368 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



States ageut, or any of the assistant agents, appointed, by the honorable Secretary 

 of the Treasury (Section 1973, Revised Statutes United States, page 346). We are 

 positively assured that he received no information from any of the United States com- 

 missioners or deputy collectors, situated in any part of the country where this com- 

 pany transacts business ; nor from any of the officers of the Revenue or Signal Service, 

 nor yet from any of the priests or missionaries qualified by location or travel to speak 

 of the affairs of thiscompany. 



No application was made to the company or any of its agents for information as to 

 its " operations ; " no inquiry made at its principal office in San Francisco or at any 

 of its stations in Alaska ; nor was auy examination made of its books or papers, to 

 ascertain whether it had violated " the agreement existing between the United States 

 aud said company." Notwithstanding the fact that the honorable governor did not, 

 or could not, avail himself of any of these sources of information, his report, made in 

 the latter part of the current year, charges upon this company a series of wixjngful 

 acts, some of which amount to actual crimes against the very letter and spirit of the 

 statutes, commencing with the very inception of its agreement with the Government 

 and continuing throughout the period of its operations until the present time. Hav- 

 ing been afforded no opportunity for defense before the governor, having had no no- 

 tice, except from the report itself, that any such complaints were seriously enter- 

 tained, this company begs leave now to present to you a statement, verified by un- 

 questionable evidence, which is deemed a complete answer to any and all accusations 

 presented — that is to say, every tangible charge ; for mere denunciation, not being 

 an assertion of issuable facts, can not form the basis of such a reply as comports 

 with the dignity of the subject or the respect due the head of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment. 



I.— The Charge that the Lease was Fraudulently Secured. 



Beginning with the very initiative of this company's connection with the Govern- 

 ment, it is charged in the governor's second report that the lease of the seal islands 

 from the Government was a " corruptly secured franchise." At the close of the year 

 1887 — more than seventeen years after the lease was signed— this charge may well be 

 considered stale and moldy. More than eleven years ago it received its deathb-low 

 at the hands of the Committee of Ways aud Means of the House of Representatives 

 after a full and complete examination of persons and papers. (H R., Forty-fourth 

 Congress, first session. Report No. 623.) 



The House itself adopted the report of the committee on the 7th of June, 1876, fully 

 exonerating the company and establishing the falsity of the charge. (Vol. IV, Part 

 IV, Congressional Record, p. 3657.) 



The matter, therefore, stands adjudged against the present complaint after a full, 

 fair, aud impartial hearing, and we respectfully submit that the company ia relieved 

 from any further answer to this accusation. 



II.— Lobbying at the National Capital. 



Another charge against the company in the second report is: 



"Its paid agents and lobbyists are kept at the national capital to oppose any and 

 every eftort that may be made to promote the welfare of Alaska, through such legis- 

 lation as will encourage immigration and the enlistment of capital in the develop- 

 ment of the undeveloped wealth hidden away in her forests, streams, and mountains," 

 etc. 



It could hardly have been contemplated by Congress, in passing the " act provid- 

 ing a civil government for Alaska," or in that part of the same which requires the 

 governor to inquire into the operations of this company and to annually report to 

 Congress the result of his inquiries, that his functions to be discharged at Sitka or 

 elsewhere in Alaska, would make him a valuable medium through whom accurate 

 information could be obtained as to transactions at the capital of the nation. Con- 

 gress certainly did not intend to clothe the governor with the power of inquiry into 

 oftenses committed against itself at Washington or with the right to investigate the 

 influence of the "lobby" upon proposed legislation for Alaska. Neither an accurate 

 knowledge of the archives or state papers of Alaska nor a prolonged residence at 

 Sitka would give special knowledge of the doings of "paid agents and lobbyists at 

 the national capital." We may, therefore, reasonably claim that the governor's 

 report on this topic is in excess of the jurisdiction and duty imposed upon him by 

 the act of Congress referred to. We, however, respectfully say that the charge is 

 untrue in every respect; is not warranted by the facts in the slightest degree; but 

 that, on the contrary, this company has never in any manner discouraged immigra- 

 tion or the investment of capital in any enterprise in Alaska, or interfered in any 

 way with legislation looking to those ends, We will presently 8ho\v how utterly 

 groundltiss these charges are, 



