Nicholas Philip Trist

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Theresa Salasar
Revised and expanded by Patrick Kerwin and Lia Apodaca

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2005

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2006

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms006012

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Nicholas P. Trist, diplomat and lawyer, were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1914, with material added to the collection in 1917 in accordance with the original purchase agreement.

The Nicholas Philip Trist Papers were processed in 1985. The finding aid was revised in 2003.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Nicholas Philip Trist in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

A microfilm edition of these papers is available on seventeen reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Nicholas Philip Trist Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Nicholas Philip Trist (1800-1874) span the years 1795-1873, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1831 to 1848. The papers document Trist's private and public life and consist chiefly of Correspondence, Special Files on his tenure as consul at Havana and on his role as a special agent negotiating the peace treaty ending the Mexican War, a Writings File, and a Legal File supplemented by Financial Papers and a Miscellany, which includes newspapers, clippings, and other material.

Family correspondence in the Correspondence series consists of letters from members of the Trist and Randolph families. Nicholas and his brother, Hore Browse Trist, were wards of Thomas Jefferson and spent many of their early years at Monticello. While Nicholas Trist was at the United States Military Academy, 1818-1821, he received frequent correspondence from his brother, his grandmother Elizabeth Trist, and Jefferson's granddaughters, including Virginia Randolph, whom Trist would later marry. These letters, which kept Trist informed about activities at Monticello and Charlottesville, provide glimpses into Thomas Jefferson's later years. The family correspondence subseries also contains information about the settlement of Jefferson's estate and the subsequent unstable financial situation of his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph.

Especially notable among the correspondents are Trist's brother, Hore B. Trist, and brothers-in-law, Joseph Coolidge and David Meikleham. Hore B. Trist's letters discuss Trist family undertakings, especially the affairs of their sugar plantation in Louisiana. Since Nicholas Trist often sought Joseph Coolidge's advice, Coolidge's letters contain references to a variety of personal, political, and philosophical issues which concerned Trist, the sale of Thomas Jefferson's property and library, activities surrounding the establishment of the University of Virginia, and the publication of the Virginia Advocate by Trist and John A. G. Davis. The letters of Meikleham, who lived in Havana at approximately the same time as Trist, supplement other material in the collection relating to Trist's activities in Cuba. There are also letters to and from Thomas Mann Randolph and Thomas Jefferson Randolph, as well as correspondence of other siblings of Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist. Of note is a letter from Lewis Randolph, dated January 1, 1835, describing in detail an attempt to assassinate President Andrew Jackson at the Capitol.

Letters written by Nicholas and Virginia Trist during the period of his commission as a special agent in Mexico provide insights into the political climate in Washington and Mexico and document the friendship that existed between the Buchanan and Trist families, a friendship that cooled after Trist disobeyed a letter of recall from President James K. Polk.

The Letterbooks subseries, dating from the 1830s and 1840s, pertains only to family and private matters.

Trist's acquaintance with many political and public figures is reflected in the General Correspondence subseries, which comprises approximately one-half of the collection. Especially conspicuous among the correspondents is James Madison, who wrote to Trist from the 1820s until Madison's death in 1836. Madison discussed a free press and its problems and the sovereignty of the states versus the ultimate authority of the national Constitution. In addition, many of Madison's letters reveal his attentiveness to matters concerning the establishment of the University of Virginia, particularly with regard to the hiring of faculty, the provision of a curriculum, and the administration of the school's general operation. Other correspondents involved with the University of Virginia in the 1820s and 1830s include John A. G. Davis, George Tucker, Robley Dunglison, and John P. Emmet. Davis's letters are of added interest because he was Trist's partner in a publishing enterprise undertaken in the late 1820s at Charlottesville, where the two men published a weekly newspaper, the Virginia Advocate, along with a number of pamphlets. His letters document the difficulties encountered in setting up the press, securing a printer and materials, finding a clientele, and, eventually in selling the business.

Although Trist served briefly as Andrew Jackson's private secretary in 1831 and was the president's trusted confidant, letters from the period of Jackson's presidency give only scant information about his administration. Jackson's later correspondence written from the Hermitage and those of Andrew Jackson Donelson reveal of the president in retirement. Jackson also wrote to Trist about government financial policy banks and their effect on the economic situation in the United States.

Prominent among the many topics discussed in the General Correspondence are Trist's private business interests as a resident of Cuba from 1833 to 1844. In an attempt to solve his financial problems, Trist invested in the Cuba Mining Company and purchased the Flor de Cuba, a sugar plantation. A number of letters written in 1846, when Trist was chief clerk at the State Department, pertain to the Oregon boundary question and reflect the expansionist sentiments of the period. Copies of letters written by Jefferson and Madison, chiefly concerning the election of John Adams to the presidency, are also filed in General Correspondence. Other correspondents include Thomas Hart Benton, Arthur Brisbane, James Buchanan, Henry Clay, Reverdy Johnson, Robert E. Lee, Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Dolley Madison, James Monroe, Robert Dale Owen, James Parton, James K. Polk, Henry Stephens Randall, Thomas Ritchie, William C. Rives, Winfield Scott, Thomas Shankland, Persifor Frazer Smith, Edward Spalding, and Martin Van Buren.

The Special Files series consists of correspondence and a wide variety of other material, organized around Trist's association with the Havana consulate and with the peace settlement ending the Mexican War. The Havana consulate files relate to international trade, the slave trade, the recovery by the United States of Spanish archives relating to Florida, to the routine business of the consulate, and to Trist's alleged involvement in the slave trade in Cuba and a congressional investigation resulting therefrom. Some financial papers pertain to both official and personal business.

The Mexican War files include papers relating to John Slidell's mission as minister to Mexico and his attempt to purchase New Mexico and California from the Mexican government in 1845. The most extensive part of this file, however, concerns Trist's own mission to Mexico to negotiate peace. From April 1847, when Trist left on his assignment, until June 1848, when he was escorted back to the United States, these papers provide a detailed accounting of activities related to the war. Among documents included are Trist's original instructions with the terms and boundary requirement sought by the United States; lengthy and numerous confidential memoranda written by Trist and Buchanan, including coded messages; various drafts and the final version of the treaty; communiques between Trist and the Mexican government; and letters from the diplomatic community, especially from English officials. The papers also contain descriptions of the collapse of the Mexican government after Santa Anna's resignation as president and of the establishment of the Moderado Party. Trist's letter of recall from Polk and a letter setting forth Trist's reasons for ignoring this order are included in this file, as well as papers related to the commencement of new negotiations and with the progress of the peace program, eventually leading to the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.

Trist's writings after his return to the United States, in which he related the history of his mission, explained his actions, and requested compensation for his services, are also included in the special Mexican file. Domestic and Mexican newspapers and other printed material, including the Senate hearing ratifying the treaty, supplement the primary documents. Materials are present relating to the United States Army under the command of Winfield Scott and to the initial animosity that arose between Trist and Scott and their later reconciliation and friendship. Scott's campaign to capture Mexico City, his charges against General Gideon Johnson Pillow for insubordination, and the ensuing trial are also discussed. Some of the correspondents represented in this series are Pedro Maria Anaya, Charles Bankhead, F. M. Dimond, Percy Doyle, James Freaner, J. R. Pacheco, Manuel de la Pena y Pena, Matthew Calbraith Perry, Gideon Johnson Pillow, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and Edward Thornton.

Included in the Writings File are Trist's essays, notes, and commonplace books in which he reflected upon philosophy, language, politics, and law. Essays from the 1860s examined the issues of antislavery and seccession.

The Legal File includes, for the most part, wills, contracts, and records of suits between individuals. A substantial portion involves the divorce case, 1852-1856, of Josefa and Juan Matias Cabezas and Trist's suit, 1857-1867, against Josefa Cabezas requesting payment for legal counsel after the death of his client, Juan Cabezas. A few cases involve business contracts, including incorporation and leases.

In the Miscellany series are examples of dictation taken by Trist from Jefferson and reminiscences upon Jefferson's last days. There is also material relating to various incidents in Andrew Jackson's life. A lengthy letter from an unidentified Mexican citizen writing to his father, ca. December 1847, recorded impressions of major political figures encountered in New York and Washington while traveling in the United States and included their reactions to his queries about the Mexican War.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in six series:

• Correspondence, 1795-1873, n.d.
• Special Files, 1810-1873, n.d.
• Writings File, 1823-ca. 1880, n.d.
• Legal File, 1829-1871
• Financial Papers, 1812-1871
• Miscellany, 1826-1873, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List