Investor's Business Daily, May 10th, 2007
Nicholas Trist knew that when the iron was hot, it was time to strike. And the iron he had was blazing.
Trist had been negotiating on behalf of the U.S. for a year with Mexican officials to end the Mexican-American War. The officials were ready to meet almost all his terms.
But President Polk ordered him to return to Washington. If he left, the chance for peace would be lost.
Trist faced the hardest decision of his life: obey his leader, or do what he knew was right?
He stayed to negotiate despite the president's letter.
As a result, he sealed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. It granted the U.S. most of the Southwest, from Texas to California. It came about because Trist went beyond the call of duty.
Trist (1800-74) was born to a Virginia family of modest origins.
"He was determined to rise ... and be accepted as a Virginia gentleman," said Wallace Ohrt, who wrote the Trist biography "Defiant Peacemaker."
Trist was 4 when his lawyer father died from yellow fever. Trist's mother remarried twice before he and his brother outgrew childhood.
Both boys excelled at school, and Trist loved languages. Their mother admonished them to work hard, Ohrt says. No fortune assured them comfortable stations in life; they'd need to find their own way.
Knowing this, Trist worked to hone his social skills as well as his intellectual ones. He wanted to be a lawyer. But the cost of attending the College of William & Mary in Virginia was too high. So he thought of joining the Navy.
Then opportunity knocked. Trist's beloved grandmother knew Thomas Jefferson, and the retired president invited the boys to Monticello, his home in Virginia, for a long visit.
During Trist's stay, the idealistic young man sought out Jefferson's counsel. He talked about his interest in law. He confessed worry that practicing it might entail moral compromises. His approach impressed Jefferson, who left Trist speechless with the offer of a free education in preparation for a military career.
Thanks to Jefferson's help, Trist wound up studying at West Point. While he worked hard, his plain-spoken ways rankled his superiors. He talked, for instance, against the official stance on defense needed to protect Virginia. "Trist was very ambitious, but he was nobody's lap dog," Ohrt said. "His views were his own, and he was not bashful about putting them forth."
Trist wanted to seek out the best minds to learn from, and he felt Jefferson fit the bill. The independent-minded Trist decided to leave West Point after three years of study. He went back to study under Jefferson's tutelage, and passed the Virginia bar. He married Jefferson's granddaughter, Virginia Randolph, with whom he had been in love for years.
Later, Trist was one of a few trusted companions by Jefferson's side on the day he died on July 4, 1826.
Trist left Monticello for Washington, D.C., where he went to work as a State Department clerk. President Jackson soon recognized Trist's drive and honesty, and tapped him to be his personal secretary.
Trist strove to move up even more.
"Trist reminded Jackson from time to time that he'd appreciate a higher-level appointment," Ohrt said. "He never missed a chance to get to know somebody who could help him."
Trist's persistence paid off. Jackson made him consul to Cuba, though other highly qualified men were vying for the post.
In Cuba, Trist held tightly to his principles. He didn't cater to all who sought his aid. "He didn't like to deal with people who were pretty low-life characters," Ohrt said.
Then came the most fateful appointment of Trist's career, one that required a gut-wrenching trade-off.
Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. It became a republic three years later. A decade hence, Mexican states rebelled against centralization, and Texas tried to secede from the country. A war between the U.S. and Mexico erupted as Texas tried to join the U.S.
Knowing Trist's integrity, Polk sent him as a diplomat to strike a Mexican peace accord. It was a dangerous political bombshell to juggle.
Finally, the war reached Mexico City. The Mexican government was ready to end the fighting and cede more than half its land to the U.S.
Trist knew it was the chance the Americans had been waiting for.
But Polk, likely misunderstanding how events were playing out in Mexico, recalled Trist to Washington.
Trist wrote to his wife: "Knowing it to be the very last chance and impressed with the dreadful consequences to our country which cannot fail to attend the loss of that chance, I decided today at noon to attempt to make a treaty; the decision is altogether my own."
Trist signed a treaty with Mexico -- his name the only one representing the U.S. It ended the war and gave the Mexican government $15 million. It gave the U.S. California, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Utah, Colorado and Nevada. It also ended Mexico's claim to Texas.
"When Polk received word that Trist had negotiated this treaty he was furious," though he saw the wisdom of the deal and took it, said Steven Butler, founder of the Descendants of Mexican War Veterans and an infantryman's great-great-grandson.
"Some have said nobody else in the country could've done it," Ohrt said.
This story originally ran Jan. 9, 2003, on Leaders & Success.
