PROPERTY IN THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 57 



And, for the most part, the vast territories thus acquired were not even 

 seen. The maritime coasts only were explored, and title to the whole 

 interior, stretching from ocean to ocean, or at least to the sources of 

 the rivers emptying upon the coasts explored, was assert* id upon the 

 basis of this limited discovery. Some limitations were placed upon 

 these vast claims resulting from conflicts in the allegations of priority; 

 but, for the most part, the effectiveness of first discovery in giving title 

 to great areas which had not been even explored was recognized. If 

 the mere willing by the first discoverer that things susceptible of ap- 

 propriation should be his property was held sufficient to make them so, 

 it could only have been from a common conviction that ownership of 

 every part of the earth's surface by some nation was so essential to the 

 general peace and order, that it was expedient to recognize the slightest 

 moral foundation as sufficient to support a title. The principle has 

 been extended to vast territories which are even incapable of human 

 occupation. The titles of Great Britain to her North American terri- 

 tory extending to the frozen zone, and of the United States derived 

 from Russia to the whole territory of Alaska have never been ques- 

 tioned. 



THE FORM OF TnE INSTITUTION — COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE PROP- 

 ERTY. 



But although the existence of human society involves and necessi- 

 tates the institution of property, it does not determine the form which 

 that institution assumes. The necessity that all things susceptible of 

 ownership should be owned is one thing; but who the owner shall be 



eager to appropriate to themselves so much of it as they could respectively acquire. 

 Its vast extent afforded an ample field to the ambition and enterprise of all; and the 

 character and religion of its inhabitants afforded an apology for considering them as 

 a people over whom the superior genius of Europe might claim an ascendency. The 

 potentates of the world found no difficulty in convincing themselves that they made 

 ample compensation to the inhabitants of the new, by bestowing upon them civili- 

 zation and Christianity, in exchange for unlimited independence. But, as they were 

 all in pursuit of nearly the same object, it was necessary in order to avoid conflict- 

 ing settlements, and consequent war with each other, to establish a principle which 

 all should acknowledge as the law by which the right of acquisition, which they all 

 asserted, should be regulated as between themselves. This principle was that dis- 

 covery gave title to the governments by whose subjects, or by whose authority it 

 was made, against all other European governments, which title might be consum- 

 mated by possession. The exclusion of all other Europeans necessarily gave to the 

 nation making the discovery the sole right of acquiring the soil from the natives 

 and establishing settlements upon it. It was a right with which no Europeans 

 could interfere. It was a right which all asserted for themselves, and to the asser- 

 tion of which by others all assented." 



