New-York tribune., 1867-09-23
E1SY D0HN HILL.

The y. ?. Times suggests that &" Mr.. Stewards
policy (in buying Walrussia) seems to be
" gradually indicating itself'-the object of
said policy being, according to The Times, the
speedy acquisition by us of the British terri
tory lying southeast of said purchase, and
now, as it were, between our newly acquired
and our older Pacific territory. Says The
Times:
"Gen Halleck assigns to the post Mt stka Company
OF the second ArtIery ana Company OF the Ninth IN
antrypossiby 200 men In ALL The garrison Is 10 have
cOmmi:sary, medical hospital, and ordnance stores TO
suffice for year single transport VIII serve 10 con
yey the whole to the e2pial Of Alaska and unless we
kind altogether unlocked for, the enterprise will barely
involve much expense that which grew ont OF Gen.
I1aIucI iOlc chdtdNOT Ten years ago, 70 get pos
session Of the Island Of San Juan on the British Pacific
boundary line.
"The original purchase money if the bargain
had contemplated nothing beyond the procurement
OF station for our whalers and other merchantmen
as lavish ana lnconslderate outlay Aud tie main
tenance OF garrison two hundred strong for tho fur
theTancc Of that special object would hardly cAaef-s
criticism On any broader grounds than those q partisan
opposition. Tie enterprise, il is true is oi co0nLl-
boundaries But II is colonization which has ~ little in 10
OF political territorial aggrandZcmcHt, that the only
jealousy 1t has awakened jealousy growing out
OF our own sectional divisions at home"
We did hope that we had heard the last
of "Our own sectional divisions" in reference
Hitherto, We have had to brave the reproach Of
being impelled to resist such acquisitions by
jealousy of or hatred to :" the South" but
this could not well be rendered plausible with
reference to the purchase Of a quarter of the
Arctic Circle.
The Times suggests that we can well afford to
pay S7,20O,000 in gold to purchase "a station for
"Our whalers and other merchantmen generally
in the North Pacific" But why should we need
to purchase a statiOn9 Russia has hitherto
owned both coasts of that ocean, with all their
harbOrs she is eminently friendly to us, and
there is but the remOtest possibility that she
will ever cease to be so. Her ports and haTbors
are open and hosptable to our whalers and mer-
chantmen. Should we again be involved in war;
our vessels are safe from attack in Russian har-
bors; not SC in our own. Why acquire those
barbOrs?
Whittier does The Times's principle lead us
If we must purchase and fOrtify ports i'll the
North Atlantic, is there not even a stronger
reason, a more urgent necessity. for buying
ports likewise in the West Indies, the Archi-
pelagO, the North Atlantic, the Indian Ocean
&c. &c? Where are we to stop buying if We
must buy in the North Pacific, whose whales
are nearly played out, while her ice is eternal
Do cOnsiderl
The Times exults over the smallness of the
force sent to Sitka by Gen. Halleck, as if its
cost were the measure of our expenditure in
Walrussia-Or, if you choose, Alaska. But we
all know better Our new purchase has thou
sands of miles of sea-coast, which will soon be
calling for mails, lighthouses, forts, harboi
improvements, river improvements, &C., &c
We have been for twenty years hoping that q
time 'rOuld come wherein we might dispense
with the Coast Survey; now it has got us by
the throat for another century. We give it up
One Million Dollars per annum will not lopa
suffice for the running expenses of Mr.. Seward.
new whistle, over and above any revenue thai
may be drawn from it. And for what?
The Times thus cautiously unmasks the ulti.
mate object of the Arctic purchase:
"The only power whose political and territorial inf
cncc cOuid any measure be affected by tLo cesou G
the Russian possessions IA America 10 the Unifed stc
is Great Britain But the Colonial policy England M
TO the contraction rather than the expansion OF her All
thOTity However much the British American coiOnlst
may plume themselves the value In which tncy arc
held dependencies Of tho Mother country. the secre
aim ana desire Of English statesmen has been, Of rccen
yearsand Is nowto give both the Atlantic and the Pa
chc Provinces the CHANGE y! cutting loose from t'e