TRIST, Nicholas Philip, lawyer, born in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2 June, 1800; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 11 February, 1874. He was educated at the United States military academy, and was assistant professor of French there in 1818-'19, but resigned before he was graduated, adopting the profession of law, which he studied under Thomas Jefferson. He was 1st clerk in the United States treasury department in 1828, private secretary to President Jackson in 1829, and United States consul at Havana in 1834-'6. He became assistant secretary of state in 1845, and in 1848 was sent as peace commissioner to Mexico, where he negotiated and signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He then resumed the practice of his profession. In 1870 President Grant appointed him postmaster at Alexandria, Virginia Mr. Trist translated a treatise on "Milch Cows " from the French of M. F. Guenon (New York, 1857).