Who was the President of the United States during the signing of the Gadsden Purchase?

The story behind the answer

Franklin Pierce was president when the United States signed the Gadsden Purchase on December 30, 1853. His administration sent James Gadsden to negotiate with Mexico’s Antonio López de Santa Anna, buying about 29,670 square miles of land (in today’s southern Arizona and New Mexico) for $10 million. The goal was to secure a flatter route for a southern transcontinental railroad and to settle border disputes left over from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican-American War.

To remember: “Pierce purchases a piece” of Mexico. James K. Polk was earlier (Mexican-American War), while Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson served later, during and after the Civil War.