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Document authorizing William H. Seward to negotiate with the Russians for purchase of the Alaska Territory, dated March 18, 1867
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| Title | Document authorizing William H. Seward to negotiate with the Russians for purchase of the Alaska Territory, dated March 18, 1867 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Date | 1867 |
| Notes | Photograph of document.
Filed in Alaska--Documents |
| Contextual Notes | President Andrew Johnson's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, was responsible for negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. Seward was so adamant on purchasing Alaska that he started negotiating with the Russian minister, Edouard de Stoeckl, before he was authorized by the President. His original offer was for $5,000,000.00 or possibly $5,500,000.00. While the Russian Minister was taking the offer to the Czar, Seward asked the Cabinet for authority to offer $7,000,000.00 As they had not been notified of the pending purchase, and due to their caring little about Alaska, they did not object to Seward's request, much to his surprise.
By March 23rd, both parties had reached an agreement on the main points of the purchase. Stoeckl cabled St. Petersburg on the $7,000,000.00 figure that had been reached, and asked for authority to sign the treaty. On March 29th, Stoeckl received approval from Czar Alexander to sign the treaty with minor provisions.
Seward wanted so much for the treaty to be signed that he opened the State Department that evening after hours and made the Russian delegation welcome. Stoeckl wanted to improve on some of the smaller points, but Seward refused to consider them, but in turn offered another $200,000.00 to the purchase price. So the final agreed upon price became $7,200,000.00. This translated into approximately 2.5 cents per acre for 586,400 square miles of territory, twice the size of Texas.
It was a long and bitter battle to get Congress to approve the purchase then appropriate the money for it. Seward prevailed in completing the purchase, but he became the butt of popular jokes over his purchase. When asked what was the most significant act of his career, he declared "The purchase of Alaska! But it will take a generation to find that out."
On the misty afternoon of October 18, 1867, at the city of Sitka, on the desolate Alaska coast, amongst the firing of Russian and American cannon, the Imperial Russian flag came down over Russian America. The Stars and Stripes was raised up the 90 foot flag pole, and "Seward's Icebox" became a territory of the United States. [Source: Everything Alaska: Seward's Folly web site, http://www.everythingalaska.com/eta.sfy.html] |
| Subjects (LCTGM) | Documents |
| Subjects (LCSH) | United States--Appropriations and expenditures, 1867; United States--Territorial expansion; Government publications--United States |
| Location Depicted | United States--Alaska |
| Digital Collection | Alaska, Western Canada and United States Collection
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| Order Number | AWC0640
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| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/services/reproduction-info |
| Negative Number | UW8166 |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division |
| Repository Collection | Alaska Photograph Collection |
| Object Type | Photograph |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from a photographic print using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600XL at 100 dpi in JPEG format at compression rate 3 and resized to 768x600 ppi. 2004. |
| Restrictions | For information on permissions for use and reproductions please visit UW Libraries Special Collections Reproduction & Use page
http://content.lib.washington.edu/sc-use.html |
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