The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-04-03

The Russian Possessions in America
amount to 4s1 ,276 square miles, instead OF
1894 GOO as reported. At seven millions for
the lot, we shall pay, if the treaty is consum-
mated, fourteen dollars and half per square
mile. What process of reasoning has persuad-
ed the President that it is worth while to in
vest in corner lot of such dimensions, it is O,
course impossible to tell. The objections to
the investment which will at once occur to
most Americans are two: 1. We haven't the
money. 2. We don't want the property. We
certainly don't want these square miles OF
outlying territory for their intrinsic WORTH
The shifting population offishermen and trap
pers amounts to ten or eleven thousand
When would these people be liEely to organ
ize State government? and what. use have
we for Territories, except to make States of
them? We have almost succeeded in making
the institutions of our Southern States repub
lican in fact as well as in name; we are
straining every nerve to push through to COM
pletion the great lines OF railway which are to
bind together our Atlantic and Pacific States.
1t will take fifty years of peaceful growth to
knit the vast conseries of States and Terrific
lies within our already ample borders into
thoroughly concordant whole. Fifty at
least-and perhaps twice fifty. 1t is unneces-
sary to say that our national power will be
precisely proportional to the perfection of our
national union. At present our national
power is measured by the available power of
the Northern States on this side of the Rocky
Mountains, with a deduction for what force
remains in the discOntented States of the Gulf
After the States are thoroughly recombined, it
will be time, if ever, to talk OF Cuba, the Cana
das, or the Russian Possessions.
But why are the Russians willing to give up
this territory? 1t is becOmming apparent
that Russia has not been idle since the Crime
an war. Withdrawing from European pol
itics, she has been industriously and vigorous
ly pushing her conquests and extending her
political influence and commercial relations
in the interior of Asia. Last summer we
heard sudden rumor of her progress-the
faint echo of passage at arms at Bokhara
more than half way to the border of the Brit
1ish Indies. She has already complete control
of the two great inland seas of Asia, the
Aral and the Caspian. On each she has her
fleet of steamers. Wherever her armies move,
she establishes Russian colonies under the
shelter OF Russian forts. All along the Pacif-
ic coast, where her possessions border China
on the one hand and Japan on the other, her
military and naval posts are judiciously estab-
lished. Everywhere by treaty or by conquest
she seeks to make the countries of Asia tibu-
tary to herself The conditions which she ev-
erywhere strives to impose are designed to
procure free market for all Russian products
and to Obstruct importations from other coun-
tries, either by direct prohibition or by heavy
duties. In word, the great design of this
great Power is to secure for itself so far as
possible the opulent commerce of the Asiatic
continent.
To secure this end Russia must be strong.
She already threatens England on the borders
of the Punjaub. She has concluded an alli-
ance with Prussia-Prussia, which since last
summer stands for the German nation. She
is willing, nay anxious, to disembarrass her
self of her barren posse ssions ON the Ameri-
can continent. 1t is so much worthless ter
ritOry which she will no longer need to de-
fend. In throwing it aside, she is merely
stripping for the fight. five are to hold that
ground for Russia, she ought to pay us, not
we her. II is for her advantage to get rid
of that superfuous and worthless territory, it
is not tor our advantage to take it,
The hint about excluding the BritishAmeri-
cans from the Pacific is nonsense They have
two or three hundred miles of sea-coast be-
tween Russian America and Washington Ter
ritory. The gulf of Georgia, sheltered by
Vancouver's island, offers safe ancholage for
the British navy. The telegraph, to be sure,
would land on American soil, If the treaty
were ratified. But the land line will still run
for two or three hundred miles over British
territory. Besides we are going to lay asub-
marine cable to France before long. There
is no aspect in which this proposition pres
ents itself as attractive or even reasonable.