220 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



aid in civilizingandainelioratiujijtlie condition of the Lidians by employing mission- 

 aries, if reqiiirod by tlie Jiussian (lovernment. For the laitliful performance of the 

 above we ask a Charter for the term of twenty-tive years. 



Senator Morgan. — What is the date of that? 

 Mr. PnELPS. — That is dated in ISOO. 



The President. — It is from Mr. Sumner's speech I understand. 

 Mr. Phelps. — It is taken from Mr, Sumner's speech; but the letter 

 that I referred to was the 10th April, 180G, and is cited by Mr. Sumner. 

 Then a little farther down there is this : 



Another correspondent of Mr. Cole, under date of San Francisco, the 17th Sep- 

 tember, 186G, wrote as follows: 



I have tallied with a man who has been on the coast and in the trade for ten years 

 past, and he pays it is much more valuable than I have supposed, and I think it 

 very important to obtain it if possible. 



The Russian Minister at Washington, whom Mr. Cole saw repeatedly upon this 

 subject, was not authorized to act, and the lattcu-, after conference with the Depart- 

 ment of State, was induced to address Mr. Clay, Minister of the United States at 

 St.-Petersburgh, who laid the application before the Russian Government. This 

 was an important step. A letter from Mr. Clay, dated at St-Petersburgh as late as 

 the 1st February, 1867, makes the following revelation : 



"The Russian Government has already ceded away its rights in Russian America 

 for a term of years, and the Riisso-American Company has also ceded the same to 

 the Hudson Bay Company. This lease expires in June next, and the President of 

 the Russo-American Company tells me that they have been in correspondence with 

 the Hudson Bay Comjiany about a renewal of the lease for another term of twenty- 

 five or thirty years. Until he receives a definite answer he cannot enter into nego- 

 tiations with you or your California Company. My opinion is that if he can get off 

 with the Hudson Bay Company he will do so, when we can make some arrangements 

 with the Russo-American Company." 



Some time had elapsed since the original attempt of Mr. Gwin, also a Senator 

 from California, and it is probable that the Russian Government had obtained infor- 

 mation which enabled it to see its way more clearly. 



He then i>roceeds to give, following^ on the same page, p. 50, the 

 history of that. It is not very long and I will read it: 



It will be remembered that Prince Gortschakow had ])romised an inquiry, and 

 it is known that in 1801 Captain-Lieutenant Golowin, of the Russian Navy, made a 

 detailed Report on these possessions. Mr. Cole had the advantage of his prede- 

 cessor. There is reason to believe, also, that the administration of the Fur Com- 

 pany had not been entirely satisfactory, so that there were well-founded hesitations 

 witii regard to the renewal of its franchise. Meanwhile, in October 1866, M. de 

 Sto'ckl, who had long been the Russian Minister at Washington, and eujoj^ed in a 

 high degree the confidence of our Government, returned home on a leave of absence, 

 promising his best exertions to promote good relations between the two countries. 



As is suggested to me, he is the one to whom Mr. Cole first applied. 



While he was in St-Petersburgh the ajiplications from the United States were 

 under consideration; but the Russian Government was disinclined to any miuor 

 arrangement of the character proposed. 



That is to execute a lease to the American parties who wanted it. 



Obviously something like a crisis was at hand with regard to these possessions. 

 The existing government was not adecjuate. The franchises granted there were 

 about to terminate. Something must be done. As Mr. de Stoeckl was leaving in 

 February to return to his post, the Archduke Constautine, the brother and chief 

 adviser of the Emi)eror, handed him a map with the lines in our Treaty marked 

 upon it, and told him he might treat for this cession. The Minister arrived in 

 Washington early in March. A negociation was opened at once with our (ilovern- 

 ment. Final instructions were received by the Atlantic cable from St-Petersburgh 

 on the 29th March, and at 4 o'clock on the morning of the 30th March this important 

 Treaty was signed by Mr Seward on the part of the United States, and by M. de 

 Stoeckl on the part of Russia. 



In the Treaty, as you will remember, the United States gave 7,200,000 

 dollars; and the returns which they have received since that from their 

 purchase, are very much beyond, as you will see from the statement I 



