It turned out that he advocated popular sovereignty in the new territories, just the

same as his Democratic opponent Lewis Cass, and encouraged residents of California and New Mexico to draft constitutions and apply for statehood in to settle the question. Although he died just a year and a half into his term, Taylor’s efforts led directly to the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state and established popular sovereignty as the method which would determine the status of slavery in the new territories.

While the vast majority of the lands were not particularly well suited to the plantation slavery economy of the South, the proslavery camp saw the expansion of slavery as a necessity in order to maintain political influence.

The Slave Power issue festered throughout the ineffectual administrations of Presidents Fillmore and Pierce and led to Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which negated the Missouri Compromise line and granted popular sovereignty to the residents of those states. Kansas became a battleground of proand anti-slavery activists attempting to gain their respective edge in population and influence and soon erupted into armed violence known as Bleeding Kansas. At this point it was clear that popular sovereignty was more of a problem than a solution. In 1858, speaking as a member of the newly-formed Republican Party, a coalition of ex-Whigs and anti-slavery activists, Abraham Lincoln stated that “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and that in order to survive the nation must a choose one way or the other on the question of slavery. His election to the presidency in 1860 triggered the secession of the Southern states, and soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. The firing of the first shot at Fort Sumter came just over 13 years after the signing of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo.

The underlying causes had been evident for decades, but the acquisition of the Mexican Cession forced the Nation to confront itself over the issue of slavery and set the nation on the course to its violent, but inevitable resolution.

C. Wesley Cowan Matt Chapman August 2018

Provenance and Chain of Custody of the Trist Desk The desk offered here remained in custody of the descendants of Nicholas Trist until purchased by the present owner in 2012.

In many case provenance of historically important objects is relegated to word of mouth or other apocryphal tales. Fortunately, the trail of the Trist desk can be followed in various newspaper and other accounts, providing a nearly unbroken chain of provenance.

Trist probably purchased the desk sometime in the mid to late 1830s, when he and his wife Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist (1801-1882) frequented Philadelphia seeking treatment and education opportunities for their hearing challenged son, Jeff. For at least part of this time, Virginia rented a small apartment not far from the establishment of Nathaniel Starkey, the manufacturer of Trist’s desk.

At the death of Nicholas Trist in 1874, his estate passed in its entirety to his wife, Virginia.

At Virginia’s death in 1882, the desk passed by descent through the family of Trist’s daughter Martha Jefferson Trist Burke (1826-1915) who married John Woolfolk Burke.

At Martha Burke’s death in 1915 the desk and contents passed to her son, Henry (Harry) Randolph Burke (18641947).

Harry Burke married Rosella Gordon Trist (his second cousin) on April 19th, 1898, and the desk passes to their son Gordon Trist Burke.

Gordon eventually moved to Omaha, Nebraska leaving the desk in the hands of his aunt, Frances “Fanny” M. Burke (1861-1933).

In July 1931 Fanny placed the desk and pen on permanent loan to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (Washington Post, July 3, 1931), even though legally the desk belongs to Gordon.

At Fanny’s death, in 1933, Gordon recalled the loan, and the desk and contents move west to Omaha.

In January 1937, Gordon Burke loaned the pen and desk, to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha (Omaha World Herald, January 24, 1937, pg 25) where they were part of an exhibit featuring a number of Trist family pieces Over the years Gordon Trist sold a number of family pieces to Monticello and the University of Virginia, but retained the desk and pen. At his death in 1964 at the age of 57, the desk and contents were purchased by Will Ronspies, an antique dealer and collector from Pierce, Nebraska The desk was purchased by the present owner on September, 2012 at the estate auction of Will and Alice Ronspies in Pierce, Nebraska.

Miss Fanny M. Burke, great-great-granddaugher of Thomas Jefferson, presents the desk to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation at Monticello, Va., as part of the ceremonies marking the centennial of the death of James Monroe, friend and coworker of Jefferson. The New York Times, published July 11, 1931.

The Nicholas Trist Lap Desk and Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Pen Physical Description Mahogany 15.25 x 13 x 4.5”, the top inset with a brass plaque with jeweler-engraved “Nicholas P. Trist” The corners of the case secured with brass strapping. Opening to reveal a writing surface layered with blue wool felt, overlying an interior chamber for storing papers, the lid with an affixed paper label for N() Starkey, Manufacturer of Portable Desks, Dressing Cases, Medicine Chests and Ladies Work Boxes. No. 552 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.

The other half of the desk containing a lidded, removable compartment with leather-lined pen rest, ink wells (lacking the glass inserts), and slot for straight edges and rulers, with another larger compartment divided into two sections, each probably fitted with a now missing removable lid. The smaller of

these sections reveals a hand carved depression in the bottom of the compartment, possibly to accommodate the lock of a percussion pistol, all located below a large, mahogany writing surface.

Together with a rosewood (?) beveled straight edge, 8.75” in length, and a softwood homemade 12” ruler, one side with inked units of length, the verso blank with a hand-inked inscription One Foot English.

With a deteriorated split goose feather quill pen, split along its axis to allow the inked inscription Treaty of Peace Feb 2. 1848 Triplicate N.P.Ts (illegible, possibly “separate”), the sharpened pen nib visibly stained with ink. Presumably this inscription suggests that at least three pens were utilized by the signatories, and that this quill belonged to Trist himself.