218 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



And now it is vSaicT, in the vast variety of things not material that 

 have been said, that this does not amount to much. It amounts to all 

 that there is of this case. It is the case which the Treaty submits, 

 whether it is great or small. It has the importance that I have stated. 

 It is quite of as much importance to the United States, to which it is a 

 prominent industry, as it can be to these sealers, to whom it is a very 

 temporary and speculative industry. 



It is said " the United States did not regard the seals particularly in 

 the purchase of the islands: They had their eye upon sometliing else, 

 and the seal industry was unimportant". What else did they have 

 their eyes on? They have owned it now for 26 years. 



The capacity of the American people to find out what profit there 

 is in any i)art of their possessions, and to pursue it, is not a quality 

 that is open to mucli doubt. What have they made out of Alaska yet? 

 If I had time to entertain the Tribunal, I should refer to a report of a 

 Governor who was sent there to govern Alaska, and who came out with 

 a report (which I have no doubt he was quite at leisure to write, for 

 he did not have much else to do), in which he undertook to demonstrate 

 the great resources of Alaska. And if one goes through it, it might be 

 imagined to have been written as a burlesque — he so comi)letely fails 

 to make out, that, within sight of anybody that is now born, there is 

 anything there in particular except the fur-seal industry, that nothing 

 could add to the clearness of it. It is all there is, except a quarrel 

 with Great Britain — I hope it may never be a quarrel — but a dispute 

 with Great Britain about the boundary line. 



I want to refer to a little evidence (and I shall not be long upon the 

 point) to shew that at the time of its purchase, while some rose-colored 

 views were entertained by Mr. Sumner which have never been realized 

 about its other resources — the things that may be discovered there — it is 

 very plain from Mr. Sumner's speech, as well as from other references, 

 not only that the fur-seal business was all that was then tangible, but 

 that the purchase of Alaska itself was originally set on foot and brought 

 about and came to pass for the purpose of realizing the profits of this 

 business. It is not merely that it was considered and estimated in the 

 purchase — it was absolutely the foundation of the purchase. 



Mr. Sumner, in his speech from which my friends quote, and which is 

 quite long, cites statistics on page 79 of the 1st volume of the Appendix 

 to the British Case. They are those I referred to yesterday. He then 

 says on page 81 : 



The seal, amphibious, polygamous, and intelligent as the beaver, has always sup- 

 plied the largest multitude of furs to the Russian Company — 



who, as we see, had the monopoly of it under Russia. It is stated in the 

 Case what the revenue of that Company was. 



I read from Mr. Blaine's letter in page 200 of the first American 

 Appendix showing what the value of this had been to the Eussiau 

 American Company. Mr. Blaine says: 



Its affairs were kept secret for a long time, but are now accurately known. The 

 money advanced for the capital stock of the Company at its opening in 1799 amounted 

 to 1,238,746 roubles. 



The gross sales of furs and skins by the Company at Kodiak and Canton from that 

 date up to 1820 amounted to 20,024,698 roubles. The net prolit was 7,685,000 roubles 

 for the 21 years — over 620 per cent for the whole period, or nearly 30 per cent per 

 annum. 



Reviewing these facts, l?ancroft, in his History of Alaska, a standard work of 

 exhaustive research, says: We find this powerful monopolti firmly established in the 

 favour of the Imperial Government, many nobles of high rank and several members 

 of the Royal Family being among the stockholders. 



