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Indiana University 
that there were indications that “sandwiched’' British 
Columbia, “the sick man of the Pacific coast”, would place her 
fortunes with the United States. The London Times, while 
denying that the purchase of Alaska really furthered any 
design for the absorption of all North America by the Amer- 
ican Union, recognized that Canada must be allowed to choose 
its future destiny and philosophically admitted the possibility 
that British Columbia, which was closer connected with Cali- 
fornia than with the British colonies, might be attracted to 
the United States. 
Early in 1868, R. J. Walker in an article in the Washington 
Chronicle stated that the territory between 49° and 54° 40' 
which had been abandoned in 1846 must ultimately gravitate 
back to the United States. Later in the year, in a talk with 
Banks during the House debates on the appropriation for the 
Alaska purchase, he declared that he had always regarded the 
acquisition of Alaska as a measure of the highest importance 
to the United States, particularly in connection with the ac- 
quisition of British Columbia and the prevention of European 
possessions on the Pacific coast.-"’^ 
A few American politicians and statesmen also suggested 
the policy of purchasing Greenland as a further step toward 
“hemming in” the possessions of Great Britain. In the 
summer of 1867, Walker, being informed by Seward as to the 
treaty negotiated with Denmark, suggested the propriety of 
buying both Greenland and Iceland also. At Seward’s re- 
quest to communicate his views in writing, so they might be 
on file ready for use in the future. Walker at once began 
work and secured an exhaustive report from the United States 
Coast Survey.'"’® On April 24, 1868, in a letter declaring that 
the North American confederacy in Canada was conceived 
in hostility to the United States, and reiterating his previous 
statements that the acquisition of Russian America had 
flanked British America on the northwest, he suggested that 
■'>'’,54. Louis Times, April 10, 1867; Philadelphia North American Gazette, April 12, 
1867 : Pacific Tribune, August 31, 1867 : House Executive Documents, No. 177, 40-2, 118. 
England recognized (Parliamentary Debates, June 9, 1868) that there was a growing 
desire of British Columbia to join the United States and that she must build a railroad 
across the continent to preserve her Pacific possessions, and retain her influence in the 
Pacific ocean. (Banks’ speech of June 30, 1868, Congressional Globe, 40-2, 386-388.) 
State Department, United States Diplomatic Questions, II. 
House. Reports, No. 35, 40-3, Vol. I. 
Benjamin Mills Pierce, Rejjort on Resources of Greenland and Iceland, 1868 
(72 pp. with maps). 
