Seward’s Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase PDF
Preview Seward’s Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase
Seward’s Folly Seward’s Folly A New Look at the Alaska Purchase Lee A. Farrow University of Alaska Press Fairbanks, Alaska Text © 2016 University of Alaska Press Published by University of Alaska Press P.O. Box 756240 Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Farrow, Lee A., 1966– author. Title: Seward’s folly : a new look at the Alaska Purchase / Lee A. Farrow. Description: Fairbanks : University of Alaska Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016002210 | ISBN 9781602233034 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Alaska—Annexation to the United States. | Seward, William H. (William Henry), 1801–1872. | United States—Foreign relations—Russia. | Russia— Foreign relations—United States. Classification: LCC E669 .F38 2016 | DDC 327.73047—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002210 Cover and interior design by Paula Elmes Cover credits: Alexander Baranof: Sitka, Alaska. Statue of Alexander Baranof, First Colonial Governor of Russian America, 1790–1818. Copyright: © Charles O. Cecil / Alamy Stock Photo. Map of Alaska: Public domain. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Created/published Washington, D.C., 1867. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix CHAPTER I CHAPTER IV Some Mysterious Sympathy: No Longer Russian America: The Foundations of the Taking Possession of Alaska 71 Russian-American Friendship 1 CHAPTER V CHAPTER II Paying for the “New National Evident Advantages: Ice-House:” Approval and Origins and Objectives 21 Appropriation 87 CHAPTER III CHAPTER VI Seward’s Chimerical Project: Very Uneasy and Vexed: Public Reaction and International Reactions Ratification 53 to the Purchase 119 CHAPTER VII That Snowbound Wilderness: From Treaty to Territory 149 Conclusion 177 Notes 189 Bibliography 199 Index 211 v Acknowledgments I am very grateful to many people who helped make this project possible. Auburn University at Montgomery pro- vided funding for research at the National Archives and Records Administration through its Faculty-Grant-in-Aid award. The Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center covered my expenses to participate in a conference on the history of Russian America in Moscow, allowing me to present some of the material in this book. I thank both of these organizations for their support. I also need to thank the crew at AUM’s Interlibrary Loan Department and our new dean, Phill Johnson, who helped me acquire a variety of documents and images. Finally, Heather Adams, a graduate student here at AUM, worked diligently to collect newspaper articles from the period for this research; I greatly appreciate her time and reliabil- ity as a research assistant. I would also like to thank the family and friends who supported me through this process, including, but not limited to, Karen Racine, Heather Thiessen Reily, Angela Mitchell, Dana Bice, and Michael vii seward’s folly Samerdyke, as well as Neela Banerjee and her daughter, Radha, who gave me a place to sleep in Washington, D.C., on more than one oc- casion. My parents, husband, and children also deserve thanks for being constant cheerleaders in every new research project. viii Introduction I n 1872 Appleton and Company’s Hand-Book of American Travel included Alaska for the first time, explaining, “Alaska is the newest accession to the territory of the United States, and, though it is not likely to prove very inviting to travelers, a brief sketch seems necessary to complete the Hand-Book.” The travel guide went on to say that the popular ignorance about Alaska had produced the most exaggerated claims on both ends of the spectrum, but the guide’s own assessment of the region was also a mixed bag and did little to promote the likelihood of settlement or tourism. On the one hand, it praised the scenery of waterfalls and icebergs as “an inconceivably magnificent sight” but then described Sitka as “be- yond doubt, the dirtiest and most squalid collection of log-houses on the Pacific slope” and noted that the governor’s house was protected from the local Natives by a guard “constantly on the alert with rifles loaded, and a field-battery of Parrott guns kept constantly trained on the Indian village, adjoining the town.” During roughly the same pe- riod, U.S. Treasury Agent H. A. McIntyre sgave another pessimistic evaluation of Alaska and its resources, reporting “nor can we look ix
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