Seward’s Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase

240 Pages·2016·8.91 MB·English

by  Lee A. Farrow

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
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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
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