45 
people of Alaska have only “ jumped out of the frying-pan into 
the fire.” From the day in which they were officially transferred 
to our protection theyjhave groaned under the weight of martial 
law , as administered by military Brevets. President Grant has 
sent a powerful Armada to the island of San Domingo, and has 
lavished untold treasures on the savage negroes there, and is 
still battling against an irrevocable decree of nature in his vain 
efforts to elevate the “ outside barbarians ” to the lofty dignity 
of American citizenship. If the President is so very earnest to 
promote the denizens of other lands to the enjoyment of our 
national freedom and happiness, then we humbly submit that 
the Presidential charities should begin nearer home. Our own 
fellow-citizens in Alaska are ground down u in the bonds of in¬ 
iquity,” and we do know that those helpless people, too long held 
“ in the gall of bitterness,” are patiently waiting for “ the good 
time coming,” in which, under the aegis of civil government, 
they may enjoy the products of their own labor in security. 
Fifty thousand Christians in our newly acquired territory, long¬ 
ing for the enjoyment of our rights and privileges, are loudly 
clamoring for their just inheritancy which the plighted faith of 
our government has promised to them. Congress has been 
faithless to those people, and it is high time that humane laws 
should be enacted for their protection; they are eminently 
worthy of all the favors conferred by the treaty; the develope- 
ment of the vast resources of that great territory, the successful 
prosecution of the fisheries, and the commerce already inaugu¬ 
rated, demands the protection of Admiralty courts and kindred 
institutions to regulate the trade and exchange among the in¬ 
dustrious people in our new domain. We earnestly hope our 
government will now extend some protection and dispense jus¬ 
tice to the people of Alaska. 
The rich territory of Louisiana was a valuable acquisition to 
our whole country, particularly to the agricultural interest; the 
annexation of California was also opportune and of immense 
value to our metallic circulation. The statesmen who consum¬ 
mated those patriotic measures were, in their respective periods, 
libelled and traduced. “ Time, that spares no lenient hand,” 
has clearly demonstrated the wisdom of those sages in acquiring 
those territories. The purchase of the great territory of Alaska 
forms a wise step in the right direction; the boundless waters 
washing that continent teeming with imperishable wealth, affords 
