ALASKA PURCHASE 203 



In 1867, the Western Union Telegraph Company, find- 

 ing the Atlantic Cable at last a success, withdrew its part- 

 ies from Alaska. About the time many of the members 

 of the expedition had returned to the eastern United States 

 the question of the purchase of the Territory was being dis- 

 cussed, and the favorable decision finally arrived at was, 

 with little doubt, largely due to the information at first 

 hand these gentlemen furnished to those considering the 

 subject. 



On the 1 8th of October, 1867, the Russian authorities 

 formally surrendered the Territory to General L. H. Rous- 

 seau, U. S. A., acting for the United States at Sitka. 

 Previous to this time, since the expiration of the charter 

 of the Russian-American Company in 1862, its business 

 had been carried on under the general supervision of an 

 Imperial governor. That the charter was not renewed 

 was directly due to the exposure of abuses which existed 

 in the management and had been more or less character- 

 istic of the conditions in the Territory since the beginning 

 of the century. Nor was the transfer to the custody of 

 the Republic to work an immediate cure. A history of 

 conditions in Alaska from 1867 to 1897 is yet to be written, 

 and when written few Americans will be able to read it 

 without indignation. A country of which it could be said 

 with little exaggeration that 



"Never a law of God nor man 

 Runs north of fifty-five." 



A country where no man could make a legal will, own a 

 homestead or transfer it, or so much as cut wood for his 

 fire without defying a Congressional prohibition; where 

 polygamy and slavery and the lynching of witches pre- 

 vailed, with no legal authority to stay or punish criminals; 

 such in great part has Alaska been for thirty years. The 

 waning of the fur trade and the increase in population due 



